# Black Ink on White Shirt- Ink problems



## RandaKing84 (Dec 16, 2012)

I am doing a one color job on gray tshirts & white tshirts. I did my first batch of grays on a 110 screen & they turned out great. I added some soft hand base so the ink wouldn't be so shiny.


NOW.... I'm on to the white shirts in this design... I realize, I don't have much experience with white shirts. I usually do burnout tanks. Well, some shirts are getting black ink spots on the shirt from the back of the screen. 

I read somewhere that I should've used a 156, but I can't go back & change it now. I'm going to go make sure everything is taped up properly, but are there any more tips to a nice clean print on a white shirt? I didn't buy very many extras & can't afford any more mistakes.

Thanks


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## chuckh (Mar 22, 2008)

I'm going to bet that your prints on the white shirts are identical to the prints on the grey shirts. The only difference is that you can't see the small pinholes on the gray. Do you block out your screens after exposing them? Do you check for pin holes that need to be covered?

Either your screen is dirty, your exposure unit glass is dirty, your positives are dirty or have scattered imaging, your emulsion has air bubbles, or your screens are not exposed well enough.


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## Printor (Apr 16, 2015)

Pinholes plus tape equals no pin holes. Base just makes your ink less opaque, dilutes the pigments. How many grey shirts did you print? emulsion slowly gets thinner as you print. It can start to show up as more of a ghost image than dots. Wish I cold tame that effect, it would make halftone look like crap


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## RandaKing84 (Dec 16, 2012)

Thanks y'all. I'm thinking there were some areas I didn't tape up right. I used clear tape (not smart I know) but I retaped up the sides & I think that's going to solve my problem.


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## chuckh (Mar 22, 2008)

I don't understand why you think clear tape is bad. Try some water based blockout. A fine paint brush will allow you to block the difficult to tape pinholes.

We'll use tape on the inside of our screens where the mesh meets the frame, and on a pinhole that develops during a press run, but that is all. We do not tape out the outside of our screens


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## RandaKing84 (Dec 16, 2012)

With the clear tape, it was harder to see any areas not covered by emulsion on the edges. And that's almost exactly how I tape up my screens. I'm actually glad I'm encountering these little problems. I feel like I'm getting a better grasp on screen printing as a whole


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