# Ironing to smooth out plastisol?



## bomber315 (Jun 18, 2010)

hey guys, i dont have a heat press yet but from what i understand after you print on a shirt with plastisol you can heat press it to smooth out the ink real nice... 

i printed some white on black this past weekend and a few of them were really rough... so i tried using a regular hand held iron and some aluminum foil to press one piece... i wasnt sure if it would work or not and figured "what the heck, it cant get any worse" of course i stuck the aluminium foil to the shirt.... 

my question is which type of cover sheet do i need to run a iron across some rough prints. im not talking transfers, i mean after the shirt is printed laying something on it and ironing.. teflon? silicon? regular transfer paper? i would like to use whatever over and over again... thanks


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## ole Jobe (Jun 16, 2009)

If the ink is properly cured the iron won't help much. Otherwise a teflon sheet won't stick to the ink and is reuseable. God Bless.


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## bomber315 (Jun 18, 2010)

oh really? i thought the idea was to remelt the ink and smooth out.... hmmm maybe ill have to learn how to print whit nice and smooth everytime ehahaha


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## mrbadexample (Jun 8, 2009)

I think I agree. There's not a lot you can do to smooth cured ink. If it was not enough to melt the plastic of the plastisol, it would probably destroy the print and burn the shirt.

Is the problem like fibrillation or grin-through? Or just choppy printing?


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## macumazahn (Jan 11, 2007)

Actually I use a heat press for the final cure and it is great with smoothing out rough spots on prints. Not sure about remelting though. On another not you would be better off learning to print smoother anyway but in a pinch the heatpress trick will work.


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## mrbadexample (Jun 8, 2009)

That's actually a pretty cool idea for people that can't fit a dryer into the shop. But you're talking about before it is cured, so it won't help him salvage those shirts.

Doesn't the ink smear on your teflon sheet or heat press?


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## macumazahn (Jan 11, 2007)

I use a sheet and while it can smear, if you use the lightest possible pressure and lift the sheet straight up it wont. I can't claim credit for the idea either I picked it up here on the forum.


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## bomber315 (Jun 18, 2010)

i think my problem is stemming from fibrillation (if that means fibers are sticking up haha) im not sure what grin through is tho?? i tried to lay the fibers all down in the direction i was pushing the squeegee... it seem to work good on the shirts... but when i switched to hoodies i think i needed more off contact (i adjusted for it but it might not have been enough)... the little bit that i i managed to iron without the aluminium foil stickin seem to really flatten out, but in the end i ended up making an experimental mess and had to print a new hoodie... (which really sucked cause it was 2 color front and 2 color back and it was done untill that, i had to flip my screens and retape and such all for 1 piece)


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## mrbadexample (Jun 8, 2009)

That's a bummer, redoing it for a single piece.

Grin-Through is basically the same thing as fibrillation, just on blacks or darks. It's slightly different, I guess. That's what I learned from Wilflex. You can get less of it if you're using the right inks, squeegees, screen tensions, etc. We get it when our screens don't dry long enough. Operating out of Florida, we get a lot of humidity and that makes it feel impossible to print some days.

What white are you using? Some are formulated better than others for printing on hoodies, what with polyester blends and whatnot.


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## bomber315 (Jun 18, 2010)

i was using ryonet's white mixed with a tiny bit of brown to make creme... it is still pretty much white tho... i ended up finishing off that white... next time i will be using triangle pheonix white... figured i would try something differnet since im still learning every single day (or should i say night) and besides where i have been getting ink they get it to me in 2 days which is much quicker than ryonet (im sure this is because of where i live and pocono screen being in the same state, not a rip on ryonet)


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## mrbadexample (Jun 8, 2009)

You _may _not be using the proper white for your garment. The site I found is comparing it to Bright Tiger, which is an okay ink but is more appropriate for manual printing. We use Wilflex Sprint White and Wilflex MVP white. Supposedly the new Epic Series of these inks print an even more brilliant white.

You can potentially get dye migration if you're using inks without dye blockers on your hoodie because it's a cotton and polyester blend. At least, most hoodies are.

Hope at least some of this helps.


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## bomber315 (Jun 18, 2010)

yeah i pretty much only print on 50/50 blend, i like to be able to tell my customers that my shirts dont shrink, i dont think it is really dye migration tho, its just a lack of experience

i found a video on here saying to push the squeegee and that seems to work for me pretty good but im still having issues... maybe due to off contact, or it may be due to stencil thickness, or both or something... eventually ill get everything worked out... as it stands now my customers still tell me that they are very impressed but i wonder what they say when im not around hahaha


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