Best white ink. PERIOD

A guy who used to work for me showed it to me. IMO it lays more ink down, I can print with one stroke. Second screen fills and smooths what the first missed and can run faster and cooler. Call me cheap but if I dont need to run the flash I dont.

Hmm I should try that. Thanks for sharing

Hey Alan, if the new ink has a like green apple, sour apple candyish smell, it's definitely made by International Coatings. Someone told me that CCI is private labeling plasitsols for quite a few supply companies. I'm interested in trying it out. If Jeff has had great success with it for 7 years, trying a gallon won't hurt, especially at that price. Being in Miami, I'll be able to get it next day by ground too.

Ok, I just printed it on the auto as a highlight white through a 140, 24psi, 10"/sec and it performed nicely. It's long bodied, optically bright and it won't climb the squeegee at all. We did a 19" print with the winged floodbar and I didn't have to put more than a half quart in the screen for 300 pieces. It isn't one of those inks that moves to the sides of the screen as soon as you start printing. Now the opacity was slightly better than our normal white so I am impressed with it so far. Tomorrow we will test it as an underbase and see how it flashes. If it passes the flash test, I will continue to put it through the ringer and buy another couple gallons so I can test it for the long haul. Too many times you'll test out a product and fall in love with it the first day and then after about 2 weeks, the honeymoon is over and you realize it's not all that great. I am going to post my opinion over at TSB as well and I also have a review of a new dual cure emulsion over there if anyone is interested.

It doesn't resemble the IC white that I can tell. If anything it is a lot like One Stroke Hybrid with much better opacity. I think it has a very minute amount of puff, but very little. Just noticed it because our other gamer has zero puff additive.

What's the difference between this and just doing 2 stokes on one head?

Can any one here compare it to wilfex extreme white?

I used a gallon of the extreme a few months back and it was above average. It didn't knock my socks off but it did everything I wanted it to but it couldn't break into the rotation. If the Miami white flashes fast then I'd put it ahead of the extreme. I have been using the sprint white the last few gallons and like it a lot, but we go through so much white ink that if we can get great performance for almost half the price then I have to make that move.

So my question is this an ink that is supposed to be applicable for 50/50's or strictly a 100% cotton ink? If the prior, how does it stack up against Street Fighter LB (which is what we use because of the price and gives us good results) and QCM 159 (which I've never used)? If it's just for 100% cotton, ignore the 2nd question.

Very interested in the flashing times as well for it -- SF, again, is quite good in this regard.

Is there a big difference in printability between a 100% cotton white and a 50/50 white? I have never used a 100% cotton white before. I print quite a bit of 100% cotton and wondering if I'm fighting something I shouldn't have to by using a 50/50 white.

Gerry,

The only 100% cotton white ink I've used is Union's Bright Cotton White, and we use quite a bit of it (runs $59.32/gallon after tax for me). It's short bodied out of the bucket in comparison to the 50/50's I've used (SF, Union's Diamond White, and Rutland's Maximum Plus) - very creamy and shears very easily - takes less pressure initially and I can use more speed from the very get go for us for it to clear the screen easily (after 20-50 shirts, I find the 50/50 inks become similar in ease of shearing). My take is that it lies down flatter than the 50/50 inks (but that may be obvious/a given to most of you guys). I'd highly recommend it if you want to give it a go on some 100% tees - it cleared the screens well with us on our Freedom without using the s-mesh or retensionables, which I believe is your setup -- so if you find yourself fighting white inks sometimes and you're printing a lot of 100%, I'd give it a go. It has a unique smell to it as well. It's a maxopake ink, but I don't find it has the opacity of Union's typical maxopake line. Any ink experts can chime in on that if they want.

Thanks Brian for the input. I think I will give it a shot. I do find the 50/50 to print better and better as the run progresses so if 100% will print right from the get go that will be awesome.

Like Brian said, the low bleed whites tend to be thicker and harder to work with. The union bright cotton white is very creamy and easy to shear, which is what you need with that V squeegee. A good low bleed that's easier/creamier to try would be qcm 158. The 159 is very short bodied and doesn't shear as easy as the 158.

