# T-Jet3 Ink came off and pre-coating stain, HELP!



## jinhoe (Jul 30, 2008)

Tested T-Jet3 on a black t-shirt with white print. After 2 washes (inside-out), below 2 results;

*1. Ink came off,* peel off. Ink seems like not getting into the fabric.
Suspect: is it due to incorrect heat press temperature and pressure? What is the recommended specs?

*2. Can see a fade pre-coating stain* on the t-shirt even after 2 washes.
Printed on 4 t-shirts, all the same results. It is something wrong with the pre-costing mixture?

Refer below link for the images.
https://rcpt.yousendit.com/593448643/65ac54916bdce a37b27425cb404655cc

Please advice, thanks,
Sad,
Kay


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## sunnydayz (Jun 22, 2007)

Hi Kay,

It sounds like it might be a combination of a couple of things. One I think you are using to heavy of a pretreatment and two, I think maybe it is not cured well.

for pretreatment, try misting your shirt first with distilled water with a spray bottle set to the lightest mist, after misting with distilled water, spray your pretreatment back and forth across and up and down over the area you are printing on. Make sure not to spray to heavily. Once you spray your shirt use a paint brush and brush in a down direction only across the sprayed area. Make sure to only brush in one direction so you dont lift the fibers of the shirt. Now heat press at 330 degree for 10 seconds with quilan parchment on top of shirt, remove paper and press for another 10 seconds, this will assure the fibers are pressed down well, and it should be good to print 

Now after printing make sure to cure for 180 seconds on 330 degrees and this should be a good cure. 

Let me know how this works for you and if it solves your problem.


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## jinhoe (Jul 30, 2008)

Hello BobbieLee,

Thanks for your advice. I will try that out and perform a few test wash again.


By the way are you Asian? Cause of the "Lee'. I'm Singaporean, Chinese.


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## sunnydayz (Jun 22, 2007)

Your welcome Kay  no actually I am german and from California, born and raised


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## busjet (Jul 29, 2008)

1. stain; you have to clean the nozzle of spray or bottle. or you have to use good spray.

2. peel off; when you heat press after pre-coating, don't dry perfectly.
when you heat press, steam will be generated and then the steam will be decreased. 
after proper decreasing, you have to stop pressing.
the heat press time can be changed with your pre-coating amount. generally 15 sec - 30 sec

3. peel off; heat press condition after printing is 170 oC, over 2 min, with proper press. 
if your white ink amount is so much, you have to increase the time for perfect polymerization of white ink. 
at that process, you have to use proper silicone coated paper.

I hope it will be helpful for you.


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## jinhoe (Jul 30, 2008)

Hello BobbieLee,

Can I just use water instead of distilled water? How about mixing pretreatment with water as what T-Jet tech support had suggest below.

"Generally, when you can see some of the pretreatment around the image it means you applied too much of it. You can try using less of the pretreat or you can also dilute it a bit and use a 75/25 or 50/50 mixture of pretreatment & water."

Anyone tried it before?


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## vinyl signs (Dec 26, 2007)

Regular water has too many impurities in it that can cause other problems.


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## Don-ColDesi (Oct 18, 2006)

The directions I generally give a newbie regarding pre-treatment is to drench the shirt with pre-treat early on to see what really good white ink looks like. After you are familiar with what the ink should look like, slowly reduce the amount of pre-treatment you are spraying (or dilute the mixture with distilled water) until your white ink quality begins to drop off. Then, increase your pre-treat amount (or decrease dilution) 10% or so and you should now have the perfect amount of pre-treatment. I know this takes time, but, it will also give you the overall best results. Regardless of the method you use to learn how to properly pre-treat - be sure to do wash testing - as this is the true proof of the quality of your pre-treatment.

I hope this helps!


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## jinhoe (Jul 30, 2008)

So does mixture of pretreatment &  distilled water a common practice here?


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## Don-ColDesi (Oct 18, 2006)

The reason for diluting the pre-treatment is that most folks tend to over-pre-treat. It is hard to make someone "spray faster" to put down less pre-treat. Instead, you spray the same way but at a lower concentration.


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## jinhoe (Jul 30, 2008)

Hello guys,

I've mixed pretreatment with water at 70:30, it works! I also did it with the brush recommend by BobbieLee. Brush across from top to bottom. I can get very white in just one base coating, and after printing it isn't feel as sticky as before. (I can't find distilled water at this moment, so using water)

Ok now, 4 new issues need all advice. I've done 2 prints with same image and same 100% cotton tee.
*The 2 prints have not gone through wash test yet, I will do it today.

