Instruction.

#1: How to prepare and expose a silk screen.

If you learn better by watching video tutorials follow this link to learn about preparing your screen and this link to learn about exposing it.

The most important thing to emphasize in the screen coating, exposure, and washout process is "light safe". Your emulsion is sensitive to bright light, if you are trying to expose or washout out side or in a brightly lit room you are running a VERY high risk that your image will not turn out. Please keep this in mind during this process.

When coating your screen, you want to be sure that your room is very light controlled. A dim yellow “light safe” light in the corner of the room just enough so you can see what you are doing would suffice. Do not use any bright fluorescent or halogen lights as this will ruin your screen. Depending on the type of emulsion you are using the coating instructions can vary. I’m going to explain how to coat a screen using the simplest method using a dual-cure emulsion.

Every emulsion will come with its own mixing and application instructions. You will want to read these instructions thoroughly so you can make any adjustments if need be.

To coat your screen we would suggest using an emulsion scoop coater. Before you coat your screen, you want to degrease your screen to remove any hand grease or dirt that might have gotten in the screen during manufacturing and shipping. To degrease a screen, you apply screen degreaser soap (dish soap) to the screen and scrub in into the mesh using a scrub pad or brush. After your screen is degreased wash it out with cold water so all the soap is gone and completely dry your screen with a towel and then under a fan.

In your dark room, apply one coat of emulsion to the outside or shirt side of your screen. Once the outside of the screen is coated, turn the screen over and put a second coat on the inside of the screen. Sometimes I do another coat, I like is smooth and not too thin. As soon as your screen is coated, place a fan on your screen to help dry it faster and then turn the safe light off to make the room completely dark. To properly dry your screen, place two pieces of wood on the floor and set your screen onto them with the shirt side facing down. You want all your emulsion to settle on the outside or shirt side of your screen. This will create a gasket for printing. With a fan on your screen, the emulsion should dry in about 3 hours. Without a fan, let it dry overnight. When the emulsion dries, it should turn a darker color then you originally started with.

Once your emulsion is dry, your screen is ready to be exposed. Depending on what kind of light source you are using to exposure youremulsion the exposure times and instructions will vary. I am going to explain how to expose a dual-cure diazo emulsion using a 500 Watt Halogen Light, i.e. a work light.

Place your screen flat on a table or floor with the flat side of the screen or the t-shirt side of the screen facing up. If you are setting the light up yourself, you need to place the 500 Watt light directly above the center of the screen at a distance of 16 inches. This is all done of course in your dark room with very minimal light. Once your light is set in the right position you reverse your positive film and place it on the screen. To reverse your film you are basically flipping it over so that when the shirt is printed it will show up the right way. When you look at it at this point it should be backwards. Once your film is on your screen you need to place a piece of unfiltered flat glass over your film so that there will be nolight refraction between your film and our screen. Once this glass is placed over the screen turn your light on for exactly 12 minutes, 30 seconds.

After twelve minutes thirty seconds, turn your light off and take your screen directly to a wash basin or outside to wash your design out. You cannot expose the screen to bright light after it has been exposed until your design has washed out. You want to be using a thin, directed line of water to wash your screen out. If your screen and emulsion get too wet with too much water your emulsion will start to wash out and the design will be ruined. Using cold water get both sides of your screen wet. You should see your design show up on your screen. Let the water soak into the emulsion for about one minute. Continue washing out your design until all the emulsion on the inside of your design is completely washed out of the screen. Once your design is washed out, place your screen back under your fan to dry the emulsion.

If you have any questions about this tip feel free to contact us. And super thanks to www.silkscreeningsupplies.com for help writing this and providing the videos.

#2: How to print a silk screen.

Your screen should sit off or your shir/substrate about 2 pennies high to insure off contact is achieved. So, tape two pennies or two pieces of cardstock paper to all four corners of aluminum part of your screen.

You also need to make sure you have registered your work by making places for your substrate to sit always in the same spot and a place for your screen to sit so it always makes contact in the same spot. More on this later.

You need to make sure your ink is flowing properly. You do this by printing a few, sometimes many, test prints on cheap paper like newsprint or newspaper. If you are not getting enough ink out you may need to flood the screen first. You do this by running the squeegee over the screen before put it down on the paper. Once the print looks good 3 times in a row, you are ready for action. If you are printing T-shitst you may also want to print a couple test shirts first to make sure your design is lined up and printing properly.

Once your substrate is registered, pour a bit of ink onto the bottom of the screen, below your design. You will need to pour a straigt line of ink, the length of your design. Then pull your screen down unto your substrate. Using your ink squeegee, make a 1 or 2 or 3 passes over your design pulling the ink over the design and pushing it through onto the shirt. Be sure to press hard when bring over the squeegee and keep the squeegee pretty much perpendicular to your screen. If you do not apply enough pressure your prints will not come out properly. Always make your passes in the same direction what ever that may be. Once your printing passes are completed place your screen back in the up position.

If you are printing with ink that needs to be cure (like for shirts) read this. If you are using airdry ink (like for coroplast) skip this. You want to cure the ink at 320 degrees for 45 seconds. You can do this using a flash dryer, heat gun, conveyer dryer, or conventional home oven. We would recommend using a flash dryer or conveyor dryer but if you are using a heat gun you are going to want to cure the ink for about twice as long in order to setthe ink correctly. When using a flash dryer to cure or flash a shirt, you want your heat element of the flash to be about 3" above the garment surface. Also if you only have a single station press, its a good idea to set up a seperate drying table to do your final cures on. This will help your printing pallet from getting too hot and possibly warping. When you are printing a thicker ink such as white, you want to increase your curing time to compensate for the thicker ink. A good way to test to be sure your ink is cured is to slightly pull or stretch the image. If the ink stays together like rubber, then your ink is probably completely cured. However, if your ink breaks apart and you can see the shirt under the ink, then you are going to want to increase your curing time.

If you have any questions about this tip feel free to contact us. And super thanks to www.silkscreeningsupplies.com for help writing this and providing the videos.