TSB
screen printing => Screen Making => Topic started by: XG Print on November 01, 2016, 12:45:19 PM
-
Have a bit of an issue here. We are slammed and I was down to my last 200 mesh screen in the screen room this morning and wouldnt you know it the second screen on the job that has to go today my screen guy burned it backwards >:( We cleaned and reapplied emulsion. What is the quickest way to get it to dry? Hair dryer maybe? Thanks
-
I'd be worried about a hairdryer drying the skin and not the entire layer.
In a clean area, I'd feel better with a fan blowing over it.
Then, next week, either buy or build a drying cabinet with a de-humidifier. Many report 30 minute times, that's not too bad.
-
yup, drying cabinet with air movement and a dehumidifier. It also warms the cabinet to aid drying.
-
yup, drying cabinet with air movement and a dehumidifier. It also warms the cabinet to aid drying.
THIS!
-
If you are pressed for time and need it now you can put a space heater behind a fan and put in screen room and use all the air volume of the room to force dry. Frog's advice is sound for down line improvements in drying. In a 100 cabinet with forced air and dehumidifier the dry time is 18 minutes at 60% humidity outside. If raining, 30 minutes or more.
-
I have stuck it in and out of a dryer in a crunch. cant get too hot and you must flip it over.. it will make the screen lose tension and is by no means a normal thing but hey if your in a jam ..
-
the only thing that drys a screen is the removal of moisture.
It can be cold and dry or hot and dry.. just needs to be dry. a little air movement will help speed up the transfer of moisture from the film to the air.
-
If you have a room dehumidifier & floor space, you can improvise a rack for the screen (4 rolls of masking tape works), then throw a box or maybe a heavy sheet over the dehumidifier + the screen. (If you use a box, make sure it's propped up a little to allow some air flow.) You can also just lean the screen next to dehumidifier near a wall - not ideal, but that was my last boss's trick. Never clocked it, but this can get a screen usable fairly quickly.
-
I've got a cabinet with a fan installed in it and can dry screen in about 15 to 30 minutes, I can't say they are 100% , but they burn pretty good and don't break down, then again I'm not doing 1000 pc runs on them.
-
I have a 7x10 room with a 40pt dehumifier and an 18" wall mountain oscillating fan. It also has a 5000btu window unit A/C to keep temps under 85 during the summer. The dehumidifier will keep it over 70 in the winter. The room is insulated and all walls are interior walls, built as a room within a room. I can dry a full rack of 24 screens in about 30 minutes usually with the fan on the opposite side of the room. When I REALLY need a screen faster I will turn off the oscillation and move the screens closer to the fan and can have usable screens in about 15 to 18 minutes.
-
A lot of decent options, but the best is a dedicated screen dryer down the line, not that it solves your immediate problem...
Steve
-
FWIW we recently moved our post-cleaning drying to a vertical setup with fans blowing down on them
ala Mr. Kitson. Significantly faster than horizontal.
-
FWIW we recently moved our post-cleaning drying to a vertical setup with fans blowing down on them
ala Mr. Kitson. Significantly faster than horizontal.
Interesting. We blast degreased screens with compressed air knives and dry horizontal in the cabinet. It's fast due to the air knife atomizing most of the water out, but I don't like how much time degreasing takes and have been thinking about ways to expedite this and also use less air on shifts.
No streaking or issues with dust using your method?
-
FWIW we recently moved our post-cleaning drying to a vertical setup with fans blowing down on them
ala Mr. Kitson. Significantly faster than horizontal.
Interesting. We blast degreased screens with compressed air knives and dry horizontal in the cabinet. It's fast due to the air knife atomizing most of the water out, but I don't like how much time degreasing takes and have been thinking about ways to expedite this and also use less air on shifts.
No streaking or issues with dust using your method?
What air knives are you using?
We have a typhoon gun that works great, but it's a single point and would love more efficiency.
-
mcmaster carr has 'em. #5213K21
We had a couple that were wonky with a weird air leak inside the housing but they replaced and otherwise have been stellar. They are at every station in screen flow and at the blow out booth as well.
