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screen printing => Screen Making => Topic started by: alan802 on May 11, 2012, 01:34:15 PM
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Here are some pics of the re-arranged dark room. It went from a very dark red room to bright with the change out of the red tint light cover and I just left one bulb with 2 amber UB blocking sleeves on it and you can actually see everything in the room now. I also built the drying racks into the corners so I could move that big rolling cart that we did use to dry freshly coated screens. It was taking up too much room and we also got rid of the big shelving unit that I put our dryed screens on. I think a lot of our screens were getting damaged when we would take screens in and out because they would slide against each other and they were arranged in there like books in a bookcase. I think I'm going to like the current setup better and I have all the screens arranged where if you need a certain screen you don't have to fight to pull it out of the shelf, you just grab the screen and go.
(http://i485.photobucket.com/albums/rr211/alan802/SRI%20Pics/87941BE8-664C-4A35-9023-C37788AAD2E1.jpg)
(http://i485.photobucket.com/albums/rr211/alan802/SRI%20Pics/96709498-BA85-406C-A3C6-30E4A6A76018.jpg)
(http://i485.photobucket.com/albums/rr211/alan802/SRI%20Pics/DF99EBAD-EAC7-4ABB-8207-9DDD486D86C6.jpg)
(http://i485.photobucket.com/albums/rr211/alan802/SRI%20Pics/8B2EF0DB-2862-4036-B609-7333EF5C3C16.jpg)
(http://i485.photobucket.com/albums/rr211/alan802/SRI%20Pics/8064BD61-2324-4CF9-ABD2-752D6D5034FD.jpg)
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The dark room I started in was for tray developing films, red lights only ;D Very nice though to have a nice, clean space for your screens and screenwork. I really did think, for a second, that you were talking about a photo darkroom though. Damn, getting old
Steve
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Wow! I am jealous. I do not have enough room for something like that here. I have to keep all my screens in dry boxes under the existing tables.
I see that you have both roller and ez frames. Do you have a preference?
Matt
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The dark room I started in was for tray developing films, red lights only ;D Very nice though to have a nice, clean space for your screens and screenwork. I really did think, for a second, that you were talking about a photo darkroom though. Damn, getting old
Steve
You got red lights? :o
Wow, with Panchromatic films, it was total darkness! 8)
Gotta admit though, that Ortho films were way more common, so yes, bordello lighting was the norm, and I've never been in a shop that doubled up their camera space with th screen production and/or storage.
Here we go again, bragging about our history and age like Methuselah!
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Wow! I am jealous. I do not have enough room for something like that here. I have to keep all my screens in dry boxes under the existing tables.
I see that you have both roller and ez frames. Do you have a preference?
Matt
If I really had to have just one, I'd go with the newmans, but there are some great benefits of the EZ's. I like having ultimate control over the roller frames but I don't take advantage of that ability as much as I should. The shurlocs are nice because they hold much higher tension than statics, and you don't have to worry about retensioning them (they can be retensioned once). You just stretch them up and let them go, it's peaceful that way. With the newmans, I'm constantly checking them to see if any need retensioning and it takes time and energy to do that. The EZ's are heavy though, much heavier than the new M3's. I can carry 3 EZ's around with one hand but it's really hard, and the M3's are a breeze to carry 3 with one hand.
I highly recommend both frames, and I could live with a shop that used nothing but the EZ's, no doubt and I'd be happy, but I'm also a control freak over a lot of the variables we deal with and that's where the newmans get my vote.
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Love it. I happen to be considering how I am to build my screen room now. I'm wondering, are you just starting to add in the frame holders along the wall or do you store them on the ground leaning against the wall once dried?
I will have about a 4' x 9' space. :(
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Very nice.
Working on a little restructuring of the little 'light safe' screen room here, but it will never look that clean. (if I have anything to do with it :) )
I do like the 'bookshelf' style of screen storage, but only space-wise storing them under a counter--when you stack against the wall corner to corner like that, it's definitely a safer way to do it.
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My contribution to this thread should be placed on a new post since I unintentionally derailed it. I'll make the move later.
My real post for this thread should have been to say, how much I would like to have what Alan has in a dark room and more so, the customers that make it needed. ;) . I like the wall mounts. That will be useful for my all area.
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Hey Alan, thanks for posting the pics. I have been contemplating putting some wood strips in the corner of my dark room. Now that I see it I know I will do it.
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How much extra space did you keep from the frame profile?
Neat idea, for sure.
(I love the paper towel rack too ;) )
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Alan I got to ask if you think this storage technique damages your mesh? I implemented an iron-clad rule that screens are only allowed to rest: on press, on their racks, in the dry box, in the washout, in the dip tank, on the coating stand or on the roller master. It has practically eliminated mesh damage along the rollers.
I've always loved to corner racking idea and storing bookshelf style for statics but not for rollers.
