# T shirt prints not coming out how I want them to...



## Quintloc (Jan 12, 2015)

Hey there! I just started printing out shirts for the first time this morning and they didn't come out how I expected them to. (Here's a link To the 5th shirt I did)







the film (bottom) I made is pretty clean cut and I wanted the print to look the same, except I don't know what the problem is. I don't have a high wattage bulb so I used a 60 watt and exposed the screen for like 2 hours! The screen itself looked great enough. ( btw I'm using the speedball screen printing kit). But Everytime I ink a shirt, some of my lines are missing, some parts don't have enough ink and looks faded, some parts have way too much ink and lines go missing. I don't know if it's my exposure time that messed it up or if it's the amount of ink I'm using...or if it's the squeegee. I just want to know how I can get an even coated print that'll show all the detail in my design. Thanks!


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## Quintloc (Jan 12, 2015)

Not sure if that link will work heres another: http://i.imgur.com/W61tfJu.jpg


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## dynamikgraphics (Jul 21, 2013)

Hi there! 

Looks like it could be a number of factors, but I'll address what I feel like is probably the most likely:

Your inks. My wife recently started screen printing as well (having learned from me), and bought several Speedball inks, including black, and we had this exact same problem. 

Speedball inks are water-based and aren't plastisol inks. This makes them thinner and easier on the arms, but the hassle that comes with them far exceeds the pros. 

For starters (as I'm sure you're aware), they dry at room temperature if left in your screen for too long, so the instant you're done printing, you've got to make a mad dash to reclaim the screens before the ink dries. 

Secondly, my wife uses the pink emulsion, and prolonged contact with Speedball inks resulted in the emulsion breaking down during print strokes and a complete loss of detail in the print, even on simple blocky art. Plus, we ended up with the screen peppered with pin holes. 

Third, and perhaps the most damaging, is the fact that Speedball prints have the weakest resistance to washing. My wife and I cured white/black prints on a red shirt in a 400 degree oven for 2 minutes, then heat-pressed the print. 

One wash later, the print was cracking and fading. I've seen DTG prints hold up better. 

With that said, my first bit of advice would be to do what my wife did: stuff your Speedball inks in a dark corner and pray you never lay eyes on them again. Go to KolorMatrix and order a pint or two of their plastisol inks. This alone will improve your prints exponentially, and I feel is probably the most likely culprit for your dilemma. 

Now for a few other possibilities:

Exposure time:

2 hrs?! What are you exposing your screens under? A match? I kid, I kid....But seriously - my wife (working with proverbial stone knives and bear skins) opted to only coat one side of the screen with emulsion. 

For her exposure unit, we placed a sheet of glass from a picture frame across a cardboard box that my desk printer came in. We purchased two automotive fluorescent trouble lights from our local auto parts store, and placed them in the box, face up. 

Exposure time for each screen is ideally about 10 minutes. (With pink emulsion, of course)

I'm getting side tracked - another possible culprit could be that your screen is *overexposed. *If left under exposure long enough, light will eventually find it's way through the printed design on your films, and partially expose what you wanted to be rinsed out.

Try to remember how you had your screen oriented in your EU; the faded side of the print may have been closer to your lamp. 

Finally, one other possibility:

Oil & residue from the emulsion. 
If you expose, rinse out, and then prop your screens up somewhere in front of a fan or heater to speed up dry time, you won't give the screen time for oils and residues left over from the emulsion to run down to the bottom of the screen. They'll just dry in the screen, and will effectively block your ink from passing through. 

This residue is hard to spot at a glance - it's colorless, and at first glace your screen will LOOK open, but hold it up to an overhead light, and you'll be able to see a haze glistening in some patches, if indeed there's any dried in the screen. 
To avoid this, simply prop your screens up after rinsing and either allow them to dry in the sun or dry indoors naturally. 

Yikes! What a long post!!!

Hope this helps!


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## dynamikgraphics (Jul 21, 2013)

One more thing I neglected to mention:

When exposing your screen, it is _*imperative *_that you have some sort of weight on the topside of the screen to sandwich the film firmly between the screen & the exposure unit glass. 

If the film is out-of-contact even by a millimeter, the design will be significantly distorted and detail lost. 

If you end up constructing a similar exposure unit as my wife's, once you lay your screen down to expose (flat side down, of course), place a black cloth or tee shirt over the top of the screen to block the light from exposing the backside, and place one or two moderately heavy books on top of the cloth to provide weight on the screen, so the film will be firmly sandwiched.


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## DigitalInkArts (Jul 20, 2011)

Go get a 500 watt halogen. At 16" I exposed in 3 minutes with photopolymer emulsion. I used a piece of black foam board from a dollar store under my screen. And had 4 cheap pieces of glass cut for weight. I used clear packing tape on the ends to hold them all together.


That was my exposure unit for two years. Still have it for backup. The light is about 15.00 at Walmart. Foam board is a buck. And cut glass for four pieces ran me about 25.00. Doesn't get any cheaper unless you use the sun. 

Sent from my D6708 using T-Shirt Forums


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