conventions for mesh description
Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2007 4:26 am
Hi All,
I have just finished a class at a local community college in screenprinting and want to purchase some screens of my own so I can pick up where the course left off. My only problem right now is that I'm confused about what screens to buy in regards to the mesh description.
I have been looking on several screenprinting forums and have found that many people are talking about using meshes in the range of 110 to 260 or 305.
I am in Australia. In the shops here they are telling me everyone is using 43T - one of these shops provides a printing service and told me they only use 43T there. The same shop sells screens with mesh in the range of 10T to 165T. No shops here sell a screen with a mesh as high as 200T. This got me to thinking that maybe there is more than one convention for describing the mesh count. Perhaps one is per inch and the other is per cm (?). I have looked for a discussion on the two conventions but haven't been able to find one. The closest I've found is the following:
"60t or about 150 usa style seems to be about right. but others have said 43t, which is around 110 usa, is good for everything."
and;
"43t/110 is often considered a universal mesh. I think more experienced printers (of which I am not one) often disagree with that notion though."
So, I guess there are two different naming conventions going. I'm just hoping someone can explain to me what each convention is based on and whether there's a way to work out equivalents. Most of the advice at all of the furums I've been to is provided in the convention without the "T" whilst the only ones available to me have the "T". It'd be good to read advice about which meshs people are using for which types of ink, design, fabric etc and be able to understand what the equivalent screen would be that I can use.
All advice greatly appreciated!
I have just finished a class at a local community college in screenprinting and want to purchase some screens of my own so I can pick up where the course left off. My only problem right now is that I'm confused about what screens to buy in regards to the mesh description.
I have been looking on several screenprinting forums and have found that many people are talking about using meshes in the range of 110 to 260 or 305.
I am in Australia. In the shops here they are telling me everyone is using 43T - one of these shops provides a printing service and told me they only use 43T there. The same shop sells screens with mesh in the range of 10T to 165T. No shops here sell a screen with a mesh as high as 200T. This got me to thinking that maybe there is more than one convention for describing the mesh count. Perhaps one is per inch and the other is per cm (?). I have looked for a discussion on the two conventions but haven't been able to find one. The closest I've found is the following:
"60t or about 150 usa style seems to be about right. but others have said 43t, which is around 110 usa, is good for everything."
and;
"43t/110 is often considered a universal mesh. I think more experienced printers (of which I am not one) often disagree with that notion though."
So, I guess there are two different naming conventions going. I'm just hoping someone can explain to me what each convention is based on and whether there's a way to work out equivalents. Most of the advice at all of the furums I've been to is provided in the convention without the "T" whilst the only ones available to me have the "T". It'd be good to read advice about which meshs people are using for which types of ink, design, fabric etc and be able to understand what the equivalent screen would be that I can use.
All advice greatly appreciated!