1. 2nd print - Image Blur
Suspect: Table is not stable, hence during printing the whole table is shaking quite bad. So it is causing the misalignment during the color printing? It is the same table for 1st print as well, but 1st print still not that blur.

2. 1st print - Furry image after printing, before final heat press curing.
Suspect: Something to do with the printing head? However if that's the case, why 2nd print no furry issue?

3. Different curing method
1st print - Temp 166C for 3min.
2nd print - Temp 166C for 3min (after every 60secs release the heat press turn over the paper and press again it takes about 5 secs)
Which method is better? I try out 2nd print because I worry 3min non-stop will damage the print as the paper seems to stick onto the print after the 3min.

4. 1st & 2nd print - Color different
Color for 1st print seems brighter looks nicer, has it something to do with the curing method?

Download 2nd test result below;
https://rcpt.yousendit.com/594117717/841dede9b45ec e94dad201a9a3530088

Have a nice weekend all,
Kay


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## Magenta (Jan 15, 2008)

jinhoe said:


> Hello guys,
> 
> I've mixed pretreatment with water at 70:30, it works! I also did it with the brush recommend by BobbieLee. Brush across from top to bottom. I can get very white in just one base coating, and after printing it isn't feel as sticky as before. (I can't find distilled water at this moment, so using water)
> 
> ...


What Press do you have a bad quality press will affect the curing as cold spot might be present in the heating element plate.

Which brand are you using?


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## jinhoe (Jul 30, 2008)

Hi Magenta,

The result is random, if it is cold spot, the bad quality should appear the same place everytime. I just completed 2 washes, result is better than 1st test. But still certain edge of the image is still coming off. I will post up the photo after I complete the 3 washes.


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## Teeser (May 14, 2008)

Hi Jinhoe,

Regarding the blurry image, were you printing on high speed or bidirectional the second time? We have a t-jet jumbo 2 and even it won't print on HS without getting blurry. I've also gotten blurry results when I thought the pretreat didn't feel completely dry and my husband disagreed and printed it anyway. A second shirt same design, which felt dry to me, printed at the same time and came out fine. I can't download your images so I'm just guessing.

I'm interested in hearing about the wash results.


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## jinhoe (Jul 30, 2008)

Teeser said:


> Hi Jinhoe,
> 
> Regarding the blurry image, were you printing on high speed or bidirectional the second time? We have a t-jet jumbo 2 and even it won't print on HS without getting blurry. I've also gotten blurry results when I thought the pretreat didn't feel completely dry and my husband disagreed and printed it anyway. A second shirt same design, which felt dry to me, printed at the same time and came out fine. I can't download your images so I'm just guessing.
> 
> I'm interested in hearing about the wash results.


Hello Sally,

I'm not sure if it is due to High Speed as the setting up is not done by me. but I'm sure it is because of undry pretreatment. Cause for my case we heat press it 160C for 10 secs. It should be dry enough.

The blur is due to the 1st base white print and 2nd color print is not in exact same location. Slight off by 1mm, so you can see this "fade shadow" effect.

My link for 2nd test is still available for download.

I'm quite sad to see the ink peel off after 2nd wash. something got to do with my heat pressing skill.


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## busjet (Jul 29, 2008)

Hellow

if you print same image several times and you meet blur image, you have to check head allignment or mechanical problems.

in the case of Jinhoe, I guess you can print good quality at first print and at second blur image.
that is caused by flat bed moving problems, so you have to check bolts, screws related with bed moving.
I guess some parts were loosed.

in the case of Sally,
first, you have to head allignment again for good bi-direction printing.
do you know how to do it with T-jet Jumbo2?
you have to use remote control pannel at Epson Utility. select bidirection allignment instead of auto-allignment.
if you do successful head allignment, you can clear head moving direction problems.

if Sally has problems at bed moving direction, there is two reason. the one you have to activate paer size check function at menu in LCD display.

even though activation of paper size check, if you print blur image,
You have to re-adjust spring tension of Gear box. contact USSCREEN or me.

if you meet some problems in activating paper size check, 
I will tell you some upgrade method.


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## jinhoe (Jul 30, 2008)

busjet said:


> Hellow
> 
> if you print same image several times and you meet blur image, you have to check head allignment or mechanical problems.
> 
> ...


Thanks,

I'll try that out soon.


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