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Sweet Tee's
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Newbie with alot of questions

Post by Sweet Tee's »

Hello everyone,
This will be my very first post so please be kind to me. I am very new and trying to burn a screen for a design that someone made for me. Recently we have just been doing baseball and softball uniforms with a solid design no half tones. When we bought the equiptment we only received 110 screens and i am having a lot of problems with the design washing out. should i be using a higher mesh count? take a look at the design and see if you might have any suggestions. Thanks So Much!

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ftembroidery
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Post by ftembroidery »

The problem with the design washing out can be improper exposure. If it doesn't want to wash out for a long time and then suddenly big portions of it fall out, you've overexposed it. If it just starts all washing out right away, you've underexposed it. You should do a step wedge test to determine proper exposure time. It will be necessary to do such a test with each different mesh and color of mesh and with each container of emulsion. One emulsion will take longer than another to expose and different mesh screens will take longer than others to expose.

As far as the mesh count is concerned. Higher number mesh counts are for finer detail. If your design doesn't have great detail, you won't need high mesh counts. If your design has fine detail and you use too coarse a screen, the detail won't hold and will be lost. The design you have posted will require something higher than 110 mesh because of the halftones in the castlekeep and words "Kingdom Kids". Just how fine a screen will be determined by a number of things, such as size of print on the shirt. Is it for a full back (aprox 12"x12") or a left chest (aprox 4"x4"), etc.

That having been said, the higher the mesh count, the less ink you'll lay on the shirt and the finished product will have a softer hand even though you may have to lay down more than one coat of ink (with a flash between each coat).
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d fleming
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Post by d fleming »

What type of light source are you using? That could have a lot to do with successfully shooting halftones at all.
Sweet Tee's
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Post by Sweet Tee's »

Our light box is a National wih 7 industrial blacklights.

We are having alot of problems with exposure times, when we purchased the equipt. we were told she exposed for 2 mins with the same emulsion as we bought, but we found that it is taking almost 20 mins for us to get a screen to work. we are assuming the bulbs must be bad, but on a small budget we are doing what we can until we build up some $ in the bank!

the design is for a full back.

thanks for the tips, at this point anything will help!
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d fleming
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Post by d fleming »

You're most likely not going to shoot halftones with flourescent tubes for light source. The time it takes to expose is too long to prevent undercutting of light to the image and screen causing your halftones to expose and harden. In the past my exposure times were around 11 minutes using flourescent and rlx emulsion from nazdar. A step wedge test is definitely in order to get your proper exposure rate. If your tubes are old, new ones aren't that bad moneywise. Unfiltered black light is what you need. If halftones are what you are eventually after, you will most likely need a vacuum frame and stronger light source, metal halide, etc.
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Post by ROADSIDE »

80% of the screens in my shop are 110 mesh
Thats a good standard... BUT it depends on the size of the halftone dot you are using.... Take everything the other guys said and add in my point and you got lots of variables.

Whats the LPI of the film?
.... I can give you my opinion but I can't tell you if it's right or not.
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