Spots on printed tee-shirts

This is the section concerning all things that relate to printing on press. Topics may include but are not limited to loading the pallets, screen set up, registration problems, squeegee durometer, how to screen print using an automatic, manual rotary press or fixed station presses and general trouble shooting on any print job.

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drew
Senior Screen Printer
Posts: 77
Joined: Tue Mar 05, 2013 11:07 am

Re: Spots on printed tee-shirts

Post by drew »

Thank you for the update, I was curious to hear what the problem was. Screw holes in the pallet will cause an issue or two :D its all part of learning a new skill and Im sure this could help other new printers out. I know I've done things like that, looking back now saying "that was obvious it would cause an issue" but starting out nothing is obvious. Don't feel to bad! Lol
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Catspit Productions
Site Admin
Posts: 1995
Joined: Wed Mar 21, 2012 10:47 am
Location: Phoenix, Arizona

Re: Spots on printed tee-shirts

Post by Catspit Productions »

LOL... that is funny and it indeed exemplifies why it is so hard to diagnose screen printing problems without being there. I was assuming we had a smooth pallet so I never considered such a thing but if I were there with you I would have seen that right away. Excellent thread for the forum ;)

Your pallet must be absolutely smooth and parallel to the screen. Any imperfections in the pallet may show up in the print. This includes lint and pieces of thread that may be left behind on the spray tack during a longer print run. If the pallet is warped it will cause problems. If the pallet is textured in any way this too could be seen in the print result.

Those spots are very strange indeed and must be a result of the pallet and your flood and stroke. Normally a depression in the pallet would result in a light area in the print since it is like a pothole. But here it resulted in a pool of ink.

Like I say eliminate all variables and a homemade press will be full of them unfortunately. So you may want to give your unit a rundown making sure things are as close to perfect as possible.
Jonathan Monaco
Catspit Productions, LLC
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