How to get the most use in your screen printing and heat transferring with your Stampinator
Learn about the next Stampinator Classes Next Year
On November 16th and 17th, 2023, we held our inaugural Stampinator Class at Slant Engineering outside of Baltimore Maryland. We had 22 students join us for this class from all over the country driving and flying in to the easily accessed Slant HQ which is located about 30 minutes out of BWI International Airport and surrounded by almost a dozen walkable hotels. Surprisingly almost 2/3rd of the class had Stampinators, however out of those who have a Stampinator, almost half were not using it on a daily basis and almost all where not using it to its full potential which made it a perfect start to the class.
Day 1
After introductions and hearing Jeff's story of his experience in screen printing and how he invented this amazing tool, we split into groups and started the first session of class. The first group stayed with Jeff and learned the ins and outs of artwork separation and building a proper underbase for stamping. Most end up using too much ink or stroke with their underbase separations, Jeff showed how to limit ink usage and maximize the performance of the Stampinator. The next group headed out to the ROQ Eco with Zach and Ryan who first went over the different accessories needed for the Stampinator including teflon management, green rubber, Kraft Paper, rubber platen toppers for transfers, and the tools needed to work on the Stampinator. Next we jumped on press and printed carded open-end garments showing how to adjust the Stampinator with and without the green rubber. First we showed using the Stampinator as a pre-press and what a big difference even pre-pressing a garment can make. For those who are having a hard time dialing in a Stampinator because of the garment or ink, simply pre-pressing any garment will improve the print by 20-25%. Next we dialed in using the Stampinator as the flash dryer and how to adjust times up and down by 5 degree or 1 second increments depending if the Stampinator was leaving wet ink (raising the temp) or dry ink (lowering the temp). This was a huge revelation for the class because just like a flash dryer, you cannot set the Stamp at once setting and forget it, every garment, job and ink have different parameters that need to be adjusted for. Learning how to do that was probably the most valuable part of the class and gave confidence to those who were not using their Stampinator to it's full effect.
After that we broke for lunch and fresh Sandwiches along with the community building. The afternoon hosted two print projects. The first on the ROQ YOU which works differently than the ECO and more like M&R, Anatol and Workhorse Screen Printing Presses. Jeff showed how to print a name and then heat transfer a number in the same rotation on press. The first day wrapped up with the infamous Stampinator simulated process print on Allmade Apparel which everyone loved and is seen in this picture:
After we broke down and took a quick hotel break, we all came back for tacos and Thursday Night Football (both American and soccer!) We had a great time having a few drinks, great food, and talking screen printing!
Day 2
On Friday we started out with a Q&A session from the day before and then jumped out to the press for more print jobs. The first section was dialing in Hoodies which are NOT easy to print. We are grateful for the support of Lane 7 who provided an awesome hoody to print and experiment on with the Can Of Corn / Stampinator Collaboration Design. For this design we showed using thin thread and standard mesh through both 230 range and 150 range. The 150 range printed much better and the best results obtained with Pre Pressing and Flash Stamping in one rotation using two Stampinators in the rotation which both provided an amazing print surface and an awesome print. With the Nortech 150 Thin Thread Frames we were able to cut down to 1 print stroke top and bottom and got amazing results.
The final prints of the day were on the YOU and showing high end transfers using our partners at Supa Color. We set the press up to pre-heat the garments, then pressed for around 7 seconds, then hot peel. For better adhesion we can also post-press the transfer with the use of a second Stampinator. The transfers got up to over 600 an hour, simply AMAZING!
The class wrapped up and everyone went home with the confidence and knowledge to maximize their use of their Stampinator and really make their prints better!
Thank you to everyone who came to the class! Check out the next Stampinator class on February 8th and 9th in Baltimore and stay tuned for more classes.