And all those issues I was having yesterday Alan... were with Union Cotton White. LOL Maybe I'm just hopeless. ;)

We use Wilflex. Love it.

You won't be hopeless for too much longer Gilly, you'll figure it out soon enough.

Basicly same as 2 strokes but it appears to lay more ink down and fill in better. The second gets what the first misses.

I can lay a better print down with a slower print speed. Instead of waiting for the print head to slowly cycle twice we can print one cycle on two heads faster. On a large print and order this can be the diffrance between 400 pph and 650.

I should note we only do this on long runs that do not require an eye popping white. You will not get the same eye popping white as PFP.

We just tried the Smooth White ink and I can tell you that it is by far the best white ink we have ever used!
We will definitely be using it.
Give Kevin a call or email and get some.

TSB has several try Sonnys ink, I didn't hear any good reviews though so I steered clear.

I found the washability of the QCM 158 much better and even crack tests much better than the cotton whites. I used a bit of cotton white as it was cheaper, but I am sure it takes more heat to cure and as it cracked we slowed our belt and flash times down a bit. I get long life off the 158 and see shirts from seven or eight years ago, but I had seen one we ran on cotton three years ago and I'd be ashamed to admit printing it as it had cracked terribly.

The Chinese we use run their autos with two white screens, first down is an opaque white wi about 5% Lycra added which incidentally gives a flatter surface for any cmyk jobs, then they run the second white screen with a super bright white highlight that isn't opaque to run by itself, so two whites, and if you've got the room on the machine up their it's the way to go with their white ink. Seen that in a few shops up there.

Again, I can't thank everyone enough for supporting our products. We keep a large inventory of product on hand at all times. Please feel free to contact me anytime.

Kevin Fleury
Miami Screen Print Supply
5608 NW 161St Miami Gardens Fl, 33014
Phone: (305) 622-7532
kevin@miamiscreenprint.com

I would like to thank everyone for their support.
FYI: The white is used on 100% & 50/50 blends. If anyone has any questions or would like a sample please contact me.

Kevin Fleury
Miami Screen Print Supply
5608 NW 161St Miami Gardens Fl, 33014
Phone: (305) 622-7532
kevin@miamiscreenprint.com

Going to give you a call soon and try this out, anything has to be better than What we are paying and not even getting good results with.

Ok, the Smooth white passed the flash test and the "Carlos" test. If my guy says he likes it, then it is good. He doesn't give much his seal of approval and so far he says we need to buy more.

We were flashing a fairly large print through a 135/48, thick stencil at 2 seconds which is a good 3 seconds faster than some other whites I've tried recently. I'm still waiting to set up a few jobs myself and see how it works on my own but I trust my guy enough to feel confident giving it thumbs up. I'll continue to keep all informed good or bad and I think I'm going to try a gallon of the Superior next week.

Hello,

Sorry for the misunderstanding the ink is not International Coatings, CCI or "any other" switched label ink. It is my own private label I have been selling for more than 20 years in South Florida. The pic on my web site was a mistake & until I can have that fixed I have taken my site down.
I do want to thank everyone again for all the great comments about my ink!

Kevin Fleury
Miami Screen Print Supply
5608 NW 161St Miami Gardens Fl, 33014
Phone: (305) 622-7532
kevin@miamiscreenprint.com

Kevin,

PM and email sent...
We still need a catalog or downloadable file for prices please.

The smooth white is the BEST!

Seriously it's great ink and that cheap for 5 gallons?
Is that high opaque?

What a great price!!!

Crap, down under I pay about USD$450 for QCM158 which I think is the best locally stocked. I can buy plastisol out of china at about $6 a kg, but the white isn't that fantastic and I don't use enough these days to justify indenting when cash-flow is tight.

I bought a few gallons last week so it should be here within a day or two and I'll give my review on it sometime next week.

Alan, please let me know how it does vs Wilflex Quick white, the price on Wilflex has been creeping up. Poly white went from $76 a gallon to $109 a gall, and if I'm not mistaken, Quick white went from $235 for a 5 gallon up to $300. What is Miami's ink actually called? Does it have bleed resist for difficult cottons or 80/20 50/50 blends?