Sent from my intelligent phone-a-majigger.
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Alan, Thanks..I like how you did that in the corner...
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Alan I got to ask if you think this storage technique damages your mesh? I implemented an iron-clad rule that screens are only allowed to rest: on press, on their racks, in the dry box, in the washout, in the dip tank, on the coating stand or on the roller master. It has practically eliminated mesh damage along the rollers.
I've always loved to corner racking idea and storing bookshelf style for statics but not for rollers.
Sent from my intelligent phone-a-majigger.
we have been using Gorilla tape to protect mesh on our rollers. it works great and has not come off through many reclaim cycles. Note we do not use a dip tank so I can not speak to Gorilla in atank, FYI.
mooseman
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My contribution to this thread should be placed on a new post since I unintentionally derailed it. I'll make the move later.
My real post for this thread should have been to say, how much I would like to have what Alan has in a dark room and more so, the customers that make it needed. ;) . I like the wall mounts. That will be useful for my all area.
Zoo, I was very surprised when I put a screen in the slot. On some of the perfectly balanced screens, they will lay perfectly flat and not need the above rack to hold the screen in place. I'll snap a pic tomorrow with a screen on the very top rack and you'll see what I'm talking about. But on the mesh protection thing, the part of the frame that is in contact with the wood has the polyken tape on it, it's no different than the frame sitting in a screen holder on the press. So as long as you use some sort of protection on your frames then there will be no reason for concern. There is so little pressure being applied to any one single point along the racks that I don't think you'd even need to screw them into the studs behind the drywall. Even though only two sides of the 4 are touching the wood racks, the weight is so evenly distributed that I was surprised that the sides and corner not touching anything would be forcing the frame upwards in the rack.
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well shucks, I'm going to try it out then. this would be prefect for the new drying cab- I need to also fit big old diamond chase flatstock frames in there as well as the m3s so a corner rack is preferable.
I put a double layer of newman yellow tape on every screen, probably similar to the protection granted by the polyken.
thx alan, I'm tenuously excited about this.
Sent from my intelligent phone-a-majigger.
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Darkrooms and age...man I feel like I've spent half my life in the red light district ::)
Ever work in one with the round door?
Nice darkroom Alan and I 've been thinking about trying some EZ's
The way you research things I would like to know the different emulsions you are using. I think I see QTX
Thanks
Johnny
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Yes i have worked with one that has the round door "Teleporter" and one with eight different rooms performing all the different functions; using rolling racks to transport screens from department to department. Also one with pass through door
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Zoo, here are some additional pics of the corner racks and how a screen can (not all will) sit without the top rack holding it on.
(http://i485.photobucket.com/albums/rr211/alan802/SRI%20Pics/25087C7C-21EF-4634-AB96-B9360EC74275.jpg)\
(http://i485.photobucket.com/albums/rr211/alan802/SRI%20Pics/F5ED1E7E-A686-4002-87B3-30877F507F32.jpg)
(http://i485.photobucket.com/albums/rr211/alan802/SRI%20Pics/F0CA8BDB-F06D-4032-ADA8-73C2795C7CB4.jpg)
(http://i485.photobucket.com/albums/rr211/alan802/SRI%20Pics/85BE29FF-019D-4030-9CBB-39E1599337E6.jpg)
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I will be stealing this idea. Thanks Alan!!! ;D
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I will be stealing this idea. Thanks Alan!!! ;D
I stole it from several others, so steal it forward my friends.
I'm trying to remember where I got it from and it seems like I saw it on a video many years ago and when I saw it, I thought, "damn, why didn't I think of that?" I know I've seen it on more than one video and shop so I owe several people credit for it, just wish I could remember who the first video was so I could credit them with it.
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The logic/physics is solid. You are technically holding the screens at and a tiny bit beyond a half way point... just on the diagonal and the back corner is the support point so it doesn't tip backwards.
The diagonal is what makes it seem odd and you have to get outside the box to come up with this stuff. Luckily I didn't have to do that and someone else already did for us. ;)
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This storage trick is old hat, it would be nigh impossible to track down it's originator, if there even is one and it wasn't a spontaneous conclusion by many.
But it's new hat for roller frames, or at least to me! I though that the screen got 'pinched' by the boards on top of it, not that they rested freely on their own and that sounded like bad ju-ju for the rollers.
Thanks for showing this Alan. We have a standard flatness in the shop that all are frames are held to, in order of what gets adjusted to what:
expo glass>master or flat screen>roller master>all other screens >press
...so this should probably work out great if I install the 1x1 wood to match the flat screen and somewhat on the level. The rest of the frames are a little off I'm sure but it's a negligible amount. Looks like you installed those really well.
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In reality they might be better protected than in a drying rack. Only parts that can really scrape them are in the last seconds of putting them in. In a rack it has the slide the entire distance of the sides of the frame.
