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mr300s

Any Ideas on what I was doing wrong

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I had some transfers Ford cobra small logo on the front full 14" logo full back.  Shirts are gilden 6.1 oz black tee shirt.  I added a little to what they said pressure on 6 (med) 12 seconds @ 380 degree as stated on the package.  When it popped up (auto open) and I did the hot peel quite a bit of the white stayed on the paper.  Also I could see where some of the transfer did not appear to be pressed all the way.  I repressed and it helped a little but I was not happy with the shirt.  One thing I noticed was I think I had the transfer to high on the back and I think some of it may have been hitting the seam of the collar on the other side.  Not sure if this would cause that.

Any ideas.  I looked at the press as best I could UPS damaged it in shipment I took pliers and straightened the cover.  It looks like it is level and sealing pretty good.  I did quite a few other shirts last week and did OK.  I am also having good luck with the siser easy weed, but this shirt came out terrible twice.....

Do transfer get old and go bad??

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Sounds like the seam/collar is most likely the problem.  If you can't get all the seams off the platen, try raising the printing area up with a piece of neoprene (mousepads work, but may be too small).  An old wetsuit that you can cut up works good too.

Other than that, did you lock the press down and preheat the lower platen?  Did you pre-press the shirt?  You might try bumping the temp up 5-10 degrees from the manufacturers spec too.

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Sounds like the seam/collar is most likely the problem.  If you can't get all the seams off the platen, try raising the printing area up with a piece of neoprene (mousepads work, but may be too small).  An old wetsuit that you can cut up works good too.

Other than that, did you lock the press down and preheat the lower platen?  Did you pre-press the shirt?  You might try bumping the temp up 5-10 degrees from the manufacturers spec too.

thanks for the tips,  is it better to go a little higher than not high enough?  And yes I preheat the shirts and the design was to big for a mouse pad and I thought  it was the collar but surprised it would effect it that much but afterwords I thought about it.  I had done another one and had the transfer lower and the collar didn't hit and it came out good so I guess that was probably the problem since you said that.  Have a Merry Christmas and thanks again for the input....

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Sounds like the seam/collar is most likely the problem.  If you can't get all the seams off the platen, try raising the printing area up with a piece of neoprene (mousepads work, but may be too small).  An old wetsuit that you can cut up works good too.

Other than that, did you lock the press down and preheat the lower platen?  Did you pre-press the shirt?  You might try bumping the temp up 5-10 degrees from the manufacturers spec too.

thanks for the tips,   is it better to go a little higher than not high enough?  And yes I preheat the shirts and the design was to big for a mouse pad and I thought  it was the collar but surprised it would effect it that much but afterwords I thought about it.  I had done another one and had the transfer lower and the collar didn't hit and it came out good so I guess that was probably the problem since you said that.  Have a Merry Christmas and thanks again for the input....

IMO, higher pressure is better than too low, especially on plastisol transfers.  However, if you get it too high, you can really push the ink into the shirt, making it have a very stiff hand. 

Try preheating the lower platen too if you aren't already.  Many plastisol transfer makers recommend locking the press down for 2 consecutive press durations before starting to press shirts.  A cold pad can suck the heat right of the shirt and result in the first few transfers sucking.

I did a rush order (4 hours to cut numbers/names, weed, press) of 35 mesh football jerseys a few months ago, some were kids XS that were barely bigger than the platen and had a seam across the middle of the shirt that couldn't be avoided.  I didn't have mouse pads at the time, so I just cranked the pressure way up thinking it would work.  I ended up redoing several of them a few days later....

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So far on the shirts I have done I made sure the press was good and hot. I bought a infrared thermometer on EBay for $15 to check my temps and made sure all 4 corners and the center were within a few degree's of the recommended temp and pressed for about 10 seconds. All of mine have peeled clean so far.

The thermometer is a big help to make sure your press is getting up to temp all over.

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The Tee Pad It! can really help to make sure you are getting good pressure where you need it.  The pressure is not as necessary with vinyl as it is with transfers.

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The Tee Pad It! can really help to make sure you are getting good pressure where you need it.  The pressure is not as necessary with vinyl as it is with transfers.

Very good point I definitely saw that

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