# Printing straight on DTG (Brother GT3 Series)



## firefly71 (Oct 22, 2014)

Hi all!

I have a team of three people that decided to jump straight into manufacturing with DTG equipment. We're getting decent prints and the prints themselves look great.... except for the fact that only one in every five is even close to being straight.

Are there any tips out there for printing straight? Any general guidelines?

Thanks in advance!


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## CanarianDrifter (Sep 12, 2012)

PRACTICE! I have been printing for two years with the GT381 and printing straight has been always a little tricky. I suspect is the same with any DTG printer and Screen printing. Regardless of how many marks you try to put on your platen which for the most part will get covered by ink your best bet is to use the notches Brothers placed on the cabinet just above where the platen enters the printer and the notch placed on the metal bar where you dress the platen. Those notches in combination with a good eye and sometimes the middle line that most shirts shows on them are your best friends. It is like playing golf, when addressing the ball keep all your attention and eye on the ball.

Before dressing the platen visually find the middle of the shirt, the notch on the cabinet and the middle of the shirt collar, try to captive all three at the same time and while dressing the shirt keep the middle of the shirt fixated with the top notch and drive the shirt as straight in as possible, once you complete the insertion wiggle the shirt a little to center the collar on the platen bar without moving too much the part you have already aligned at the bottom of the shirt. Once you have the shirt more or less centered, grab the seams of the shirt's armpit area and using your fingers as a measuring toll to equal the distance between the seams and the platen carriage plate, depending on the size of the shirts it will be a one, two, three finger distance, or if it is a very large shirt measure the distance by calculating how many fingers below the platen carriage. The other thing that will help is to try eyeing the shoulder seam to where you grab the armpit seam to make sure it is about the same distance on both sides in relation to the platen.

I don't know if this is a little confusing but it works for me, the more you practice the faster you can dress the shirt on the platen without even needed to think about, now instead of 4 out of five a little off you'll end with 1 out of 5 a little off. It will be almost impossible to assure every shirt perfectly straight specially on long runs where speed is critical.

That's my way and I stick to it.

CD


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## TUANISAPPAREL (Oct 14, 2012)

I have over 30k prints under my belt on a 361 and i still can't get a straight print if their is not line on the dam shirt lol. I literally fold and give a quick heat press to every single shirt that does not have a line on it. I got sick and tired of ruining shirts so now my staff and I fold every shirt. It sucks but it sucks worse to ruin a shirt you don't have more of and pay $15 to ship a replacement. 

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using T-Shirt Forums


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## NZACO (Jan 21, 2012)

TUANISAPPAREL said:


> I have over 30k prints under my belt on a 361 and i still can't get a straight print if their is not line on the dam shirt lol. I literally fold and give a quick heat press to every single shirt that does not have a line on it. I got sick and tired of ruining shirts so now my staff and I fold every shirt. It sucks but it sucks worse to ruin a shirt you don't have more of and pay $15 to ship a replacement.
> 
> Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using T-Shirt Forums


I have to agree having a completely straight print every time is hard when you are also considering 'speed' of shirt placement.

One thing I found that worked was lying a solid, wide, heavy ruler (wider than the shirt) on top of the placed shirt. Then aligning the the center hole on the printer with the ruler and lifting the edges of the shirt up to the ruler to physically see distances of each side.

With the folding I tried that but soon found for me it was just not practical.


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