# Black shirt / white ink



## iceman (Nov 13, 2006)

I am having some trouble with this. When i swipe the ink over about 3 times lift it up, i get like a blur around the edges, i clean the screen and do it over... same problem, no i just got done doing a red on black run and i had no problems like this... anyone have any information?


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## instrumental (Dec 28, 2006)

what kind of ink are you using? are you mixing it well so you have a sogt feel to it, take a drill and mix it up like butter for your next attempt, also if it is too thick you might be shoving it through and it seeping under the emulsion and giveing that problem


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## iceman (Nov 13, 2006)

instrumental said:


> what kind of ink are you using? are you mixing it well so you have a sogt feel to it, take a drill and mix it up like butter for your next attempt, also if it is too thick you might be shoving it through and it seeping under the emulsion and giveing that problem


very thin ink and its from pearl paint


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## instrumental (Dec 28, 2006)

what brand of ink? union?


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## iceman (Nov 13, 2006)

speedball ink


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## Fluid (Jun 20, 2005)

I dont know anything about speedball inks. 
Are you using the same mesh as before?
How is your off contact?


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## iceman (Nov 13, 2006)

everything is the same, except that i am using a larger harder squeegee


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## instrumental (Dec 28, 2006)

um...stop using speedball.

if you are printing shirts for other people you need to use a better ink and you will not have that problem, i know pearl carries union ink, if your printing on dark garments use their maxipake series


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## iceman (Nov 13, 2006)

maxipake series? i never saw this or even heard about it


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## Jasonda (Aug 16, 2006)

Have you tried going back to the squeegee you used for the red prints?


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## instrumental (Dec 28, 2006)

sorry, its called maxopake and its made by union, i suggest it cause its usually available at pearl, your sgueegee could be a factor but i think its your use of speedball inks, those are best used for arts and crafts t-shirts. if you want more info on a better white to use or any other problems you can pm me


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## iceman (Nov 13, 2006)

instrumental said:


> sorry, its called maxopake and its made by union, i suggest it cause its usually available at pearl, your sgueegee could be a factor but i think its your use of speedball inks, those are best used for arts and crafts t-shirts. if you want more info on a better white to use or any other problems you can pm me



Thanks a lot big help, appreciate it


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## Fluid (Jun 20, 2005)

its possible that your putting too much pressure with the harder durometer blade and the mesh is actually moving more than usual causing the blurred image.

Switching to a better ink will help considerably.


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## mixture77 (Jan 4, 2007)

ONE word Wilfex


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## instrumental (Dec 28, 2006)

yeah willflex, bright tiger is great, though we stick with triangle white over here


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## Fluid (Jun 20, 2005)

Wilflex Buffalo white is a better all purpose white. Tiger white is more of a highlight white ink.


Wilflex and Rutland are the brands we use.


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## T-BOT (Jul 24, 2006)

Fluid said:


> Wilflex and Rutland are the brands we use.


those 2 sound familiar.


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## mreicher (Aug 10, 2006)

Process of elimination. 

If the screen is a different one from your successful black on red shirt then try using the white ink through that screen along with the squeegee you used and if you get good results it's probably not the screen.

If it's blurry it could be your method of using white ink. Is the ink your using a plastisol ink and are you flashing between layers at all?


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## Solmu (Aug 15, 2005)

Aren't Wilflex and Rutland plastisol, whereas Speedball is waterbased? So even if the solution is to use a better ink, it might still need to be waterbased.


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## Stretchymantis (Jan 5, 2007)

instrumental said:


> um...stop using speedball.
> 
> if you are printing shirts for other people you need to use a better ink and you will not have that problem, i know pearl carries union ink, if your printing on dark garments use their maxipake series


Instrumental is right. I've heard bad stories about Speedball ink...well Speedball period. You need higher quality. Try Triangle ink or Ryonet International Coating ink. You can get these from silkscreeningsupplies.com, which is a company I highly recommend.

ALSO: Make sure your screen is clamped down and not moving on you. You might be getting frustrated and putting more force on than usual, causing the screen to move (I've done it, that's why I say  ).

AND: If your off contact is too small, your screen may be sticking to your shirt during the swipe, then lifting and moving the shirt when you pull off the squeegee. White ink is thicker and so will try to stick the shirt and screen together sometimes.

LASTLY: Make sure you got enought adhesive that the shirt doesn't move on ya!

Good luck.


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## ASAP Printing (Oct 6, 2006)

You need to flash your plate, your printing wet on wet which is causing it to bleed.


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## commencedesign (Apr 26, 2007)

i use International Coatings Plastisol Inks and it blurs after 2 or 3 goes. i have used a 156-230 mesh still blurs. Only when i use white ink tho.


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## pacific (Jun 16, 2007)

I found right from the start if you are going to have a problem with ink it will be white, never buy cheap ink when it comes to white. They will all say it's great and only $25 bucks a gallon, but when I want to buy ink my first question is what do you have thats good on darks and over $50 bucks a gallon. Twice as much may seem like a ton of money but what is the cost to re-do 200 shirts.


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## mreicher (Aug 10, 2006)

commencedesign said:


> i use International Coatings Plastisol Inks and it blurs after 2 or 3 goes. i have used a 156-230 mesh still blurs. Only when i use white ink tho.



Are you maybe using too much squeegee pressure and getting some ink on the back of the screen?


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## jundogg (Jul 20, 2007)

how much pressure should be applied when doing:

1. flood stroke?
2. print stroke?

im also having this problem when i print on my shirts. thanks


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## kylerogers (Jul 30, 2008)

I'd like to hear how others would answer this question also.



jundogg said:


> how much pressure should be applied when doing:
> 
> 1. flood stroke?
> 2. print stroke?
> ...


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## carleyj (Aug 12, 2007)

I had that problem with white ink also an it was the off contact, all colors worked except the white, It was just so thick it was to slow to snap back, I raised it an that fix it for me.


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## kylerogers (Jul 30, 2008)

How many coats of emulsion do you guys put on screens when your doing white ink?

I've only been putting one coat on each side. In part because it was taking 6+ hours for the first coat to dry. (I just got a small dehumidifier, so I'm hoping to dry them in under an hour now). I've been having a hell of a time with white ink.

I just watched this Ryonet video on youtube.
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4M6tuL_zIfs[/media]

The guy says that he does two coats both side, then a final third coat on the print side. He says it cuts down on the number of strokes he has to do, which makes sense, because you should have a pretty serious inkwell effect with many coats.

I'm going to try it on my next screen and see how much of a difference it makes.


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