# Plastisol wrinkle and bubble question with pics?



## Slinky3 (Nov 12, 2012)

Hello I recently pressed some plastisol transfers onto a couple of shirts and after washing shirts, the plasitol looks wrinkled and sort of like it has bubbles on it. Tested with a couple of shirts and same results: bubble/wrinkle texture to the plastisol. I attached pics so you can see what it looks like, if you click on them/open them up you can get a pretty close up view of the wrinkles/bubbles.

They are American Apparel 100% cotton shirts. I have pressed on them many times and this has never happened before. Anybody know what it can be?

thanks


----------



## royster13 (Aug 14, 2007)

The shirts shrunk.....Are you pre-pressing your shirts?....


----------



## iamchu15 (Jan 29, 2013)

It seems they didn't cure correctly. Was the heat correct on the press, how about time and pressure? I usually get that due to one or a combo of the three. 

Or... bad transfers. Sometimes that can happen. Was it a whole run of transfers only? Did you have them stored for a while? 

Im just going over everything I ask myself when I get that on my shirts.


----------



## BroJames (Jul 8, 2008)

what is your heat and time setting?

Did you have any good press before?


----------



## Slinky3 (Nov 12, 2012)

royster13 said:


> The shirts shrunk.....Are you pre-pressing your shirts?....


Yes i did pre press, like I do with all my shirts. Never had a shrinking problem with American Apparel shirts. I just did another run with these shirts and they where all fine. I pressed my last plastisol on on a royal apparel shirt just to see what would happen, and it is also doing this: wrinkle/bubble texture after washing.


----------



## Slinky3 (Nov 12, 2012)

iamchu15 said:


> It seems they didn't cure correctly. Was the heat correct on the press, how about time and pressure? I usually get that due to one or a combo of the three.
> 
> Or... bad transfers. Sometimes that can happen. Was it a whole run of transfers only? Did you have them stored for a while?


Yes correct time on press and pressure. Not exactly sure if it was whole run of shirts yet (about 85% sure it was). People did not wash some of them and wearing them for a gathering tomorrow. But so far whoever washed them is experiencing this issue.
Only had them stored for about 2 weeks tops.


----------



## Slinky3 (Nov 12, 2012)

BroJames said:


> what is your heat and time setting?
> 
> Did you have any good press before?


375% temp.
with 5-10sec pre-heat.
and 10-12 second application.

With this run of plastisols as of right now I am about 80-85% after washing this happens. (the rest of shirts have not been washed yet).


----------



## GHEENEE1 (Jan 8, 2007)

Are these shirts preshrunk? Try pressing onto a preshrunk shirt. I only use preshrunk and haven't had this issue with plastisol transfers.


----------



## Slinky3 (Nov 12, 2012)

GHEENEE1 said:


> Are these shirts preshrunk? Try pressing onto a preshrunk shirt. I only use preshrunk and haven't had this issue with plastisol transfers.


The shirts are the American Apparel 2001
Here is the link:
American Apparel - Fine Jersey Short Sleeve T-Shirt

The other shirt I tested was a Royal Apparel
(their site is having problems so cannot link to it at the moment, but it is very similar to the American Apparel 2001)


----------



## iamchu15 (Jan 29, 2013)

Try higher heat and more time. I do that at times and alsi give a postpress. I think humidity can make the trsnfers not work properly. As for stretching, isnt platisol streachable?


----------



## Slinky3 (Nov 12, 2012)

iamchu15 said:


> Try higher heat and more time. I do that at times and alsi give a postpress. I think humidity can make the trsnfers not work properly. As for stretching, isnt platisol streachable?


I do have one more plastisol transfer left over, i will probably test it out this weekend. 
Probably with higher heat, maybe longer pre press or double pre press. Maybe on different shirt. 
I thought plastisols streteched also, and I thought the American Apparel 2001 was one of the most popular high end shirts, and many people said it did not shrink a lot compared to others.


----------



## Slinky3 (Nov 12, 2012)

UPDATE: I wore the shirt tonight, and when I came home I wanted to see if I could peel the plastisol off, b/c it looked and kind of felt like you could, but did not want to test before b/c I had to wear it tonight.

So anyways I tried to peel it, and yes it came right off, very very easily, did not even have to pick at it a ton or try very hard to peel it off. It came off pretty smoothly and easily.


----------



## dokus (Sep 2, 2013)

Did you manage to solve this problem? I'm experiencing the exact same thing with some of my transfers at the moment... Temperature & pressure should be ok, every shirt is prepressed, had it both on Bella+Canvas triblend shirts & Polly-cotton fleece sweaters, also with different batches of transfers.

So if it's the transfers, I got multiple bad orders of different transfers.
Could it be heat or pressure? I'm pressing them at 300°F (as prescribed by the company providing the transfers) for 11 seconds


----------



## DNeeld (Sep 8, 2010)

dokus said:


> Did you manage to solve this problem? I'm experiencing the exact same thing with some of my transfers at the moment... Temperature & pressure should be ok, every shirt is prepressed, had it both on Bella+Canvas triblend shirts & Polly-cotton fleece sweaters, also with different batches of transfers.
> 
> So if it's the transfers, I got multiple bad orders of different transfers.
> Could it be heat or pressure? I'm pressing them at 300°F (as prescribed by the company providing the transfers) for 11 seconds


Are these plastisol transfers? If so, 300 isn't going to cut it.


----------



## dokus (Sep 2, 2013)

Yes, cold peal plastisol transfers. They say to press them at 150°C for 10 seconds.
they also have a "premium" transfer, which is hot peel, and presses at 170°C for 12 seconds

I've pressed quite a few of them already and they stood up to at least 5-6 washes without problems, but some of them, especially on larger white or black surfaces, starts showing these bubbles


----------



## jimcr (Feb 3, 2009)

Sounds like the Co you bought them from is not doing something right , whether its a problem with the paper or adhesion powder. 
Looks like an adhesion problem from what your picture shows , and what you describe, Hot peel transfer 350-375 10-12 seconds . Does it peel easy or is it a hard pull . It almost looks as if it has a puff additive in it and not working correctly.
does it happen on different shirts ? preshrunk shirts?


----------



## iamchu15 (Jan 29, 2013)

Should be at least 375 for plastisol to effectively transfer and cure on the shirt. I have never seen a method that uses any temperature lower than that even for the 10 sec ones. I also noticed if you keep the transfers close to the heat source ( heatpress) some will cure and never fully transfer.
keep them away from the heat, use at least 375 temp, even steady pressure, remeber to pre press shirt 1st.


----------



## BroJames (Jul 8, 2008)

I have only played around with plastisol transfers I've used 320-340F 10-12 seconds with good results. I think 300F is too low.

You may have have to try increase the temp settings on your heat press as the heat (setting or reading) of all heat presses are alike.


----------

