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Save the screen!

Posted: Tue May 18, 2010 2:36 pm
by wormzzz
My friends and were starting a new screen printing project but our screens are all screwed up. We had used speedball diazo emulsion before and made multiple screens, those screen worked perfectly, but unfortunately we had to get new emulsion. We got the emulsion, I don't know what kind it was pink and in a gallon bucket but anyways we made a few more screens and accidently left the emulsion on there for a few months, just like we had done before and the stuff washed out. I know you're not supposed to do that and we figured the screen was ruined but we cleaned it off anyways. After a lot of scrubbing we decided to test our screen, it was realllly screwed up. I don't know how it happened but the emulsion stuck to the parts that paint had previously gone through, you could see ALL of our designs surrounded by paint. I don't understand we had used the screen multiple times for multiple designs and that had never happened, we could see the first design we ever used, WHYYYYY?
Is there anything we can use to save our screen besides the remover or bleach??

Also, we got our old diazo emulsion again but completely filled the little bottle of activator stuff with water instead of half with water, is our emulsion ruined?
We got a new screen (its a Yudu screen that goes with some machine but we figured a screens a screen) and coated it with the emulsion in a room with only red light, we let it dry, then put our design on there and proceeded to expose it for 15 minutes with a black light. While we were washing it off our print along with the emulsion started wrinkling and coming off. We did this twice, both times failed.

Did we just screw too many things up on the first screen or is it savable? Is the emulsion botched?

Re: Save the screen!

Posted: Fri Dec 31, 2010 4:35 am
by DEEROKK
Ok, first and fore most, dehazer.I have tried finding new chemicals of degreaser that are cheaper and less harsh but when it comes down to it, your standard dehazer (ghost image remover) does the trick. So when reclaiming, one of the last steps, de haze it. Second, use a pressure washer to blow out any old ink, hold up the screen at a angle to check for residue, esp if using inks w shimmer or metal flakes etc. Last use a air hose ( hooked to a air compresser) to blow out the water from newly burnt screens. To get a quality print, start w a quality screen.