# trouble with printing white waterbase ink



## ZPM (Sep 8, 2014)

I'm new to the screen printing world. any help/tips would be appreciated and thank you for the help/feedback. I have not been able to find a consistency in being able to print with white water base ink. with other waterbase ink's like black I have been able to print with them since its really watery/runny.

I am using a manual press, a 70 durometer squeegee, I am using spray adhesive for the shirts to stick to the platen board (even heat them up so glue can be more sticky), I am coating my screens which are 156 with macdermid plus 6000. I have my screen set up so it is 1/8 of an inch away from the platen board and I even put a washer at the end to make sure it stays consistent. The inks I have been using are green galaxy's comet white water base ink ( from ryonet) and permaset opaque white (which I bought from mclogans). Before I even put it on the screen I like to stir/mix it around. I live in los angeles so weather isn't to bad to use this ink.

I was thinking and next thing I was going to do in a different container to add/mix the white ink and a little bit of water to make it thinner. I don't mind if I have to do extra passes so the shirt wont show. I just want to be able to print using white ink. Has anyone tried this? what are the results of doing this?

I am able to print out 1-3 shirts at the most at times that come out good/decent or not even being able to get one shirt done. the other problems I run into with the shirts are shirt's will lack ink on the shirt, ink not getting on to the shirt in some spots when I make a pass and the screen getting stuck with the shirt.

I have tried a variety of things to be able to succeed but still not able to have that consistency. I have done pull and push strokes but mainly using pull strokes. I feel one of my problems is not knowing how to properly have the pressure for the stroke and the proper angle for the squeegee. I have tried hard and soft pressures and just can not find the right way to print. sometimes when I do a semi-hard stroke the screens gets stuck to the shirt and sometimes it does not. 

any questions or info that will further help please let me know.

thanks -ZPM-


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## PhantomPrints (Jan 5, 2015)

I was using white water based ink when I first started and I always had issues printing. If it wasn't one thing, it was another. The biggest issue was the emulsion breaking down after about 10 prints. I ended up just having to get plastisol ink.


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## Screen Medics (Feb 23, 2015)

We printed with an M and R automatic press and a Hopkins manual press using water base ink for two years before something better came along. We printed 100% cotton, cotton/poly blends, 100 polyester, etc...about 80K prints each year so we saw all of the good and bad waterbase ink had to offer.

Compared to using Plastisol we made the following changes in our printing technique for water base ink:

We reduced our dryer belt speed (M & R gas dryer) from 19 feet per minute to 11 feet per minute to allow time for the water evaporation to occur. Plastisol cures faster than water base. We increased the dryer temperature from 370 degrees to 400 degrees F. to accelerate the water evaporation. The ink in the screens was sprayed with a mist of water from time to time to prevent the ink from drying in the screen mesh. The finished product was much the same as cured Plastisol. If you adopt these parameters perhaps you will enjoy improved results. 

If not then I would suggest you explore the benefits of EKO ink which is also void of the BAD ingredients folks are concerned about.

We found the EKO ink does not dry in the screens, is much smoother to squeegee and our dryer belt speed is back up to 19 feet per minute (faster dry time) for a complete cure increasing production markedly. We used Chroma-Blue emulsion through all of this.


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## mushroomtoxic (Sep 5, 2013)

I use rutlands WB kit. With there discharge white plus, I make 500 grams at a time, with 6% discharge agent. I also add 2 to 5% lubricant, to help it keep it nice and wet in the screen and 2 to 5% penetrant to help with the ink saturation into the shirt. I use a 225s mesh for all my WB at 65 line and can hold a nice clean render design. I prefer using a trip duro 65/90/65. I use SP7500 dual cure w/ diazo with a 2/1 coat. I find if print to heavy WB or over dry/cook in your dryer, the outcome will be a scratchy rough print. Our gas dryer has 12ft of heat and is set at 350. belt speed is always determined by the garment weight/type/ and color. also same method on a 80/20 fleece. 

keep in mind, every shop is different. this is what works of me


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