# White on Black with a Single Stroke - No Flash



## Bill Hood

This brief video will show you how to print white ink on a black shirt with a single stroke and no flash. There is no need to print using multiple strokes or to print/flash/print (or worse!).

Think about it. If you are using just two strokes to print white ink, you can double your production with this technique. Worse, if you are using a print/flash/print technique, you can expect to produce 4 to 5 times as many shirts in the same amount of time.

The most important question you should be asking yourself is - What am I going to do with all that extra time and/or money?

Open your mind, watch the video and learn how to control the screenprinting process more successfully.

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtLvG0X3_JU[/media]


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## out da box

Thanks for the video. The push stroke is a hidden secret to success with white! It's what we've been taught to use. It works.


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## Bill Hood

out da box said:


> Thanks for the video. The push stroke is a hidden secret to success with white! It's what we've been taught to use. It works.


Congratulations on your success. Yes, surprisingly, although pushing a squeegee is much better in a number of ways, you'd be amazed at the number of people at trade shows where I give demonstrations who say, "I can't change the way I print after all these years of pulling a squeegee!" Here is an email that I received just yesterday from a printer:

"Yes, I got it. I must say I see your point, but I'm pretty sure I'll never, ever push a squeegee, it's just too uncomfortable (for me. I've been printing since '72). Thanks, and have a good day."

Some people simply refuse to make the changes, any changes, that will bring them success. It reminds me of that old Indian phrase, "TTWWADI" (pronounced tawaddie) which stands for "That's the we've always done it!" The printer above has been printing for 36 years and is still not successful enough to hire someone to do what he does, so he can work "on" his business instead of "in" his business.

Success comes from a lot of things, but innovation plays a very big part. Those who constantly work at finding better ways to do the work, will find success much quicker than those who just keep on doing things the same old way.

Thanks for the comment.

Bill Hood


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## nateca

Thank you for the useful information!


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## sidney505050

can I please see the video I have a errible time with white on dark colors - Sid


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## Rodney

sidney505050 said:


> can I please see the video I have a errible time with white on dark colors - Sid


Just click on the video thumbnail above


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## treadhead

Excellent info! I'm going to give it a try.... 

I visited your sight to review your other videos and I couldn't click on any of them.

Just and FYI....

Thanks Bill


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## monkeyinadryer

We have an automatic now and don't use a manual press. Can you do a push motion with an auto? 

Andrea


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## out da box

Andrea, good question. I don't know of any autos that push, but I've got to find a way to get nice bright opaque underbases with 1 pass. May try coating some scrrens, drying, then face coating and see if I can get a thicker deposit.


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## kikimedia

why cant i see the video?


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## splathead

kikimedia said:


> why cant i see the video?


It's there. Here is the direct link at youtube [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtLvG0X3_JU[/media]

If you still can't see it, go to youtube and search on bill hood silkscreen.


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## sidney505050

ive seen it but now i can't seem to get it to work - does the emulsion need to be thicker?

sweatshirts are really a problem. - it does work with front stroke pressing ink in then flash then front stroke and finally the backward stroke. great white but doing this my reg sometimes fails and that's what i want to avoid.


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## Bill Hood

sidney505050 said:


> ive seen it but now i can't seem to get it to work - does the emulsion need to be thicker?
> 
> sweatshirts are really a problem. - it does work with front stroke pressing ink in then flash then front stroke and finally the backward stroke. great white but doing this my reg sometimes fails and that's what i want to avoid.


Sidney, there are a good number of things that you must do to achieve success in printing white on black. Perhaps the most important thing you will ever learn in screenprinting, besides that the customer pays for everything, is that the wet ink deposit is always equal to the stencil thickness. 

All mesh manufacturers publish a "mesh specification guide" that gives the Theoretical Ink Volume (TIV) for each mesh count/thread diameter. This is a great guide for achieving the right amount of ink on a single print. If you make a single pass and determine that you need about 20-percent more ink, why print another 100-percent when you can simply move to a mesh count that gives a 20-percent increase in TIV and be done with it?

