🐿️Pinecone Attack

c/custom-printing-chat

23

xena_taylor64•2d ago

Rant: Everyone says use high thread count for custom prints, but my 200 count shirts turned out better

At a shop in Phoenix last month, I printed a batch of 50 tees on cheap 200 thread count blanks instead of the usual 300 count everyone swears by, and the colors actually popped more without bleeding. Three years ago when I started, an old timer told me lower count holds plastisol tighter, and he was right after all. Has anyone else dumped the expensive blanks for budget ones and gotten sharper results?

20

parker_foster53•2d ago

The difference a good screen mesh makes on a t-shirt print

I've been doing my own custom shirts at home for about two years now. Last month I finally switched from the cheap 110 mesh screens I was using to a better quality 156 mesh for a detail job. The before and after was night and day - the old screens let way too much ink bleed into the edges of small text. Has anyone else had the same experience upgrading their mesh count for finer designs?

12

jones.grace•3d ago

Grabbed a batch of shirts from that new shop on Elm Street and the ink peeled off after 3 washes

I had a rush order for a client so I used that place by the old train depot instead of my usual supplier, and now I'm stuck reprinting 200 shirts because the plastisol didn't bond right has anyone else had issues with that location?

3

susan350•4d ago

A customer in Denver told me my shirt designs were too busy and I finally saw it

I had this customer come in with a simple one color logo and she was like "why do you keep adding extra stuff?" I looked at my recent orders and she was right, I was piling on 3 or 4 elements to every print. Now I limit myself to two design elements max and my sales actually went up by about 20 bucks per order on average. Anyone else had a customer point out something obvious you were missing?

10

brian303•5d ago

Shoutout to the guy who told me to try fake proofs before sending a real print run

I hit a wall with a big client order a few weeks back, 500 t-shirts with a 4 color process design. My normal approach was to just send the art file to the printer and hope for the best, which usually meant some color shift or misregistration costing me reprints. So I tried his trick: I mocked up a cheap digital proof on my home inkjet and compared it to the screen print sample side by side. Turned out my gradients were way too dark and I fixed them before the real run started. Saved me about $300 in wasted shirts and got the client happy on the first delivery. Has anyone else messed with this kind of fake proof method or do you just trust the printer's proof every time?

23

brian_ward55•5d ago

Overheard a guy at the print shop say "white ink is just for show" and I had to bite my tongue

So I'm dropping off a job at Alpha Graphics on Tuesday and this customer is telling the clerk that white underbase is a waste of money. He said he's been printing for 10 years and never uses it. I wanted to jump in so bad because I just had a run of 200 dark tees last week where I skipped the underbase to save time and every single one looked like garbage after wash. The colors turned muddy and you could see the shirt fabric right through the design. Has anyone else tried cutting corners with white ink and just regretted it later?

29

irisross•7d ago

PSA: Those cheap vinyl decals melted off my truck in under 3 months

I ordered a batch of custom decals for my work truck from a budget printer back in June, and by September they were peeling and warped from the sun. Ended up spending $120 at a local shop to redo them, and the owner told me they used cheap adhesive that can't handle heat. Has anyone else had luck with a specific material for outdoor use?

23

thompson.tyler•7d ago

Dye-sublimation versus UV printing on tumblers - the consensus has it backwards

I keep reading on here that UV printing is the only way to go for full-color tumblers, but I think people are overlooking dye-sublimation for small runs. Last month I did a batch of 12 tumblers for a church fundraiser. I used a $200 used Sawgrass printer with dye-sub paper and a basic heat press attachment. The colors came out vibrant and they held up after three dishwasher cycles. Meanwhile my buddy who swore by UV had his clear coat peel on the fourth wash. Has anyone else done a side-by-side test on plain stainless steel tumblers with both methods?

7

susan350•8d ago

Figured out the hard way why printed shirts need a flash cure

I was at my shop around 2 AM last Tuesday trying to bang out a rush order of 20 shirts for a local band. Forgot to flash cure between the base coat and the second color, and the whole design smeared into a mess when I hit it with the heat press. Took me an extra 45 minutes to reprint and salvage 12 of them. Anyone else ever skip a step and totally regret it?

19

richardrodriguez•8d ago

Switched my vinyl supplier after 4 months of headaches

I was dead set on this one online vinyl place because their prices were good. Then I got a rush order for a local car club's decals, 12 cars worth, and half the rolls came with a weird tacky residue that ruined three full sheets. I was standing in my shop at 2 AM trying to scrape it off with a heat gun and realized I was losing money on materials. Ended up switching to a local supplier in Denver who matched the price and their stuff lays down clean every time. Anyone else have a supplier that just caused more problems than they saved?

13

the_kevin•9d ago

PSA: Learned my screen tension trick the hard way at 3 AM

Was doing a four color job in my garage studio around midnight. Mesh on my 230 count screen started sagging halfway through the run. Tried to tighten it with a heat gun but burnt a hole right through the emulsion. Lost 20 shirts and $60 worth of ink on that mistake. Now I always check my tension with a meter before starting any run over 50 prints. You guys use a specific brand of tension meter or just go by feel?

0

grace565•10d ago

Hot take: vinyl registration marks are overrated for small runs

I spent 3 hours last Tuesday trying to get perfectly aligned registration marks on a 20-shirt run and it was a nightmare. Honestly, for small batches like that, I think eyeballing it with a good jig is faster and just as accurate. Has anyone else ditched the marks for simple hand placement on smaller orders?

24

the_miles•10d ago

Vent: Customer asked me to reprint a logo 6 times because the blue was 'off'

Had a guy in Des Moines last month who kept saying the cyan was too dark on his business cards. I swapped it out 5 times with different proofs and he still complained. Has anyone else dealt with someone like this who just can't make up their mind?

