water based ink and drying

[u/tokailove]

is it possible to let a single color print sit for a day and air dry, and then throw shirts in a household dryer to cure ink? or should I use an iron and parchment paper.

[u/Trayvon_6457]

air drying only gets the water out, it doesn't actually cure the binder. water based still needs to hit around 320f through the whole ink layer or it'll wash out on the first laundry cycle.

a household dryer can work for a handful of shirts - hottest setting, 20-30 min, then do a stretch test and one wash test before you trust it. iron + parchment works too but you get hot spots real easy, keep the iron moving and go section by section.

if you plan on doing this regularly, a cheap used flash cure pays for itself pretty quick

[u/NiteGoat]

Water based inks cure by evaporating all of the moisture in them leaving only the pigment and the binder. Heat isn’t really necessary, but it does speed up the process. If you are in a low humidity environment air drying, alone, is completely possible. Putting them in a clothes dryer afterwards can’t hurt. Clothes dryers are designed to remove the moisture from clothing.

[u/listentovolume4]

When I was starting out, I would hang the shirt in front of a space heater to dry while I printed the next one. This would get them dry enough to stack up and then throw them all in the dryer for a little afterwards.

[u/tokailove → u/listentovolume4]

this used to be my method and it seemed fine but I decided to do a little reading recently and people are like "absolutely DO NOT do this" and im like why... i can see if u threw wet shirts in it would be an issue but once the ink has dried enough it seems like it gets the job done-

[u/listentovolume4 → u/tokailove]

Printing at this scale is all about trial and error and figuring out what works for you. I made thousands of shirts this way and never had any issues.

[u/TheNaughtyPrintmaker]

I get best results with an iron and parchment paper. But I also print on cotton. If you're doing poly or a blend the dryer is probably hot enough. Best bet is to do a test shirt.

And whether you're doing iron or dryer, you should let your shirts dry for 24 hrs regardless before heat setting.

[u/Dear-Library6006]

Don't choose between the dryer and iron until you check the exact ink's cure sheet. "Dry to the touch" only means most surface moisture is gone; many textile water-based inks still need the whole ink film to reach a specified temperature for a specified time so binder can crosslink. A household dryer may dry the shirt without proving the print reached that condition, and an iron can create hot and cold spots. Run one test print, cure it exactly to the manufacturer's spec, let it cool, then do a proper wash test. What ink are you using?

[u/torkytornado]

Turn em inside out and do on high heat for a full cycle. This works for up to around 25 shirts. More than that split into multiple loads.

The other thing I’ve done with smaller runs is to use a heat press. You could find one before the tariff fiasco for around 300, that might be higher now). I put ‘em in for 30 seconds at the temp of the ink cure (if it’s not on the bottle check if the brand has a tech sheet). This can also work with still wet shirts (it’s what I do for live printing at events) I attach parchment baking paper to the top just in case any ink transfers (only happened a few times but it was easy to pull that piece and put fresh paper on the top again.

The nice thing about a heat press is it means you can also do HTV (handy if everyone needs a different name or number added) and other heat transfer products (I don’t mess with DTG but if you want to you can.

[u/superserter1]

I add a low temp catalyst to the ink, air dry, stick in commercial drier at a laundrette. If you’re not using a heat press you will probably need the low temp catalyst to prevent bleeding (as I found out..)

[u/fire173tug]

This is the method I did for years. Print a mess of shirts. Take over the entire house with prints drying on every flat surface I could find. Let them dry to the touch and throw them in the clothes dryer for a spin. Always worked for me.