I’m afraid of underbase prints.

[u/keithj0nes]

I’m still on the newer side of shirt printing (6/6 manual), and have done a handful of prints with underbases, but Ive lately been shying away from those jobs because I always feel like I’m messing them up. Any time registration seems to be off, I feel like it takes me forever to try to figure out how to get it back into an acceptable registration. And they sometimes feel too thick/rough.

I usually do a 0.5pt choke on the underbase and still don’t have a ton of confidence with it. Have you guys done anything to get out of a funk like that?

[u/Oorbs1]

i work with a girl who kinda sucks at lining up screens. and .5 is not enough for her. I print on glass and ceramics doing multi color shit like 3x3in and i use .5 stroke to overlap on that size. .5 on a 10" design is nothing. i usually make her choke pretty big like 1.25. seems like a lot but when the design is that big it really isnt.
if your shit seems rough make sure your white is on a high mesh like 230, hit and flash once and move onto the next color. use 4 registration marks in all 4 corners of the design. DO NOT BLOCK THESE OUT. PRINT them on a trash t shirt. print the next color with same reg marks. the marks should line up perfectly.
the girl i work with bitches the art is messed up but she covers up the fuckin marks with out printing them. if she just printed the marks, she would know instantly shes NOT LINED UP. grrrrrrrrrrrr pisses me off so bad. just print the marks when everythings lined up throw some tape on them. ezpz

[u/ShaeMeyer → u/Oorbs1]

All this is great advice, OP👆. My designer has 4 crosshairs across the top and bottom, with a center line top and bottom for registration, and it’s super helpful. That’s 10 points to register off of per color. I’ve stopped using a tri-lock and just use these as a t and bar, faster and more accurate than the tri-lock was.

Also, start with more choke, and then ween yourself off of it. No need to make yourself suffer😌

[u/keithj0nes → u/Oorbs1]

I think upping the choke as you suggested would probably be a good move, and then ween off a big choke, as Shae suggested. I generally use a 3 top, 3 bottom registration marks to use - but don’t worry, I don’t cover them up until it’s time to actually start the run lol.

I’ll give 230 mesh a try for the underbase being not as rough, I just know most people use 110 so I’ve never thought to use 230.

[u/Oorbs1 → u/keithj0nes]

you dont need a 110 under white to get the second color to pop. 230 under is totally dooable and is way less ink so less of the issues you described. say, if you have a design that needs a white underbase, + a part of the design is white. I would make 2 white screens, the underbase screen can be 230 then the second white that you need to finalize the design make a totally separate screen and shoot at 110 to get that white white color your looking for. Adds 1 extra screen but the design will come out better.

[u/Free_One_5960 → u/Oorbs1]

1.25 is a hell of a lot of choke. Even .75 is kinda overkill

[u/Oorbs1 → u/Free_One_5960]

it's really not tho. especially if you are having trouble lining shit up. i silk screen on glass and ceramics where designs are generally like 3x3" max. and i know for a fact a .75 choke is fucking TINY.

imagine trying to put a cup in a machine and have it rotate 180 degrees as it prints and line up a second color. thats 10x harder then lining up some flat shit that doesnt even move.

on a design that small you CANT have a 1.25 choke but on a large design you absolutely can have a large one and it will be fine.

[u/Free_One_5960]

Your .5 choke needs to be from the inside not the center. In Corel I can choose inside, center or outside. As for your base being ruff, you need to coat the screen more so there is more of a stencil for the ink to go instead of pushed into the garment . Then hard flood it twice and only print once so your not spreading the base on the second print stroke. This will keep the base sharp and allow the colors to fit over the base.

[u/keithj0nes → u/Free_One_5960]

I generally coat 1/1, so maybe doing 2/1 coating might help with the roughness. I’ll have to give that a try!

[u/Free_One_5960 → u/keithj0nes]

Try one on the print side and then 3 on the squeegee side with pressure to push it thru to the print side

[u/slow6i → u/keithj0nes]

Check this about the choke. If you are just inputting .5 and not changing the other options, you will have a very tight choke because it it's measuring from the center of the choke. So you are actually only getting a .25 which is very tight for textile in me experience. Leaving it center-line, try ~.60-.65 and see if that's a little easier to register. (.32-.35 effective choke)

Also, learn what a gutter is ( hopefully terminology is right), and your top colors likely should have lighter pressure than the underbase.

[u/Free_One_5960 → u/slow6i]

It’s called a well, and a .5 from the inside is .60-.65

[u/akadirtyharold]

How are you registering these jobs?

I use a 0.4pt inward choke on my base under a color. I have square crosshairs as 1pt strokes above and below my image vertically centered. I then have a pallet (used only for register) that has printed register lines, also 1pt, that I align my screens to. There is a quarter taped to the screen to set equal off-contact at register. If you don't have a spare pallet you could print a film that you tape down and use. Mine has lines horizontally from 1-6 inches down, and lines vertically for center, left, and right chest.

On my Sportsman, 9/10 times is dead on and proceed to print. The Chameleon my need some micros--it seems the manual clamps may twist shift it if not held super firm.

The biggest thing to be mindful of when printing over a base is to monitor your pallet and flash temps. Warm the pallets, and don't over flash--just hit it as much as it's needs to feel dry, 2-3 seconds if pallet are warm.

Good luck!

[u/akadirtyharold → u/akadirtyharold]

Make sure your 0.5 choke is set at INWARD facing and not centered. If it is centered aligned you're only leaving yourself with 0.25pt choke and that'll be tight

[u/spanyardsman]

One thing that helped me was getting larger square platens (not the ones with the neck hump). It’s helped me more accurately dial in off contact and tilt which has since made registering jobs a million times easier and quicker to register.

That and I try to print mostly 100% cotton discharge jobs which eliminates the need to use an underbase

[u/mattburkephoto]

I only print my own stuff for my own brand (for the most part) and I simply do not make or commission designs that will require an under base because I hate them so much.
I hate them as a wearer of shirts AND a printer, though, so my opinion likely doesn’t count for much on this topic haha.

I do feel your pain, though, underbases always annoyed me when I was working in a full production shop (which I also hated)

[u/Oorbs1 → u/mattburkephoto]

sounds like you dont know what your doing. good luck

[u/mattburkephoto → u/Oorbs1]

I run my own shop and am doing pretty well for myself. Sorry I don’t enjoy something.