Question for dip tank users?

[jasonl]

Been doing this for almost 16 years now and have never used one.  Got one on the way now though.

1.  Do you have to rinse screens that have been in the recirculating booth before they go in the dip tank?

2.  Do you even need to use the recirculating booth anymore?

3.  Can you use emulsion remover added to water to fill it up?

4.  How long does it last before chemicals are dead?

5.  Is one brand of chemical better than another?

Thats all I can think of at the moment, probably will have more questions when it gets here next week. 

[mk162]

1. No, we will usually hit ours though just to make the dip tank go faster and last longer

2. we use ours for squeegees and such

3. I would use either water or a little more of whatever is already in there....don't mix chems, they might kill eachother

4. between 6 months to 1 year

5. I think most are bout the same.  I really like easiway because it's what i started with.

6...did you know rob johnson is gone from bodek?

[screenprintguy]

You are going to want to remove all ink from your screens before you put them in your tank. Companies tell you that your ink will come off in the tank, but you will find you are creating more of a mess, losing potency of your chemical, and you will have to remove gunk build up at the bottom of the tank weekly and continue to add chemical to keep your potency up. Also, not removing ink first slows down the ability of the chemical to directly reach the emulsion.

We, card off bulk in, de-tape, de-ink-we use beenie doo in the booth, then, once that process is done on a load of screens, they go in the dip tank, 3 at a time. This process goes very fast for us, my screen guy does an average of 30 screens in a 2 hour period from carding off bulk ink, de-tape, de-ink, then dip, pressure wash, degrees, and rack. We use SPA chems, and have had the best of luck with them over Franmar, and Easi way which we have tried in the past, they are lower in cost too.

[Frog]

Which chems to use in a dip tank has come up here before in a few sections like Ink and Chemicals at least.
There's a current thread on Stencil Remover that will help as well.

http://www.theshirtboard.com/index.php/topic,4660.0/topicseen.html#lastPost