Thick Printing or 3D Printing

[derekprins]

I am new to this forum so I hope I am in the right place. I need to print some shirts/jackets and the end result must be a raised image, similar to a flock image which one does with vinyl/.flock and a heatpress. Do I use waterbased ink or plastisol? How do I build up the ink to be so thick and how do I dry/cure it?

[Shamax]

Welcome to the forum, Derek! It sounds like "puff ink" may be along the lines of what you're looking for. Jonathan did a video on using puff additives a while back so you can see the kind of effect you get when using it.

[derekprins]

Many Thanks, that is exactly what I wanted. I must say that I have learned a lot from Jonathan's videos.
Keep up the great work!

[derekprins]

I just bought the puff base and mixed it with regular ink and pigment, but when I print, it doesn't really puff at all. However, if I cure it with a jeatgun, then it puffs but that is very slow and dangerous because it is very easy to scorch the garment. Any suggestions on how to solve this problem? I don't have a force-air drying unit or anything like that.

[Shamax]

The Puff additive is heat activated, so you'll have to hit it with something. I don't know if you need forced air to do it (like from a heat gun or forced air flash) but it needs something to activate. Before I got my Ranar forced air flash, I cured with a Wagner heat gun. Just make sure you keep it moving (at least in slow circles) and don't get it too close to the shirt - anything closer than 2-3 inches and it's probably gonna scorch unless you REALLY keep it moving.

[Catspit Productions]

You should be able to get the puff to puff with a standard flash cure unit and a belt dryer. You don’t need forced air but that would help.

You can try slowing the belt down on the belt dryer to give more time to activate the puff. Or simply give more time if you’re using a flash cure unit. Too much heat may burn the puff ruining the effect.

Also make sure there is a decent amount of puff base so it will puff faster. You can add the color to the puff base until the color tints the base thoroughly and that’s all.