-
Build a box, go to Lowes / Home Depot buy the smallest space heater with a t-stat build it into or set it into the box operate at 90 - 100 degrees and dry in about 30 minutes even wit a heavy coated screen.
mooseman
-
Found this old thread on DIY cabinets
http://www.theshirtboard.com/index.php/topic,10214.0.html (http://www.theshirtboard.com/index.php/topic,10214.0.html)
-
Interesting. We blast degreased screens with compressed air knives and dry horizontal in the cabinet. It's fast due to the air knife atomizing most of the water out, but I don't like how much time degreasing takes and have been thinking about ways to expedite this and also use less air on shifts.
No streaking or issues with dust using your method?
We never did the air/shop vac thing so you might be ahead of us. I was always afraid of introducing more problems after trying spending all that
time removing them. Do you have air filters at each station? I'm thinking I might give them a try at least post develop. Couldn't hurt much
there. McMaster Carr is one of the only apps I have on my phone haha.
Streaking and contaminants have gone significantly down, we used to occasionally have issues with chems/water being trapped between
frame and mesh then making it's way out while drying. Not to mention the summer the water co started adding an algaecide.
The way I see it is if it's vertical you're encouraging the residual water to get on down the road with gravity and airflow.
And if mycology has taught me anything it's that dust and particles fall down not up or sideways, less surface area to collect.
-
If you follow the rules it takes time to dry a screen.
Break them and you can do it in a few minutes, we've coated screens and put them on the floor under the flash in the lit shop. Works well but I wouldn't want to try and get fine detail or long runs out of these screens.
-
Commercial dehumidifier keeps air dry, ambient temp around 90 degrees, box fans keep air moving dries everything crazy fast.
-
Interesting. We blast degreased screens with compressed air knives and dry horizontal in the cabinet. It's fast due to the air knife atomizing most of the water out, but I don't like how much time degreasing takes and have been thinking about ways to expedite this and also use less air on shifts.
No streaking or issues with dust using your method?
We never did the air/shop vac thing so you might be ahead of us. I was always afraid of introducing more problems after trying spending all that
time removing them. Do you have air filters at each station? I'm thinking I might give them a try at least post develop. Couldn't hurt much
there. McMaster Carr is one of the only apps I have on my phone haha.
Streaking and contaminants have gone significantly down, we used to occasionally have issues with chems/water being trapped between
frame and mesh then making it's way out while drying. Not to mention the summer the water co started adding an algaecide.
The way I see it is if it's vertical you're encouraging the residual water to get on down the road with gravity and airflow.
And if mycology has taught me anything it's that dust and particles fall down not up or sideways, less surface area to collect.
Yes, wilkerson coalescing filters at all stations. We also shoot a little clean air at screens before coating. Jury's still out on whether or not we're helping or just blasting contaminants around.
Until I get us out of a weird, old, wood floored shop I doubt I'll ever get us contaminant free.
-
You guys are all way too conservative: I have seen some chaps dry a screen with a heat gun... took about 5 min.
Not sure how many screens were harmed in the development of that process though. Yikes.
-
You guys are all way too conservative: I have seen some chaps dry a screen with a heat gun... took about 5 min.
Not sure how many screens were harmed in the development of that process though. Yikes.
I have seen mesh actually melt through when someone tried to force dry a stencil repair with blockout with a heat gun!
-
Well my solution was the old box fan...Coated and set with box fan blowing directly on it from about 6 ft. Flipped screen after about an hour. Waited a total of about 2.5 hrs. Burnt and printed the run nicely. Had to stay a little late but we got it done. Will be getting a dry box ASAP. Been lucky in the 7 yrs I've been printing. I usually always have extra screens ready to go but not this time!! :-) Thanks for all the tips
-
You guys are all way too conservative: I have seen some chaps dry a screen with a heat gun... took about 5 min.
Not sure how many screens were harmed in the development of that process though. Yikes.
I have seen mesh actually melt through when someone tried to force dry a stencil repair with blockout with a heat gun!
And when drying screens after developing, these same guys would put the screen on the dryer belt, let it drift a little into the oven and pull it out before it got too far.
Thing is that at the time I thought they must know what they were doing (it was a long time before I started printing myself) but now I realise that reading this would make you guys cringe like hearing nails on a chalk board...