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Misprint Monday: Why is the Ink Cracking?

I got a request last week to help someone figure out why their ink cracked. They thought it was the shirts. I have never seen a shirt that would cause the ink to crack all by itself. There is always an ink solution for cracking. WHAT CAUSES INK TO CRACK? Primarily the cause of the ink cracking…

Misprint Monday: GRRRR… Tell me what is wrong

One of our most popular series here at the Ink Kitchen is “Misprint Monday.” The philosopher Immanuel Kant once said, “…in the misfortunes of our best friends there is something which is not altogether displeasing to us…” I don’t want you readers to get the wrong impression from our articles on how to do things “correctly” that we…

A Cheap Fix – How to Make a Scorched Shirt Go Back to White

Whether by flash or by dryer, you can easily scorch shirts, which means the top hairs are slightly burned and give it a tan cast. If it is anything but a white shirt, the shirt is ruined. Don’t waste your time trying to fix it. Very slight scorching is very hard to see unless you…

Dye Migration, the Screenprinter’s Nemesis. Part 2

Yesterday I wrote about the problems we are all seeing with dye migration, the dye of the shirts going into the ink we print on all the myriad of types of fabric that we now have to print on. The post gave instructions for a test using plasticizer and a heat press. Further testing is…

Misprint Monday – Scorching Heat, Scorching Shirts

This time of year in the US of A it gets scorching hot. One of the hottest places in the country yesterday was South Carolina, a scorching 100 degrees in Columbia. Though that is mild compared to the world high of 118 F. in Kuwait yesterday. It was a low is the lower 48 US…

Spring is Not Just Flowers: Screen and Substrate Moisture Issues

After the winter of our discontent, well at least in our Northern climes, Spring is (almost) here. Thoughts turn to verse: You can’t see Canada across lake Erie, but you know it’s there.  It’s the same with spring.  You have to have faith, especially in Cleveland.  ~Paul Fleischman People ask me what I do in…

Lagniappe – 9 Recent Random Questions Answered (Briefly)

Nine recent questions I have received whether on forums, calls, or at shows: Q: What is the standard over/under on good shirts? A: You are free to make up whatever you want, but we usually tell people 1.5% per location is the industry standard. 300 shirts printed two sides on customer supplied goods means 9 shirts…

Badass Foil

We have spent  years experimenting with foil on shirts. Rather I should say that we produced actual jobs with different foil applications and always achieved great results. However, in almost every instance we had to do a lot of “tinkering” to get those good results. I finally feel we have dialed in on a very simple process which delivers awesome and consistent results.  Here…

Dye Dye Dye

It seems almost every day somebody asks another dye migration question. In this case we received a garment dyed shirt with very bad dye migration into the white and light ink colors. We test printed one of those same problematic garments  with a Rutland poly white underprint and cotton white overprint got great results. With…

Mis-print Monday: Why Is the Ink Not Cured?

We got some photos today from a shirt company and they had a printer reporting that the shirts looked like crap after washing. You can see the photos at the end of this post. The ink is not cured from what I see and this is what I told them can be the causes: Undercuring can…

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