Screen Printing Forum

hi guys..

i wonder what type of mesh will give the type of print i wanted?

i just recently screenprint a t-shirt with a 43T mesh and used Hydrotex Metallic gold ink ( http://www.hydrotech.com.au/Product/Hyd ... tex_0.html ). the stencil was really good, very clean and sharp. but when i use the ink, the ink didn't actually go through the mesh as i wanted it to. the ink on the shirt is very thin and i could see the texture of the shirt (i was printing on a black shirt). i washed the shirt, and re-print, this time i run the ink A FEW TIMES over the stencil. it's definitely slightly thicker than the first print, but still not good enough. i end up grabbing a small brush and basically paint the t-shirt manually. LABOUR!!!

i'm not sure about the quality of those prints that people did on youtube.. but it seems that they just run the ink ONCE on the stencil and voila - they have a "perfect" print.

i wonder how i could get a thick layered of ink on the t-shirt? is it the mesh's fault or the ink's fault (because this one time the ink has glitters on it)?

thanks!!
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43t shoud be comparable to a 110 mesh, maybe the metallics need a little more open fabric, like an 80? Also, what type of stencil are you using? Could scumming of stencil be part of the problem? Is the ink made to be used on dark shirts? Site says standards are for lights, but doesn't specify about the metallics. I don't use water base inks so I can only be of so much help, but I don't believe water base on darks is an easy trick. Hopefully someone with experience with waterbase inks can add their two cents.

Yeah metallics on black are not easy. We usually do a double stroke then a flash then another double stroke.