Elliott

1 hour ago, johnson4 said:

I intend on answering all your questions, if I miss one let me know. 
 

1. I always double press. For me, it seems to press it further into the fabric and makes it softer, I don’t know about durability without the 2nd press, I always do it and not a single issue. 
 

2. I have never pre pressed a shirt- and I as well remain in 60+ humidity with fluctuations in temperature. 
 

3. People recommend letting the print dry first. It will turn from a wet look to a matte look when it’s ready for powder. I run auto machines most of the time, and they always dry this much before reaching the powder- if they don’t I add a heat strip so they do. The few times I hand did them, yes them being wet vs “ matte” looking made a huge difference in quality. 
 

4. I press at 290 F for 15 seconds, twice. I notice hotter degrades the print.
 

5. your powder and film will absorb moisture. More importantly, your film. If you have powder sticking anywhere it shouldn’t without tapping it off the film, they are holding moisture. Wouldn’t cause this though. 
 

6. I as well use heavy pressure. 
 

My opinion-

cured/powdered improperly. 
 

do you have photos of your print before powdering, after powdering before curing, and after curing both front and back? 
 

 

Thank you so much for getting back to me! Its 2am and I've just got back from my unit, I print 30 tees all with different variables and they are all now in the wash to see what happens, and I'm afraid I don't have any photos but I will say the do look 'Perfect' when finished, their results have pushed me from heavily using DTG to DTF now, but this email I got tonight from a customer really stressed me out because I've sent off 1000+ tees since starting DTF last Tuesday and I am praying this is a fluke!

(I am thankful you don't believe it is pre pressing because I know I have only pre pressed about 4 tee shirts only by accident thinking I had put the DTF sheet on, probably would of just started crying if you said it was that)

Can I ask how long you wait after printing, to get that matte look, I know you probably don't time it but in a general range (30 seconds? 2 minutes? 15 minutes?)

Also final question, sorry if I am bothering you, but my business partner doesn't want to get a DTF printer because he loves Brother and we have a good relationship with the Brother company, so we are using their GTX - He claims DTF only printers and their ink are subpar to the GTX brother Ink and therefore will have less washability, do you find this to be accurate or is he just uninformed? I might purchase a couple of transfers off someone with a DTF printer next week to see their washability, but just thought I'd ask you because you seem to know your stuff!

Only just started using DTF films after moving away from DTG, hopefully this is the first and only bad print and I don't wake up tomorrow to a couple hundred angry customers. 

For background information:

I'm fairly certain I only pressed it once (i am now pressing twice, only because I had read about pressing twice, once before peel and once after) but can't quite remember as it was last week

I also may of forgotten to pre press the shirt, I mean as I'm writing this I feel like I did lots of things wrong!

I'm using a brother GTX pro, using the DTF software supplied by Brother, the print cures after applying glue for 6 minutes at 160 celcius. I apply the glue immediately after printing, should I perhaps leave the print to dry a bit in the air? there is conflicting information on this point so I'm not sure what advice to follow! 

I press at 160 celcius for 15 seconds, quite high pressure, I'm quite strong (not being vain, just extra information) and it is tough to close the press.

Is this to much ink? Not pressed enough? Not cured properly? Sorry if this is a basic query, but I am new to this but there isn't much information on DTF out there!

Also bonus question, I'm in the UK - I believe my sheets are picking up extra glue around the outsides of the print due to either humidity or static (the unit I work in gets very cold). Should I point a heater at my sheets for a while, or stick them under the heat press (hovering not closed obviously) to dry them out? Or does anyone have any other tips for removing the glue around the outskirts of the print!

Thank you in advance for any responses!