Instructions to pretreat a substrate[1] in preparation for garment printing.
A membership or day pass is required to access Digital Textiles. The following Shop Safety Class is required to access the direct to garment printer, dye sublimation printer, and the Mister T-1 pretreat machine.
You can make machine reservations in the following ways:
Personal Protective Equipment (PPE):
• Sturdy, close-toed shoes must be worn at all times in all shops.
• Latex gloves should be worn when handling pretreat liquid.
For more information on shop safety visit Digital Textiles under "Safety."
Always allot additional time for the substrate to dry completely before printing.
Make sure your substrates are clean, de-wrinkled, and ready to be printed on.
Power on the direct to garment printer and allow it to start up while you continue the pretreat process.
Turn on the pretreat machine.
Make sure your hands are warm and you cover the whole button. If the machine still doesn’t turn on, check the switch on the back of the machine. (this power button should remain on).
When you first use the machine, the filters connected to the tubes should be in distilled water.
This will likely be valve number 2.
If you pull the filter out of the bottle before you press the “clean” button, the excess water will empty out of the tube onto the floor and make a mess.
You’ll see the white pretreat solution travel up the tube and start to spray into the machine. Give it one second to completely replace the water.
Stop the clean cycle.
Open the drawer of the pretreat machine and wipe off any excess liquid on the platen.
You may also heat press your fabric prior to pretreating in order to flatten the fibers. Avoid using a lint roller after the heat press.
Remember to start with a test to make sure the machine is spraying properly.
Make sure where you are pretreating is where you want your print to be located. Keep track of how far down the collar you are pretreating. This will impact your print.
Tuck any extra fabric.
Close the drawer.
Check your settings.
How much pretreat do you want on your garment and where? Adjust you numbers accordingly.
Watch it spray to make sure the machine is spraying properly.
Wait a second for the chamber to air out.
Open the drawer and examine the spray. Check for streaking, coverage, etc. The pretreat will be wet.
(Recomended) Take a paint brush and brush the pretreat solution onto the shirt.
This is helpful when you are using lower quality shirts or textured fabrics. It helps spread the pretreat solution into your substrate for a more consistent coverage.
Your substrate must be completely dry before printing. You can let it dry naturally by folding it up and putting it away for at least a week.
If you plan to print right away you’ll want to heat press the pretreated substrate to dry it. Make sure the heat press is preheated and ready to press.
You have successfully pretreated your substrate!