You do not need to keep making the same error over and over again. Simply make the necessary change to effect the results that you want to achieve.

Albert Einstein defined insanity as, "Doing the _same thing_ over and over again and expecting different results."

Learn from your errors and make the changes today!


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## sidney505050

thanks for the info! I figured that out already so simple but yet I was so stupid about it for awhile - Ink looks great now but in my great hurry and fun that I was doing great - I printed all the shirts perfectly at an angle - SWEATSHIRTS ARE EXPENSIVE TO PRINT TWICE. But I learned a lot during this run thanks for all your help. - Sid


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## splathead

sidney505050 said:


> but in my great hurry and fun that I was doing great - I printed all the shirts perfectly at an angle - SWEATSHIRTS ARE EXPENSIVE TO PRINT TWICE. But I learned a lot during this run thanks for all your help. - Sid


One crooked print is a mistake. All prints crooked is just setting a trend.


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## splathead

Bill,

Would this technique work with waterbased inks too?


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## cupie

Is this tutorial still available? I am unable to watch it.

thanks in advance,

C


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## shersher

Good video, I am definitely gonna try that


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## splathead

*Re: Whhen.ite on Black with a Single Stroke - No Flash*



cupie said:


> Is this tutorial still available? I am unable to watch it.


Yes, click on the link in his post. You should see the youtube video


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## auggieboy

I read this thread and tried it for the first time today, Wow great results. I did not get it in one stroke, I still Print/Flashed/Printed, but the results where so much better with the push stroke. Nice clean edges, not thick as a brick.
Once I got a rhythm down it was easy to flood the screen then push, then flood then move to the next shirt, then push then flood then move etc. etc.
Besides letting the squeegee fall into the ink (I'll clean it later) it went great.
Thanks Bill.


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## Bill Hood

You are quite welcome. The reasons that it didn't work as well are probably related to screen tension, mesh count/thread diameter, coating technique and other details. You cannot walk up to a press and change one thing and expect to achieve dramatic results, no more than you can get in grandmother's Hudson and win a quarter-mile race. You need to pre-engineer your system for success. Fine tune the system and you will win more races and print more shirts with higher quality in less time.


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## Bill Hood

Yes, it will work with waterbased inks. I was recently consulting in the largest print shop in India, and they print 90-percent waterbased, 10-percent plastisol. We re-engineered the entire system, i.e. screen tension, mesh count/thread diameter, coating technique and more and in the end the results were startling. We went from five strokes to just one to achieve an excellent, brilliant and opaque ink on dark materials.


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## TITANBALLFAN

I watched in on youtube (I couldn't find it here) I am going to try it tomorrow. thanks


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## splathead

waqaskhalid said:


> i cant find the video .. i am new here .. would really appreciate if someone helps me out


I think there is some kind of bug in the forum software where some folks can't see embedded videos and other attachments sometimes.

If you don't see the video on the first post of the first page of this thread, go to his website School of Screenprinting and click on Videos. It's the 2nd one down.


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## jjredox

Hi guys, 

I've seen the video before and tried it...
I somehow managed to get slightly better result but still for from good.
I had some questions that are not responded in this video:

How tight must the screen be? (i'm guessing tight)
How many layer of emulsion does it have? 1 inside, 3 outside?

My prints are still not really white even using this technique. I use MAXOPAKE white ink with a 34 mesh screen - tight enough in my opinion (specially in comparaison with the really poor quality screens i got from Wicked Printing Stuff - no tension on these one, impossible to use for white)

JJR


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## ratdaddy

Awesome info!! Thank you. I started screen printing just recently and the guy that is teaching me watched me push the squeegee forward and asked me what I was doing. I explained it to him and he threw a fit and said it was NOT to be done that way. He shut up when the shirt came out of the dryer and looked better than any he had ever done. (his own words)


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## jjredox

Hi guys, 

I FINALLY managed to get perfect white on black t-shirts!!!