Thanks guys

Mike

We use Triangle brand Phoenix White from Pocono Screen supply and have had no problems with it, prints really nice.
But, at $344 for 5 gallons, the Miami brand is starting to sound all that much better!

Miami has the "Smooth" and then "Superior". The superior is supposed to be thicker and slightly more opaque than the smooth. We are one of those shops that doesn't mind a really thick ink because we can manipulate the ink with additives to get it where we want, and with a thinner ink, you can't add opacity very easily.

I'll be able to tell right away if it's opacity is going to be good or not and what usually ends up being a deal breaker for a white ink lately has been flash time and "body". I've sampled some really good white inks only to have them take forever to flash, or be a monster on longer runs when the ink climbs up the squeegee carriage.

I'm not the worlds foremost expert on white inks but I'll give a subjective review of how the ink works in our shop.

I ordered a 5g bucket of the Superior today. I can't wait to try it. When you think about it though, it seems kinda sad to be excited about new ink.

I'll order a gallon and give it a try, compairing to Wilflex's Epic Quick White. So far that has been our favorite, but like I said, Wilflex's prices have gone up with the Epic series. Does anyone know if this Smooth White is phthalate free, lead free, pvc free, mercury free, ect. that's a deal breaker for us.

I really liked the wilflex quick and sprint, but if I can find an ink that performs as well for a lot less then it's a no brainer.

right there with ya Alan!!

If you go back to my last post the "national brand" I mentioned was the quick white. We normally run the quick and bright tiger but with the prices and recent email stating prices were going up again its a no brainer for us. Nice print for half the price.

We have tried so many whites, and what I always know that we can stand by with Wilflex is longevity. I can pull out a 5 year old print that the white is a nice as the first day it was printed with wilflex. International coatings whites, print nice, but a year down the line they look like crap on the shirt. Believe it or not, that means a lot to people in our area. The repeat customers come back, or stay away from printers depending on how their print actually lasts. As printers we look at cost and they way inks print, but we can't forget about how ink will hold up down the line. I have a shirt printed with bright tiger from 2003 I think, the shirt is falling apart and the ink looks new. I have a shirt with International coatings white, that the shirt looks nice and the ink seems to be a magnet for anything that rubs on it. Another shirt printed with QCM Glacier white, same thing, prints nice and all, but the ink just didn't hold up like the Wilflex. How long has this stuff been out? Anyone have some wear calculations =)

Wilflex pricing has gone out of control for whites my god. Not only that they have so many damn whites to choose from it is killing me, for a long time I used their xtreme white but the last four or so gallons seem to have crappy opacity and unfortunately almost everything we print is blends. I need to find a better 50/50 white ink that has decent opacity price is a concern but not the priority at all, quality first.

Thanks Jeff, that makes a huuuuge difference, knowing you've been using 7 years now. Thanks for the testimony! I kinda freaked out last month when I noticed how much my ink prices had gone up. I hadn't really paid attention because there hadn't been much of an increase over time, then when I saw poly white jumping up $35 bucks a gallon in pricing I about passed out. I usually mix alot of underbases using the poly white since it's so good at bleed blocking for camo shirts, poly shirts, bags ect. but man, that was a hike! I am interested to try your blue/white mix for underbasing. Does that work just on 50/50's or are you using it on 100% poly shirts too, like underarmor, ect.

Thanks for the info

Mike

So who makes the Smooth White? If you look on the Miami screen supply website, they seem to be selling INternational Coatings. My guess is its a private label with international coatings product inside. Anyone know? I might try it.

"uses" must be relative.

To clarify, I didn't really want to correct Sonny but I guess this topic is getting more run that I thought. I recommended the Xenon white for use in dye migration situations due to it's bleed blocking abilities. We don't currently use the Xenon because of it's long flash times but it's a great white ink for 50/50's and probably 100% poly garments as well. I tried to get the ink to fail with a red 50/50 jerzees tee but it kept dye migration at bay very well. I may revisit the ink at some point if they can decrease the gel temp. It's body was pretty short and liked to climb the squeegee but I've got a fix for that.

Good to know Kevin, I saw that you had called for me this morning, thanks for reaching out, that's awesome!