TSB
screen printing => Tips and Tricks to Share (Please don't ask questions here) => Topic started by: Frog on January 04, 2012, 03:21:17 PM
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After de-greasing, (or your last step with a combo cleaner) be really careful with your fingers. The small amount of body oil that transfers can affect that spot and resist emulsion when coating.
One of those things so basic and simple, it can get overlooked.
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Don't sneeze on them either!
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One view of an obvious greasy fingerprint in the emulsion coating usually teaches that lesson!
Doh!
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What is the best way to dry them afterwards if you dont have a drying cabinet?
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What is the best way to dry them afterwards if you dont have a drying cabinet?
We stand ours up but fanned out to allow air to pass through them. To add on to what Frog just said, after your final step never grab the screen from the top if still wet and your hands are dirty it will run down the mesh.
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Build a drying cabinet.
Not an area to skimp on. A drying cabinet can be as simple as a cardboard box, maybe with a filtered fan,
but better yet, a closet with a dehumidifier. There's so many variables in our beloved process and this is an easy
area to remove at least a few.
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Don't sneeze on them either!
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ok. buts also very important to dry coated screens with horizontal with the mesh side down. if you dont have a drying cabinet but have a wall. go buy some 2x2's and nail them to the wall with the gap of your frame diameter between them. then after degreasing or coating you can slide them in and dry flat..doing this you will get much better, consistant results in stencil thickness and exposure times..
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I meant drying them after degreasing. I have 2 screen racks that I store my coated screens on.
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ok. buts also very important to dry coated screens with horizontal with the mesh side down. if you dont have a drying cabinet but have a wall. go buy some 2x2's and nail them to the wall with the gap of your frame diameter between them. then after degreasing or coating you can slide them in and dry flat..doing this you will get much better, consistant results in stencil thickness and exposure times..
This can be dependent upon the climate. I dried my screens horizontally for years until once when I had to really get one done in a hurry ...I tried it vertical with a fan (it was just a one color spot job) and it dried in about ten minutes (I live in Colorado where our air is very dry). Since then I dry all my screens vertically and have noticed no difference in the quality.
If you live in a humid climate, the emulsion takes much longer to dry, and leaving them vertical can result in the emulsion being thicker on one end of the screen than the other, due to gravity...
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ok. buts also very important to dry coated screens with horizontal with the mesh side down. if you dont have a drying cabinet but have a wall. go buy some 2x2's and nail them to the wall with the gap of your frame diameter between them. then after degreasing or coating you can slide them in and dry flat..doing this you will get much better, consistant results in stencil thickness and exposure times..
This can be dependent upon the climate. I dried my screens horizontally for years until once when I had to really get one done in a hurry ...I tried it vertical with a fan (it was just a one color spot job) and it dried in about ten minutes (I live in Colorado where our air is very dry). Since then I dry all my screens vertically and have noticed no difference in the quality.
If you live in a humid climate, the emulsion takes much longer to dry, and leaving them vertical can result in the emulsion being thicker on one end of the screen than the other, due to gravity...
A dozen screens stacked horizontaly with spacer blocks between them (or a set-up like Rick described) take about the same room as one vertically, and will dry in similar time with a fan, and ensure that one's emulsion produces an EOM evenly over the face of the screen.
Shortcuts with seemingly acceptable results can come back to bite one on the behind. (but you know that ;D)
It would be interesting to actually measure the EOM on your vertically dried screens as opposed to those dried using the prescribed industry standard method.
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After de-greasing, (or your last step with a combo cleaner) be really careful with your fingers. The small amount of body oil that transfers can affect that spot and resist emulsion when coating.
One of those things so basic and simple, it can get overlooked.
Anyone else here degrease with their hands? I have always put the degreaser on the screens and lathered the screen with my hands, one on each side of the screen with no issues. Been doing it that way for over 10 years. I just assumed that the degreaser degreased my hands and the screens at the same time.
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Unless you are using Dawn (and even that may be at higher than intended concentrations) I would think that degreaser may be removing essential body oils and moisture from your hands with that method.
Lotion anyone?
I use a brush dedicated to the purpose.
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It would be interesting to actually measure the EOM on your vertically dried screens as opposed to those dried using the prescribed industry standard method.
Unfortunately I think most EOM measuring devices only measure that, emulsion over mesh, with little regard as to
which side of the mesh the emulsion is on.
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LOL@bimmridder. I need a sneeze guard a la Family Guy in my screen room... "Take it outside, lady"
It'd be interesting to measure thickness on each end of the screen--see how much thinner the top is, even if you can't tell what side it's on.
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After de-greasing, (or your last step with a combo cleaner) be really careful with your fingers. The small amount of body oil that transfers can affect that spot and resist emulsion when coating.
One of those things so basic and simple, it can get overlooked.
Anyone else here degrease with their hands? I have always put the degreaser on the screens and lathered the screen with my hands, one on each side of the screen with no issues. Been doing it that way for over 10 years. I just assumed that the degreaser degreased my hands and the screens at the same time.
I did for a long time. I also used Dawn soap forever. Best degreaser out there. I have tried most screen printing specific ones and it still works just as good or better than all the commercial ones. Plus its a hell of a lot cheaper.
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great thread..what i have learned (the hard way) after 31 years is there are so many variables with screen printing that we cant control, its necessary that we control the ones we can. so i really try not to cut corners in screen making. yes, we all have our ways that work but doing things fundamentally right helps eliminate problems in the long haul.
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After de-greasing, (or your last step with a combo cleaner) be really careful with your fingers. The small amount of body oil that transfers can affect that spot and resist emulsion when coating.
One of those things so basic and simple, it can get overlooked.
Anyone else here degrease with their hands? I have always put the degreaser on the screens and lathered the screen with my hands, one on each side of the screen with no issues. Been doing it that way for over 10 years. I just assumed that the degreaser degreased my hands and the screens at the same time.
I did for a long time. I also used Dawn soap forever. Best degreaser out there. I have tried most screen printing specific ones and it still works just as good or better than all the commercial ones. Plus its a hell of a lot cheaper.
One of my many earlier jobs was as a fish washer. It was a small in town diner type place. The owner switched soaps and bought Dawn dishwashing liquid for about a week. Once I started, after a few days of it. My hands began to cracked so badly you could see open flesh in the cracks. They burned with every dip in the water. Finally, I had to take a few days off to heal and where rubber gloves...that didn't help much but switched to a milder soap helped.
Dawn is too harsh to use consistently but occasional use is ok.
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How appropriate.
Just five minutes ago, my wife was complaining of a cutting board still being greasy after washing it, but did not want to use the Dawn I have because of what it does to her hands!
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I actually use Ulano Degreaser Concentrate (1 part concentrate to 9 parts water) and my wife has never complained of me having rough hands!