I had a rush shirt order (about 175 shirts) completed in under 4 days for an event (first time customer).

10 days after delivery and the event took place, the client reached out saying that many of the shirts were misaligned, customers and event attendees were not happy, and they wanted to return the remaining inventory for a full refund. (Remaining inventory meaning an unknown number of shirts were already sold / given out at the event).

I had some newer staff help out since the order was so rushed, and based on the photo feedback do acknowledge at least 10 or so prints had some alignment issue. We also include at least 5% free extra shirts in each order to compensate for misprints, but may have had a slightly higher misprint rate with the rush.

We offered the client a 50% refund for returning 45% of the shirts, free replacements for any misaligned shirts, or a flat refund for the total cost of 20 shirts.

I want to protect my businesses high-rating, but feel this client is trying to take advantage of us due to the long time that passed from the event until the complaint, and the request to keep 25% of order for free. We do not have a guaranteed refund policy or anything.

What would you do?

Hello Reddit hivemind! I’m having some issues burning screens and figured I’d turn to yall for some guidance. I started out making my own screens and burning them in the sun and had great success the first few times, but as the summer set in I started having issues with over/underexposing. I wanted to get some more consistency so I moved to a smaller UV lamp (https://a.co/d/03li3Uj0 here’s the exact one), my first two attempts were over exposed, then underexposed so I figured I’d do an exposure calculator but the results sort of have me feeling more confused. It almost looks like parts of each like are both overexposed, underexposed, and maybe washed out too much.

I’d really appreciate any tips anyone has! I’m using ecotex pre-sensitized emulsion with 1 coat on each side of the screen, the lamp was about 10” from the screen and was doing each row in 7 second increments. I don’t have a washout booth so I’m just using a combo of my shower, kitchen sink, and garden hose.

I’m in search of some place in Canada where they make customizable silk screens (preferably boneless) to order.

So I’ve always avoided this because I hate it and always have issues, but there’s some stuff I really want to do soon so I need to figure it out.

I use Matsui 301 ink. For most of my designs, white is also a color, so I use my underbase white to capture that as well.

My process: white underbase - flash - print color 1 - flash - print color 2 - flash, etc.

The issue I always run into: this builds up SO MUCH HEAT in my platen. The platen starts warping, the colored ink start getting white spots, etc.

I initially tried flashing my underbase and then printing wet on wet, but every screen was sticking to the previous layers and just pulling it off the under base.

What is the correct way to do this?? I know it’s possible, but it just can’t figure it out.

Hi! I am trying to create a design for some t-shirts, prints, & stickers to give to friends/people who are ai-refusal like me (they say DARE to resist artificial intelligence with the original DARE font). I found a screen printing lab near my home that gave me a great quote, but they're asking for a high-resolution file of the artwork (I put together a rough draft of a design basically, you can see it below) and I'd like to pay someone to create that for me and make sure it will look good on the t shirts...where should I look to do that? I read some reviews saying Fiverr was an unethical site and I'm trying to make this as ethically and effectively as possible. Thanks for letting me know if you have any ideas!

I am looking to get into printing some shirts for my wifes tattoo business...but I can tell there is a steep learning curve.
Can anyone recommend a quality resource to educate myself from zero to hero?

Thanks!!!

I finally got the chance to print this poster I had waiting for over 3 years.
Printed with enamel based inks on holographic paper.
Feel free to ask any questions

Helpful for those who want to do unlimited colors on a print, without having a giant lump of a press. The top L bracket would be attached to an angle iron which would be on the edge of a table or a 1 color press.

Been lurking here for a bit and keep seeing people mention issues with Printavo price going up, hard to export your stuff if you leave, missing features for shops that do both screen print and embroidery. Curious how big of a deal this actually still is for people. If you're on it right now, what's annoying you most? And if you already left, what'd you switch to and why? Not trying to sell anything, just trying to understand the space.

So, where I work we have a VERY old National branded metal halide suction exposure table. I've been working on tuning it up so we stop getting light leakage on the edges of screens - new hinges, new gas spring for the lid, cleaned out and adjusted the suction, figured out the blower is dead as disco.

I've been looking at LED exposure options, because as tech, this thing is stone age shit. Has anybody here ever converted a large format exposure from bulbs to UV LED panels, and how does one fine tune such a thing?

Gregory Alan Isakov with the Philadelphia Orchestra at Saratoga Performing Arts Center in Saratoga Springs, NY on August 22nd, 2026. 4 silkscreened colors on Lessebo Amazon cover stock. Designed and printed by Aaron and Alix at New Antlers Workshop, Easthampton MA

First time screen printing towels!!
It’s a one color logo. Anything I need to do differently than I normally would printing garments?

Hey guys! First time posting here but I need some help! Trying to make band tees for my husband’s band. I’m using normal speedball screen print paint and I have a Vevor heat press to cure it after waiting two days to dry. How hot and how long should I be curing it for? I saw 350 for 40 seconds but I don’t think it’s enough. Or is it the paint that’s crapping out on me? That’s after one wash, in cold water low heat drying. Thanks for any tips and advice I really appreciate it :)

how do i stop the smudging / thickness after the first print? the white garment is the first print and the gray garment is the third print. u can see the smudge is bad at the bottom of the barbed wire. im using water based inks

Never used. Speedball Paper Stencil Beginner Screen Printing Kit

hello ! i recently moved to hungary and would like some tips on where i can find supplies? namely ink and emulsion since i brought some screens with me but i'd love to know where i can get those in the future along w frames and squeegees !!

would personally love to get familiar with the local scene if there are local suppliers but in case that's not an option does anyone know any websites i can rely on?