A friend of mine that was printed for 10years came around and show me what to do.

To be honest at first i was very skeptical, i've had SO MUCH trouble with printing white until now that i was desperate. 

I thought perhaps it was coming from my screen (the tension of the mesh) or the emulsion (how many layers of coating) etc...

Well, my friend showed me on 2 of my screen, 1 having a mesh more tense than the other, so that eliminated the screen perspective. 
I had previously coated these screen. 1 with coat in + out, the other 1 coat in + 2 coat out (thick)
The result was pretty much the same so the thickness of the screen doesn't 'directly' affect the print (of course having thicker coating will let you put more ink per stroke)

*NO - The Trick was all in the INK!!!*
He took one of my pot of Union White Ink and added: 
2 spoons of Extender base
1 spoon of Reducer
(please note that he knew how much to put in the ink - the amount vary depending on the amount of ink you have)

He mixed the lot very well - the ink was a nice, smooth pasta rather than the super thick glue that is pure White Ink...

When applying on the screen the ink was SO easy to work with. The first hard pass would push the ink into the t-shirt and give you a nice grayish underbase. 
3sec under the flash dryer.
The second pass, a little smoother to put the ink on top of the underbase would leave a really sharp and powerful white.

Ok, today i will try the 1 stroke technic that didn't work until now with pure White Ink (without the additives)

I hope that helps all the newbie like me that were having problems with White on Black...

Good Luck

JJR


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## electroblake

I have been experimenting with this technique for a few hours this afternoon. I've been getting pretty good results with the standard pull, flash, pull method, but it takes forever and there are the occasional registration errors, especially printing on sweatshirts. 

I'm using a single color print station and wooden frame screens. I'm having a problem with the shirt getting stuck to the screen. I think this is somewhat to do with the flexibility of the wooden frame. With a pull stroke the clamp end of the screen is continually exerting an upward pressure on the part of the screen the squeegee has just passed over, but with a push stroke the squeegee causes the frame to flex in a way that pushes the mesh into the shirt.

I partially solved this problem by taping some thick rope, the same that is used in stretching the wood frame screens, to the bottom side of the screen, outlining the part of the screen that makes contact with the platen. This way when I'm pushing down with the squeegee the rope pushes back up on the screen. I'm getting better results now. I know the "right" answer would be to use metal screens that have been properly tensioned, but I cannot afford to spend that kind of money right now. 

Blake.


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## smellvir

Than you very much ! another topic covered for a newbie


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## Spot_Worker

BLAKE....From a shirt to a sweat shirt;the sweat shirt is thicker. So, your off contact needs to be increased. Thats why the rope helped


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## suomaf

Thanks for the info bill, Just a quick note, your School of Screenprinting is offline and showing a database error.


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## freebird1963

What is the differnce between a flood stroke and a fill stroke ? 
I know what they do but not sure I understand what the difference is in the stroke itself.

Does that make sense. ?

Thanks
Mark


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## rfdoomedyouth

flood strokes cover the entire screen with a coating of ink while a fill stroke just fills in the mesh and most of the screen (except image area) is clear of ink.


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## bomber315

how do you keep from pushing a ton of ink thru the mesh and blurring the print on the fill stroke?

EDIT: nevermind i tried it, i guess it just doesnt happen... now if i could get everythign just right and have that kind of quality... i think my off contact is the problem now.... (printing on koozies)


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## SnapGraphics

This is specifically why I love this forum. I Simply search Single Pass White on Black and this video was one of the first posts that came up. I Had my 4x2 press already set up for a white on black print (230 mesh @ 1/8 off contact) for a job that I finished this weekend. I watched this video and went straight to my press I tried the technique and the results were awesome. With the 230 it takes 2 pushed passes with moderate pressure to fully clean the screen but not having to lift, look, flash & push again will save me a lot of time. I have always been told I am pushy but I never thought my pushiness would come in handy. Thank you Mr. Hood...


