Hoodies

[Justinside]

Jonathan

I need some advise on printing hoodies. How can I stop the garment from lifting when I raise the screen to go to flash so I can lay a second coat?

Cheers

Paul

[ApeShirt]

Are you using web adhesive?

[Justinside]

I am.

[ApeShirt]

That's odd. I've even printed hoodies while using spray adhesive. The only other thing I can suggest right now is reach under the platen and pull down on the hoodie while raising the screen.

[Catspit Productions]

Okay, as Apeshirt is surprised I would be too if web tack won’t hold the fleece down to the pallet. Try more web tack or a different brand perhaps.

Now this also could be the inks if they get hot. If you mean that when you print a color and flash it and then print the next color it sticks, that is just a matter of letting the ink cool. You need to make sure it’s fully flashed but it also needs to cool before you print anything else on top.

But yeah if it’s just when you print 1 color first and the hoodie pulls up then you need to do as Apeshirt suggests. But I should think you would be able to get the web tack to work.

[upperhandprinting]

When I do hoodies, I use normal spray tack. But I have a friend that sits by the press and pulls the slack down so it doesn't lift up. It works well for us, but does slow down production quite a bit. Just depends on how many you need to do.

[Leadfoot]

I tried using my regular tack (Pro Bond by CCI) which works great for anything except fleece after 1 or 2. So I will have to go back to using the web I think. Have a 50 hoodie run to do and want to get them done as quickly as possible and with as little pallet cleaning as possible. If anyone is wanting to get away from the spray tack )I know I did because it gets everywhere) I have really liked the CCI Pro Bond water based. It goes on easily with a foam brush, after several shirts just spray the pallet down with some water and use a coarse sponge (like what you would use to clean/degrease your screens) and get a lot of the fibers up, wipe up excess water and dry it with either a heat gun or flash. One coat will last me at least 50 t-shirts or better, it might even be more like 100, haven't really counted but it lasts a long time! When it starts to get spots where it has come up wou just spray on your favorite cleaner (I use RhinoTech Press Wash), let it soak a bit and I use a metal scraper and it comes off nice and clean!

[upperhandprinting]

I'm definitely looking to get away from spray tack, but was looking at pallet tape as an option. How messy/expensive is it? Hopefully I'll have my stuff set up soon so I can try it out. It sounds like a good deal.

[Catspit Productions]

I'm definitely looking to get away from spray tack, but was looking at pallet tape as an option. How messy/expensive is it? Hopefully I'll have my stuff set up soon so I can try it out. It sounds like a good deal.

I think form my experiences I would suggest the spreadable water based pallet adhesive as opposed to double sided pallet tape. Some pallet tapes may be cleaned and re-tacked but others don’t do so well with that.

But as Leadfoot says the spreadable water based pallet adhesive can be re-tacked by cleaning and it is very economical. I would say much cheaper than any double sided pallet tape. It’s the same as spray tack on the pallet for messiness. But there is no overspray so it is much cleaner to use all around.

Try it out, it’s cheap enough to test and throw out if you don’t like it.... LOL.