# Ink bleeding?



## xxnonamexx (Mar 2, 2012)

What can I do to prevent ink from bleeding on a shirt? What I mean is a narrow line is now thicker, letters have bled to the nearby letter.nthanks


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## 20vK (Jul 9, 2011)

xxnonamexx said:


> What can I do to prevent ink from bleeding on a shirt? What I mean is a narrow line is now thicker, letters have bled to the nearby letter.nthanks


We can't help if you don't give us info.

For a start, give us the following info and maybe we can help.

If you don't know what it means, research this forum and youtube with the words and terms and I can guarantee that the answers will lie within. If they don't, let us know and we can answer your SPECIfIC problem

Equipment you are printing on?
Shirt - poly/cotton %? 
Positive production - full opaque black ink print, doubling up on inkjet, laser vellum?
Exposure unit for creating screens?
Washout technique?
Ink type - Plastisol/waterbased etc?
Ink Colour - thick white / black or other colour? 
Ink Brand?
Screen thread count? Thinnest pixel artwork line?
Screen thread tension? 
Emulsion application?
Squeegie type - durometer ect?
Squeegie technique - flood, push, pull etc? Tell us exactly how you are doing this
Curing technique - conveyor, flash unit, heat gun?

Have you had success in the past or is this one of your first prints? Give us information to help you. We don't care if you are beginner or pro.
Help us help you

If all is good, I would hazard a guess that you are over flooding & have an excess of ink on the bottom of your screen (substrate - shirt) side of your screen (scrub the bottom of your screen with ink remover and an old shirt, whilst on press), or have a sloppy squeegie technique (maybe practice the push stroke). Have you tried with different shirt styles? You have not told us your experience, so unfortunately, we can not use ours to advise you.

Richie Rich


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## xxnonamexx (Mar 2, 2012)

Equipment you are printing on? DIY press manual
Shirt - poly/cotton %? 100%cotton
Positive production - full opaque black ink print, doubling up on inkjet, laser vellum? inkjet black
Exposure unit for creating screens? my brother used a light box. He has done it before and it worked well.
Washout technique? 
Ink type - Plastisol/waterbased etc? waterbased
Ink Colour - thick white / black or other colour? White Fabric Screen Printing Ink 8 Ounces 3600
Ink Brand? Fabric Screen Printing Ink 
Screen thread count? Thinnest pixel artwork line? Not sure I used this kit Speedball complete ilk screen kits | Frames | Ink
Screen thread tension? 
Emulsion application? Speedball Screen Printing Mediums - JerrysArtarama.com
Squeegie type - durometer ect? neoprene blade.
Squeegie technique - flood, push, pull etc? Tell us exactly how you are doing this push pull technique
Curing technique - conveyor, flash unit, heat gun? heat gun

I attached a snippet of the screen you can see crisp lines and the shirt bleed.


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## xxnonamexx (Mar 2, 2012)

Does anyone have any ideas as to what I did wrong? Thanks


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## gmtully42 (Mar 6, 2012)

Recently on my test run for a job of 24 I realized I was just putting too much pressure on the squeegee causing the red to bleed over the white underbase on a black 100%. I used a 45 angle but just lightened my pass and it came out how I wanted it, perfect.


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## xxnonamexx (Mar 2, 2012)

I see what I was doing wrong but now I have this issue: I noticed a few fine line the ink won't pass through. If you see the above attachment in this post it looks like ink will pass but it doesn't what can I do? I hold the screen up to the light and notice light faintly passing through spots. What can I do? Also is there a superior screen i should be using. I am using speedball I do not have the thread info etc. Thanks


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## Celtic (Feb 19, 2008)

It looks like it didn't fully expose. 
Ryonet carries what you want. 
Call them, they're great people and pick their brains. 
Good stuff, fair pricing, great surface and more.


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## 20vK (Jul 9, 2011)

The first thing I noticed about the print was that the bottom right corner was lacking ink! NOT that you had bleeding!

I would try re-exposing the emulsion again and pay particular attention to washing out the area that has bad coverage.

If it is bad again, I would look at both the positive and the screen mesh count. Make sure you have good contact when you are exposing and give the emulsion enough time to clean out. IE Soak both sides lightly, then wait for 30 secs. Spray lightly again. Wait 30 secs. Spray again. then start to apply a bit more pressure and spray all over to wash out. (I never use pressure washer to wash out, only hand held variable spray head on "rain setting" which attaches to hose)

If you are using water based inks (looked at another thread of yours) then the ink can cure and set very quickly. Each time you make a print, you should re-flood the screen so ink does not dry within the screen openings. This is not the case with plastisol ink
Let us know how you get on,

Richie


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