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## Bill Hood

SnapGraphics said:


> ...I watched this video and went straight to my press I tried the technique and the results were awesome. With the 230 it takes 2 pushed passes with moderate pressure to fully clean the screen but not having to lift, look, flash & push again will save me a lot of time. I have always been told I am pushy but I never thought my pushiness would come in handy. Thank you Mr. Hood...


You are quite welcome! As you have seen, it takes more than just changing one thing to achieve great results. And, it does take change to achieve results - make no mistake about that.

Many, if not most, screenprinters get stuck in doing things the same way, time and time again, until they either go broke or die. They never achieve success or live the lifestyle they desire. What they failed to understand is that we must change long before we are forced to change.

Change is always accompanied by the pain of discomfort but is beneficial in the end. If change were not painful - then the weak would be rich. There is one sure thing, if you don't consistently strive for change - you will become stagnant in all that you do.

To grow we must change, or we cannot really live the lifestyle we desire. What will you change, today?


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## melananny

Does this work using other colors on dark t-shirts, also?


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## Flagrant-T

I remember reading this thread a year ago and learning a lot from it. I re-read it again since it re-appeared, and it still is great. The hidden gem in this thread:



Bill Hood said:


> Perhaps the most important thing you will ever learn in screenprinting, besides that the customer pays for everything...


Took me a while to figure why I was slammed with orders and never really felt like I was getting ahead. 

Thanks Bill!!!!


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## chaotica

As a newby, these topics are home runs. I tried it last night and it worked like a charm! Thanks to everyone that posted on this thread.


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## MadMade

Awsome!!!!


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## printing40years

No,all automatic presses use a pull stroke. Probably for a reason.... which would be for increased control over ink deposit by adjusting angle and head pressure. By hand you need to also adjust your squeegee angle and pressure and mesh count to get the most ink transfered from the screen to the shirt with the least effort. I have always used a pull stroke manually and will continue to.


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## Flagrant-T

Wow...totally missed point of whole thread. Plus no knowledge of thed machine dedesign indusdry


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## Dtag1971

I would like to see a side by side comparsion of Bill's method and the print flash print method to see which is the brightest white. In the vids I can't really see how vibrant the white is. Or the clarity of the video is not that great. The man knows what he is doing. I just don't know if it's possible to beat the print flash print method.


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## dcp140erie

A good ink will help ( I like Excalibur 50/50 white for general usage and Excalibur "Arctic White" for a highlight white, we run Auto's and manuals Excalibur 50/50 is pretty much the best I have used in the widest variety of circumstances. The ink quality truly falls THIRD or fourth in the list of importance in achieving a opaque white on black ith minimal effort. 1. Is your mesh count, if the idea is lay a opaque white without flashing at all, use the lowest mesh count your design will allow, for basic designs/ athletic numbering we will run with no flash (usually two strokes) through a 60-83 mesh count screen. 2nd, on the list of importance is maintaining a significant off contact, the greater the off contact the thicker the deposit in deposit, having a health "snap" to your mesh will avoid the uncontested driving of your squeegee into a very hard and unforgiving platon, basically it will be a bit easier on your hands. 3rd is the importance of blade durometer and the sharpness of the edge if the squeegee, a triple duro blade in my opinion is the only way to have true control over the outcome and consistancy when working a manual press. 

Don't buy cheap white ink though, I am of the opinion that a screen printer cutting costs by using a cheap ink is a recipe for for a lot of hardship, keep several squeegee options on deck also, having a clean, properly sized (to the print) squeegee with the right blade for the job will drastically slash fatigue which is a main factor in laying down opaque no-flash white on black prints.


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## sparkyfirepants

Thanks so much for posting this video. I was tearing my eyebrows out today printing white on black. I saw your video, set up a new screen, did some test prints using your method and... shazaam. It worked perfectly right off the bat and every time after.

I used a 110 mesh, 1/1 coat, 1/8" off contact. One push stroke and it was done. Ryonet white.*

My problems really were all in my technique.

Thanks again.

_*I will likely try a different white next time regardless. This ink is still kind of thick for my taste._


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