New To Forum - Couple of Newbie Screen printing questions

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spankthafunk
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New To Forum - Couple of Newbie Screen printing questions

Post by spankthafunk »

Hey Everyone!

History -

I am new to the forum, and new to screen printing. I am working on a very small budget and have started screen printing as a hobby, and to see if it's something I would really be interested in.

I have put a table into my walk-in closet, and put a 35 red light bulb from kmart in the closet. This is where I am putting the emulsion on my screen and exposing it. I have built a small screen printing table to do my actual prints on. And the equipment I am using is the Speedball Starter kit; 1 frame, 3 fabric inks, emulsion and sensitizer, and I have bought a yard of screen from our local store, and a 150 Watt Flood Light with a reflector for exposure.

I have successfully (for the most part, not real fine detail yet) made two screens and have printed with them. In doing so I have a couple of questions if you all wouldn't mind answering for me, because the shirt hasn't come out perfectly yet: :D


Questions -

1) Will a Red 35 Watt Halogen Light Bulb be dark enough to work in the closet without exposing the screen and emulsion?

2) I have read something about the screen needing 1/8 inch off-contact to print onto a shirt. Does this mean that the screen needs to be 1/8 inch off of the shirt when you print? Wasn't real sure about this.

3a) If you are printing on a dark shirt, it's my understanding you might need to print a base color (white) and then the color you want. Do you need registration marks for this?

3b) How do registration marks work? I understand the concept, but say I take a shirt and place 4 pieces of tape on it to print the registration points. I print the white. Then I realign the screen to print the next color.

It seems to me that you would only be able to realign it on the first shirt, because once the ink passes through you can't see through the registration mark to get your alignment for the next shirt. Can someone please elaborate on how this works?


4) The shirt that I have printed out isn't smooth. It's sort of faded and the texture isn't nice and smooth, but sort of rough. Do I need to print twice to make the ink thicker, and will Transparency Extender Base make the texture smoother?


Thanks for all the input and help a head of time. I have been trying to do as much research as possible but am having trouble finding some information online. Looking forward to speaking with you all!
~spankthafunk :wink:
krosbones
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Post by krosbones »

I will do my best to answer as many of your questions as possible.

1) Will a Red 35 Watt Halogen Light Bulb be dark enough to work in the closet without exposing the screen and emulsion?

Really depends on your emulsion. Is it a fast exposing type? 35 watt should be fine, but spend as little time as possible with the light on.

2) I have read something about the screen needing 1/8 inch off-contact to print onto a shirt. Does this mean that the screen needs to be 1/8 inch off of the shirt when you print? Wasn't real sure about this.

Your off contact should be anywhere from a 1/16 to an 1/8 depending on how tight you sceen mesh is. Rule of thumb, is the thickness of a nickle for a tight stretched screen. Of course your screen is going to make contact with the shirt when you stroke your print.

3a) If you are printing on a dark shirt, it's my understanding you might need to print a base color (white) and then the color you want. Do you need registration marks for this?

Registration marks are used primarily for two things. Center marks help you align you image to the center of your pallet as well as making sure your print is straight. And they are used for alignment for multicolored prints. You have your hands full trying multicolored prints if you are only using a single "print head". One option, not the most productive, would be to use the same screen for both base and top color. Print your white base, flash the ink to "gel", clean out you screen (while still set-up) and then print your second color. You of course will have all kinds of problems with bleed since you will not have a choke screen.
Normal use of registration marks would be with a mutli-screen press. Where you line up each screen to the regi marks, lock them in place, then print each color in order.

4) The shirt that I have printed out isn't smooth. It's sort of faded and the texture isn't nice and smooth, but sort of rough. Do I need to print twice to make the ink thicker, and will Transparency Extender Base make the texture smoother?

Trans Ex Base will thin down your ink and depending on the brand, may reduce your color tone/saturation. You can use serval strokes to get the right amount of ink down.
It is hard to answer some of this. While speedball is nice for playing around with, it nowhere near compairs to a REAL screen printing press and equipment. I had one of those starter kits, when I started screen printing at an actual shop, I had to forget almost everything I learned from the speedball kit.

I hope this helps. Good luck on you hobby. You should call some local screen printers and see if they will give you a tour of their shop to see it in action. I know alot of shops that would not mind showing just how much really goes into printing a shirt.

kros
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spankthafunk
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Post by spankthafunk »

awesome!

you pretty much answered everything I was looking for.

Screen printing is soo fascinating, but I have a tendecy of getting involved into something, and then dropping it later. So I was just trying to make some shirts in my apartment before investing a lot of time and money into something that may be too much for me to handle.

But boy is it fun! Thanks for the advice!

~spankz
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