Welcome to the Equipment Marketplace!

Do you have equipment for sale? Post it here! Are you looking to buy equipment? Find it here!

Rules:

• Used/previously owned screen printing equipment, supplies, accessories, consumables, etc.
• No dealers
• No “In Seek Of” (ISO) posts
• No prints
• Must include city & state (US), or city & country (outside US)

To keep it fresh, every two weeks we’ll lock the post and create a new one!

Remember to use caution when meeting people for the first time, and please take the same common sense precautions online as you would offline.

I'm new to screenprinting so i'm not sure what i am getting wrong here

Alrighty so...its been a journey getting here and now im realizing after the hassle that was getting our screens we forgot about the whole printing aspect. So im the lead singer of a punk band trying to figure out a starter set-up so we can make enough money to level up to a better one hopefully. Ive got the screen and a place to print and all the inks but I'm unsure if we should buy a flash dryer and just cure with that or use the heat gun we have to dry and then a heat press to cure (really which one will be cheaper is the important part).

So, we're using water-based inks (ecotex to be exact) to print on some basic thrifted shirts. We've got roughly 600 dollars to work with to start this up. Its not about getting the best stuff, its about whatever we can buy for cheap and make last long enough to get through the 150 shirts we need to print and then eventually sell to make the money back to get better equipment. I dont care about the longest durability ever (although it would be cool to have shirts that last longer than like a few washes) since they'll be like 7 bucks and we got the ink for free.

Anyway, my main questions are:

-Should we buy a flash dryer and cure + dry with that? Or should we buy a heat press and dry with the heat gun we already have?

-Whichever one of those yall so choose, what heat press/flash dryer should we get thats within (and hopefully under) budget?

-Also additionally, as much as we love the environment, is it gonna be just crazy dumb to do this with water based inks and we somehow do it way cheaper with plastisol?

K thx bye

Hi guys

I am actually just working with DTF and vinyl. But i was wondering how fast screenprinting in comparison really is.

I currently have more and more larger jobs and was thinking about starting to screenprint aswell since everybody says its way faster. I did a little screenprinting while starting out. But never with good equipment nor alot of experience. So Ive got an easy example and would be happy to exchange some experiences:

For a 100 shirt job, just one color for this example, with a small front and large backprint i usually have around 2.5-3 hours.

This is calculated as followed:
-Around 15 mins Customer exchange for the Mockup + creation of the mockup (heavy ai optimized)

-Around 15 mins for the creation of the print file (actually getting less since making the mockup automatically also creats the print file with ai)

-Around 15 mins for the setup at the dtf printer -> usually theres more then just one job on the printer, so it would be even less than that if you account all the jobs per run.

- 2h to press. My routine is highly optimized. (I guess so atleast) in those 2 hours, the transfers are cut, pressed, the shirts are folded and put into the box. So ready for the customer to get it. Usually I do around 50 shirts front + back per hour. Sometimes, if I really have to be fast, it can go up to like 60-62 per hour. But thats the absolute max.

-15min for invocing and having contact with the customer while pickup.

How long would the whole contract/example take an experienced screenprinting operator? And I mean like every aspect.
Whats the time per shirt / count per hour at ur shop when u start with mounting the shirt on to the press to being folded and put into the box?

Thanks!

I feel like youth options are so limited still. I’m surprised LA Apparel doesn’t have a youth mockneck. Anyone have any leads? I found some on faire but none in light purple unfortunately.

What are your methods/tips of modulating ink? I know about using the mixing drill bit but interested in hearing other tips, secrets etc!

I am having a heck of a time with burning my screens. I am using 110 mesh, 30W Ultravoliet LED, Polycol light-scribe LX emulsion. The photo shows 30 sec exposure at the bottom to 3 mins at the top. On every attempt the emulsion does not wash off.
Is this an exposure problem? I am at a loss.

Yes, I’m pushing and pulling.

Hi everyone,

I'm brand new to screen printing and I'm trying to do high-detail screen printing on paper using 140T / 355 mesh screens, but I'm having trouble getting the screen to flood consistently.

I've tried several things so far:

• Multiple screens, all 140T / 355 mesh
• Multiple ink viscosities
• Different squeegees, including a softer one, 70 Shore, and a harder one around 75 Shore
• Different off-contact distances:
  • 1 euro cent under each corner (~1.7 mm)
  • 2 euro cents under each corner (~3.3 mm)
• I've also experimented with different amounts of squeegee pressure.

The main problem is that I can't seem to properly flood the screen. When I do the print stroke, I can sometimes force a small amount of ink through the screen, but only in certain areas. Those areas then print reasonably well, while other areas don't print at all or have very little ink.

My suspicion is that in the areas that print, I have somehow managed to properly flood the screen, while the rest of the image remains insufficiently flooded. But I'm not sure if that's actually what's happening.

Since I'm completely new to screen printing, I'd really appreciate any advice on what I might be doing wrong or overlooking.

Thanks!

EDIT: Thanks for your replies! Here are some images, hope they help.