10

campbell.nora•11d ago

The day I realized I was prepping my screens wrong for years

I've been doing custom screen printing out of my garage in Omaha for about 4 years now. Last month I was cleaning a stubborn 110 mesh screen and noticed it just wasn't letting ink through right. I'd always degreased my screens with just dish soap and a scrub pad, then rinse and dry. Turns out I was leaving residue that messed up my stencil adhesion every single time. A buddy from a shop in Lincoln saw me working and asked if I used a proper degreaser. I'd never even heard of the stuff. He handed me a bottle of CCI 400, and within one test print the difference was night and day. The detail on my last run of band t-shirts came out cleaner than anything I'd done before. Has anyone else been stuck in a habit like this for way too long before someone called them out?

26

the_miles•16d ago

That shop owner told me to stop using 100% infill on my prints

I was doing 100% infill on every PLA part because I thought denser = stronger, but a guy who runs a print shop in Austin said I was just wasting filament and making parts more brittle under impact. He showed me how 20% gyroid infill actually lets the plastic flex and absorb force better, and my test parts stopped cracking at the layer lines. Anyone else get hit with a reality check on something they assumed was basic?

0

robin777•17d ago

Rush job last Thursday had my screen mesh tearing mid-print

I was at my shop in Austin trying to crank out 50 shirts for a local band's show that night, and the mesh just ripped halfway through the third color. I had to swap to a coarser screen and re-register everything on the fly, which cost me an extra hour and a ton of cussing. Anyone else ever have a screen fail on a deadline and have to improvise like that?

2

karen_sanchez10•20d ago

My screen printer lost registration halfway through a 50 shirt run yesterday

I was running a 4 color design for a local youth soccer league in Phoenix and on shirt 28 the yellow suddenly shifted a quarter inch. Had to stop the whole job and reset the clamps, but by then about 10 shirts were already printed wrong. Has anyone else had a sudden registration slip like that or do I just need to tighten my screen frames more regularly?

14

palmer.ryan•22d ago

I finally learned the hard way about mesh count on screens

I spent three days trying to figure out why my white ink was coming out all blotchy and thin on dark shirts. Turns out I was using a 230 mesh screen for a thick plastisol ink that needed an 86 or 110 mesh. All that time wasted because I grabbed whatever screen was clean from the rack. Now I have to rewash the screens and start the whole order over. Has anyone else made this obvious mistake and felt like an idiot for a week?

9

faith_perez•22d ago

PSA: Screen printing vs heat press vinyl for small batch shirts

I ran a little experiment for my kid's soccer team shirts last month, 12 shirts total. Did 6 with screen printing at a local shop and 6 with HTV from my home setup. The screen prints cost me $8 each but they still look perfect after 4 washes. The HTV ones started peeling around the edges after wash number 3, even with proper pressing time. Has anyone else found screen printing holds up way longer for stuff that gets washed a lot?

6

richardharris•24d ago

PSA: I was loading my screen printing screens at the WRONG angle for 2 years

I've been printing shirts out of my garage in Austin since 2022 and always wondered why my fine detail stuff kept plugging up. Last week I watched a video from a shop in Ohio and the guy said to load emulsion at a 45 degree angle on the scoop coater. I had been doing it flat and straight the whole time. The guy said 'you're trapping air bubbles like that' and I felt so dumb. Has anyone else had a basic step click late like this?

18

gray_gibson•24d ago

Blew out a DTF printer head because I used the wrong cleaning fluid

I was at my shop in Austin last Tuesday, trying to clear a clog on my Epson F2100. Grabbed a bottle off the shelf that I thought was cleaning solution (you know, the stuff that comes in the big jugs). Turned out it was some cheap substitute my assistant bought off Amazon. After 10 minutes of flushing, the printer started spitting out this weird orange goo. Had to replace the print head - cost me $380 and 3 days of downtime. Anyone else ever wreck a printer head with the wrong cleaner?

18

parker_foster53•24d ago

That Thursday my screen printer went down for 3 hours during a rush order

Had 60 shirts due by 5pm for a local brewery in Portland. My 6 color press jammed up on the yellow head right after lunch. Took me an hour just to figure out it was a busted off contact spring. Had to pull the whole print head apart and rig a temporary fix with a zip tie. Somehow finished all shirts by 4:15 and the brewery guy tipped me $60 cash. Has anyone else had to MacGyver a press mid-run like that?

15

the_joel•27d ago

Tried cheap transfer paper vs mid-grade for a big shirt order.

Ran 50 shirts for a local run last month. Used the budget paper from Amazon on the first 25. Had to re-press like 8 of them. Switched to a mid-grade brand for the last 25. Zero issues. The cheap stuff just doesn't hold the heat evenly. Anyone else see a big jump in quality with a specific brand?

2

hunt.jana•27d ago

Drove past my old print shop yesterday and it's a vape store now

That place had a 1960s Heidelberg press that could run 6,000 sheets an hour. Young guys there now probably never even heard of letterpress. Anybody else see their old shop turn into something totally different?

5

betty126•27d ago

That screen printer told me to stop obsessing over perfect alignment

Had a chat with an old school screen printer at a shop downtown last week. He said the best shirts he ever made had slight registration shifts because they looked handcrafted instead of machine perfect. It hit different because I've been spending hours on my home setup trying to get every color lined up to the millimeter. He showed me a run of 200 tees he did for a local band where the white base was off by a hair and it actually made the print pop more. Now I'm wondering if I've been wasting time chasing perfection when customers probably can't even tell. Anybody else run into a printer who changed how you think about your own work?