orange peel prints on paper.

[smescarzaga]

Before I begin, I apologize as i know this is a very noob question but i didn't even know what to search for on the archives.

At any rate, during a big run today, it looked like as my screen lifted up from the paper it would create an orange peel looking texture to the print. It also made a super slight ghosty line in the direction of my pull. I've had both problems before which i thought would have been remedied by a brand new tight screen. I was printing a mix of acrylic and fabric speedball white. Using a vacuum pallet with a good amount of off contact. The reason I added some of the fabric ink in there is because i noticed it's more opaque (im printing on brown french).

Any help would be much appreciated.

[ImJustRickG]

How much off-contact are you using? What kind of ink? Vac table?

[smescarzaga]

little more than an 8th inch. half fabric/half acrylic speedball white. the vac table is the kind you can attach to a station on your shirt press. Its solid though, good suction.

[PedalPrinting]

That comes from the ink "peel" which is how your mesh is releasing the ink onto the material you are printing. You could most likely beef the off contact up to 1/4" and thin your ink down with some water(since its waterbased) to get a quicker peel. A tighter screen was a good step. You might be better off running only the acrylic speedball, put it through a finer mesh, I'm not sure what your using now, but less ink deposit equals less peel issue, 230, 305, 355. And run either a clear base on the paper(less ink then soaks in so the white is brighter when you print it). Or double pass the whole run(print-let dry-print) If you set it up right you can print and have the start of the run dry as you finish the batch, and just keep your setup/registration/screen going straight through for the second pass. If you have to stop or break down the setup there is almost no chance of ever registering 100% accurate on a second pass later on. I should also note, your registration needs to be 110% accurate on your setup to execute this method smoothly.

Another trick on dark papers, use a metallic ink. The metallic flec is almost 100% opaque.

[smescarzaga]

Right on, I'll try to bump it up to 1/4". I was running through 230 mesh. Thank you much Pedal. Do you use lower mesh with the flec?
Also, is this the same cause for the slight ghosting?

[PedalPrinting]

It sounds like the ghosting might be related to the same problem, there is always a chance your screen has a clog or dried spot though. If the problem is landing in the exact same spot/same shape in the image every time its most likely a clog or problem with the stencil. If it changes print to print, in the same general area of image, but not the EXACT same every time, its the peel.

I'd usually suggest a 180, or 196 mesh on the flec. It will go through 230, but the heavier it goes down the more opaque it gets. Make sure you get one of the dry metallic powder bases to mix in to your WB, or use a speedball metallic. If you use a shirt metallic flec your peel problem will just get worse. And I'd suggest checking manufacturer specs on whatever powder or ink you get, see what their suggested mesh counts are, some of the metallics require a REALLY low mesh count, 110, 80, 60.

[Andymac]

a question - does your screen lift off the paper just behind the squeegee, or is it popping off after the print stroke?

Your blurring at the end of the stroke is caused by too much ink going down on your flood, and then being driven under the edge of the stencil during each print stroke. this can be caused by a low print angle on your squeegee (too flopped) too thick a flood/delay between prints, slack screen, too low or too high off contact, or too open a mesh plus some of the above. I would also suspect the vac table platten is contributing to this, it's not a very stable printing platform, and your screen maybe is precontacting the paper before printing, this would cause your blur too.

the orange peeling is probably due to mixing the fabric ink - it is a different consistancy than graphic ink, and you are getting too much down. Get a hi-hide white from TW or similar.

[smescarzaga]

im pretty sure its popping off after the print stroke. You can see on the bottom of the screen the bleed of ink all around the stencil in the direction of my stroke only.

[Andymac]

should be coming off right behind the squeegee as it goes across. If it is waiting and then popping off, this will cause your finish flaws and blur. try a bit more lift. make sure your empty holes are blocked, sometimes they can suck the screen down.

[Fools Gold]

Fabric Speedball might be your problem too. It's not designed to print on paper, and has far too much water/carrier in it compared to pigment (cause it's designed to dye fabric). Often that "Orange peel" effect (meaning: not consistent pigment distribution causing a mottled look) is a result of too much clear/thinner/carrier and not enough pigment or "real ink".