DSF

Today i wanted to do a test on layering artwork and inked drawings, building the arwork up then printing it in sections and overlapping the sub prints also. Things were fine and the prints came out almost how i wanted.

The first part was printing the main body figure bust of marilyn monroe, this worked fine but lost some of the blackness, i couldnt figure out why, prehaps because i havent had the profile from paul yet?? however previous prints were nice and black though.

For the upper part with the "marilyn" typeface and scrollwork i decided to add 20 seconds to the press time, well it was a major difference!! the black was full on and the outer blue was strong also.
It would seem the time i was given was wrong.

For the rear lower print i increased the time by 5 seconds, now the press runs for 80 seconds when doing a tshirt at 190. and the back fontwork came out perfect along with the blue and black shading.

This is a test shirt so i am not worried about the spelling difference of the name (front got marylyn- correct is rear which has marylin) So now i know that the information given me was not correct and i need to play with the settings again! so this weekend i am going to use some of my test shirts to play around with times and pressure.

The annoying this was the printer.... nearly every other print or so i had to run a cleaning cycle on the thing... not happy at all. So i need to get some cleaning solution next week and flush it all through, also pull the catch tray and replace the catch sponges inside for new clean ones and clean the wipe bar and tray out as well. Apart from that when it prints this brother a3 is perfect for what i want. However i cant wait to have the large format epson running!

Here is the print i did today.

Looks great! When you say layering, are you pressing the same side of the shirt multiple times? I see you're using Xpres shirts, are these the newer/thinner ones? If so, how do you find them?

Hi justin, yes multiple pressing onto the shirt, 3 times on this one i had tape guides to use. i start by pressing the lightest colour which is almost a faded out grey, then build up darker. However the artwork is edited so that nothing really crosses eachother. the last thing to press is the main fontwork and the rear scrollwork behind it, some of the scrollwork crosses the hairline but i wanted that effect.

The xpress tees are the subli plus ones.

Forgive me if I'm asking an obvious question. Why would you press three times? Wouldn't you be better layering the design on screen and then pressing once?

So are these the thinner shirts?

Justin;72457 wrote:Forgive me if I'm asking an obvious question. Why would you press three times? Wouldn't you be better layering the design on screen and then pressing once?

So are these the thinner shirts?

Hi justin, the reason for layering is because i don't have the large format ready yet, so i have to split the prints into sections until i get the large printer to do an all in one press. also it was a worthwhile exercise to see what would happen. It is interesting how the ink layers one over the other and the results... well for sad old me it is

I understand, you're splitting into smaller sections. Makes complete sense now. Very clever way around the problem, nice one.

Is there any effect on the existing print when you press over it again? Any ghosting coming off?

How do you avoid the impression of the paper?

Tear around the design by hand, don't cut tear..... This breaks the edge of the paper and the line won't appear!

Ha, Genius!

SSP - If you haven't already found it, 3M Scotch Weld 75 is great for holding transfer paper to fabrics for pressing - stops it moving arond etc
http://www.transair.co.uk/sp+3M-Scotch- ... P208061116