# Don't waste a shirt, just SHOOT IT OUT!



## CoopersDesignCo (Nov 14, 2007)

Hello Avid DTG'ers!

Soooo....I thought I might experiment a little on ways to remove the ink from a t-shirt that is DTG printed. I was getting a little frustrated with my machine stopping to print in the middle of the underbase.

So the next time it did it, I took it off the machine and sprayed it out with Laquer Thinner and a spray gun. It worked fantastic. I rinsed the spot, dried it, and re-pretreated it...and it printed over great!

However, I have yet to wash the shirt that I shot out and re-printed to see how it held up.

Anyway, has anyone else had any experience with this? If so, this is a great way to "save" shirts!

Ann


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## mk162 (Sep 24, 2007)

I've heard of people using 409 with their T-jets before curing. That won't work on the Brother inks. I don't know if it will work on the white ink either. Give it a try.


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## Robin (Aug 28, 2006)

Ive managed to get spots out of shirts (we have the brother) before its dried. But Ive never tried large images.


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## CoopersDesignCo (Nov 14, 2007)

I've done this on large areas with white underbase printed, and also full color images printed in smaller areas on dark shirts.


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## printerguy (Dec 26, 2006)

CoopersDesignCo said:


> Hello Avid DTG'ers!
> 
> Soooo....I thought I might experiment a little on ways to remove the ink from a t-shirt that is DTG printed. I was getting a little frustrated with my machine stopping to print in the middle of the underbase.
> 
> ...



I would strongly advise not using this method. Lacquer thinner is highly flammable. It should never be sprayed out of an electric spray gun. You're looking at a potential fire or explosion.


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## CoopersDesignCo (Nov 14, 2007)

I may be mistaken on the actual names of the equipment, but here it is.
I can't imagine that this could be dangerous?

Spot Cleaning Gun - 3000psi - 400-710-0


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## printerguy (Dec 26, 2006)

If you look further on the Lawson web site you will see that all the cleaning fluids sold for the spot cleaning gun are non-flammable. Using lacquer thinner in these guns is extremely dangerous.


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## Gunslinger (Aug 3, 2007)

I have tried a few things to save a shirt that had an ink drop on it (alcohol, oxycleaner, that tide stick), prior to curing ... but none have been effective. However, with the new dupont white ink (or Bright White, depending on your label), placing a piece of duct tape over the white ink spot/s lift it right off. A few times I have been able to use that method with color ink, but rarely will it work.


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## spezeke (Jul 15, 2007)

We have used this several times and it does work.....
Spray immediately with window cleaner.... scrub it in
Scrub Stain Wizard (sold at Jo Ann Fabrics) in let set some time
use a good brush and scrub with grain of fabric. If it is a white shirt you can also use bleach and a behind wash. Sometimes this takes several repeats but if it is a weekend and no supplier available and the item is due Monday it is worth it. We have also used a paint remover sold at JoAnn Fabrics and some of the stick stain removers and they also work well. But we have saved a lot of garments. If you should get fabric balls after drying use a shaver for sweaters and then heat press it again. Sometimes your darker color ink do not come out and you have no choice but to toss it unless you can print over it. Most of the times we save those for shirt to print tests on. We try not to do anything with white shirts because if we wash them our water contains rust and once heat pressed it will make the shirt orange. We only use distilled water on white shirts. Some rust does not come out with water softning units like us we need a iron filter. Hope this works for others too.


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