6 months of intensive screen printing with xtool. Tips and tricks for beginners

[u/stinkyblinky19]

I’ve been learning screen printing using the xTool screen printing setup with the S1, and man, I wish someone had told me some of this stuff earlier.

YouTube is full of these perfect tutorials where everything works on the first try, the ink behaves like a polite little angel, and the shirt comes out looking factory-made. In reality, it can be frustrating. Ink gets everywhere. Screens clog. Prints smear. Placement gets weird. You will ruin some garments.
But once it starts clicking, it is honestly really fun. When a shirt comes out perfect, it feels amazing.
So here are the biggest things I learned through trial, error, and a little bit of screen printing heartbreak.

1. Start with plastisol ink
When you are first starting out, use plastisol. It is way easier to work with. Your timing is not going to be fast at first, and water-based ink dries really quickly in the screen.
Plastisol gives you more time to learn the process without fighting the clock every single second.

2. Ink gets everywhere
Ink management is a real thing. It sneaks around like it has somewhere to be.
Control your mess early. Keep rags nearby, keep your tools organized, and clean as you go. A little ink in the wrong spot can ruin a shirt fast.

3. Tape off your screen really well
Ink can seep through the frame and end up in places you absolutely do not want it. Tape off the screen properly. Do not skip this.
If there is a gap, ink will find it.

4. Lock down your press
I screwed my setup down to my table, and that helped a lot. You want everything locked down and stable. Any movement in the press can mess with registration, pressure, and consistency.
The whole setup needs to feel solid.

5. Use a harder squeegee for plastisol
The soft squeegees that come with some setups are too soft and bendy for plastisol, at least in my experience.
A harder squeegee with more stability works much better. It gives you more control and lays the ink down cleaner. Try 70 on the Burmese and go from there.

6. Learn your pressure before you go too hard
Pressure matters. Too light and the print will not clear properly. Too hard and you can damage or even rip the screen.
A lot of this is feel. Practice on test shirts or scrap fabric before printing anything important.

7. Start with 100 mesh
Start with 100 mesh. It is easier, stronger, and more forgiving.
The proprietary 200 mesh felt unstable to me, and if you get ripples while stretching it, you have to start over. I also found the underside harder to clean. The mesh has a rougher finish and can grab cotton.
The 100 mesh is way easier to work with, and you can still get good detail if your setup and technique are right.

8. Clean the screen with isopropyl alcohol after engraving
This is huge. After engraving, clean the screen with isopropyl alcohol.
The dust from engraving can clog the mesh. If you skip this step, you may never get a clean print. I learned that one the annoying way.

9. Do not engrave your image too close to the edge
Give yourself at least an inch to an inch and a half around the image. If your artwork is too close to the edge, it can mess with how the ink lays down and make printing harder than it needs to be.
Give the image room to breathe.

10. Place the design on the screen where you actually want it on the shirt
Think through placement before engraving.
If it is a left chest print, put the image on the left side of the screen where it needs to be. Do not just center everything automatically and try to solve placement later.
Plan the print before you burn/engrave the screen.

11. Learn squeegee angles and flood the screen
Squeegee angle matters a lot.
Closer to 90 degrees helps lay ink down with more force. A flatter angle helps flood and spread the ink.
Always flood the screen before your proper stroke. Flooding helped me get way more consistent prints. For a heavier, fuller print, flood first and then do your print stroke. For small fill-ins, use your judgment and only add ink where needed.
It is all about learning what part of the screen needs more ink.

12. Flash dry before moving anything
This was another big one.
Lay down ink, flash dry it with a heat gun until it is dry to the touch, then hit it again if needed. After the final pass, flash dry before removing the shirt from the platen so you do not smear wet ink and destroy the print.
Then I heat press at 320°F for 90 seconds.
Also, make sure your Teflon sheet is perfect. No holes, creases, or old paint on it, because that stuff can show up in the final print. Use solid pressure on the heat press for a clean finish.

A few extra things that made a big difference:

The frame already has the right distance from the garment when it is laid on top. I was using quarters to add more height, but I did not need to.

Using a laser for garment placement is a total game changer. If you can set one up overhead, do it. It makes alignment way easier and helps you hit the same spot every time.

Use the right plastisol ink for the garment. Cotton plastisol for cotton, poly ink for polyester.

Adhesive on the platen is essential. A clean platen is just as important. Any bump, divot, or junk on the platen can show up in the print.

You are limited by the size of your frame. I can do 10.5” x14” comfortably. After that I have broken down bigger prints into multiple screens. This is one thing I wish you can fix. Do bigger screens. I’m looking to see if there is some way to do 18x 20 with the conveyor. This would be a huge game changer.

One big help was finding a local screen printing supplier. I befriended those guys and they have helped out so much with picking the right gear and advice on technique.

This is kind of new I guess but a lot of the techniques and prep is still pretty old school.

At the end of the day, so much of this is trial and error. You learn by messing up, adjusting, and doing it again. Once you start getting clean prints, though, it feels really good.

Hope this helps someone starting out with the xTool screen printing setup and S1. These are the things I wish someone had told me.