Stopping to clean lint from your screens sucks

Have you ever had to print hundreds or even thousands of 100% cotton white shirts for a marathon or charity run, only to stop over and over to clean lint out of your screens? I love those long runs where I could find my rhythm and just zone out for a few hours. But stopping every ten shirts to clean lint from screens ruins the whole experience—and it eats into profit with wasted time.

I had a contractor who specialized in these jobs: marathons, Turkey Trots, Fun Runs. His biggest event was ten thousand shirts, front and back. Pallets of blanks would show up and my team and I would be fired up to lock in, throw on some music, and get into the print zone. But one year, after stopping three times in the first twenty minutes, I finally paused and thought, there’s got to be a better way.

Here’s what I came up with—plus a couple of extra applications:

• Choose a tight screen.

• Expose it with no art and tape the gutters heavily.

• Cover the print face side of the screen with a big sheet of pallet tape.

• Mist the pallet tape with spray adhesive.

• Let it sit for a few seconds, then blot the adhesive with a rag.

• Place the screen in Head 1.

• Add any plastisol (we used gel clear since we had plenty).

• Load a 70 or 80 durometer squeegee—dull is better than sharp, so we used an old one.

• Set off-contact about two clicks above zero.

• Run at 45 PSI, speed 6/6, single stroke.

Now, before your first screen in the print order, you’ve got a “lint screen.” Do a couple of test prints and make sure it picks up the lint and not the garment. When adhesion starts to fade, mist, blot, and keep going. Replace the pallet tape only after it builds up too much lint—this actually takes quite a while.

Beyond Lint: The Smash Screen

One day, we were printing light pink tri-blend women’s tanks. The fibers kept poking through the underbase and nothing I tried worked. So I turned the lint screen into what we called a “Smash Screen” (others call it a smoothing screen, or in Latin America, La Plancha).

• Peel off the pallet paper.

• Move the screen to the head right after the first flash.

• Station 1 = white underbase, Station 2 = flash, Station 3 = Smash screen, then top colors.

• Crank pressure to 80 PSI and speed to 4/5.

The idea is simple: while the underbase is still warm and soft from flashing, hit it with the smash screen to press the fibers back into the ink.

One More Trick

Another use: put the smash screen in Head 1 to smooth fibers or compress hoodies before the first print.

The Takeaway

This is a free tool you can build from stuff you already have around the shop—no need for a roller squeegee, Hot Head, or Stampinator. Sure, those tools do a better job because of the heat they produce, but maybe you don’t have the budget yet. Back when I came up with this, those tools didn’t even exist.

Honestly, I thought I’d invented the lint/smash screen. I’m serious—we used to hide it whenever a vendor rep or contractor walked into the shop so they wouldn’t see it in action.

So I propose we give it a name: The “McGee Screen.” Spread it like wildfire.

I’m kidding, call it whatever you like.