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Okay I need to start from the beginning here now that we are switching from a dual cure (UDC2) to a single cure (Chromablue). I have blacked out the room and now need to know what kind of light to use?
We have a drop ceiling with T12 bulbs so we could use that with the right bulbs if made or I am not opposed to just placing a lamp in the room so that we can use regular light if ever needed.
I guess my question is what kind of light is okay for the unexposed emulsion and yet provides enough visibility to coat and preregister screens?
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Okay I need to start from the beginning here now that we are switching from a dual cure (UDC2) to a single cure (Chromablue). I have blacked out the room and now need to know what kind of light to use?
We have a drop ceiling with T12 bulbs so we could use that with the right bulbs if made or I am not opposed to just placing a lamp in the room so that we can use regular light if ever needed.
I guess my question is what kind of light is okay for the unexposed emulsion and yet provides enough visibility to coat and preregister screens?
Most T12 bulbs put off very little UV in the spectral range that effects emulsion but some can. There are amber/yellow sleeves that are cheap and slide right over them and have black end caps. We use those on T12 fixtures. I would hope they've started making these for T8s buy now.
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They even have clear sleeves for the same purpose... not AS effective though.
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Okay I was mistaken, we have T8 fixtures and not T12. What nanometer do think we need 0 transmittance under? I can get some in the 300 and 500 range.
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Okay I need to start from the beginning here now that we are switching from a dual cure (UDC2) to a single cure (Chromablue). I have blacked out the room and now need to know what kind of light to use?
We have a drop ceiling with T12 bulbs so we could use that with the right bulbs if made or I am not opposed to just placing a lamp in the room so that we can use regular light if ever needed.
I guess my question is what kind of light is okay for the unexposed emulsion and yet provides enough visibility to coat and preregister screens?
LED lights emit even less UV in the spectral range that effects emulsion then T12 bulbs. And even better you can get T8 or T12 LED tubes which last longer and are cheaper to run.
Or you can go for these beauties from Kodak http://carestream.com/PublicContent.aspx?langType=1033&id=361252 (http://carestream.com/PublicContent.aspx?langType=1033&id=361252)
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I would just like to add that I use the corner shelving idea and it is really nice. I found it when I went looking for diy drying boxes, but I agree, it must be a really old idea.
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LED lights emit even less UV in the spectral range that effects emulsion then T12 bulbs. And even better you can get T8 or T12 LED tubes which last longer and are cheaper to run.
Or you can go for these beauties from Kodak [url]http://carestream.com/PublicContent.aspx?langType=1033&id=361252[/url] ([url]http://carestream.com/PublicContent.aspx?langType=1033&id=361252[/url])
That depends--you can actually get LEDS that emit (just about) only the diazo UV spectrum. I kinda looked into this back when I was expo shopping--you can get 370nM, 400nM, and 420nM LEDS, although they aren't cheap, and they don't put out enough light to be viable cost-wise for exposing--yet.
Amber LEDS are cheap as hell though. Could be a great idea for an inexpensive DIY project.
I don't know if I'd want red--start having film processing flashbacks. :)
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Well I ordered and just received the following:
http://www.1000bulbs.com/product/244/PLAS-T8UVA.html (http://www.1000bulbs.com/product/244/PLAS-T8UVA.html)
I just installed them and moved a light switch and redid some wiring and the room is surprisingly bright. I hope to test some Chromablue with these covers before the end of the week. I will report back after some testing. Time to break out the exposure calculator (I hate this as I feel like I am wasting time being non-productive)
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Yeah those were the ones that I was looking at.
Hey, look at that URL, must be a good product. ;)
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I guess so, I didn't even notice that blueness in the URL. Just finished meshing some 310's so I hope over the next couple of days to start testing the Chromablue. By the way Gilligan, the surf fishing has been crazy lately so come get you some while the gettin is good!
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That's the cover we got, but I doubled up on the bulb just to make double sure we are ok.
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I guess so, I didn't even notice that blueness in the URL. Just finished meshing some 310's so I hope over the next couple of days to start testing the Chromablue. By the way Gilligan, the surf fishing has been crazy lately so come get you some while the gettin is good!
Sure you can use that emulsion? It's not the right color for your shop. :p
Arghhh! I need to, sure would beat working! LOL I just got to get all this work out of the way!
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Not the right color emulsion? Confused.
Yeah, work tends to snuff out the play unless the two collapse into the same category, as seems to be the case for many here - which, I guess, is why they really excel at what they do.
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Just wanted to say that the amber covers I purchased (see link further up) work great with Chromablue emulsion. We have cut our exposure times by at least half by switching from UDC2 to Chromablue though we are still fine tuning the times for optimal halftone washout
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Just wanted to say that the amber covers I purchased (see link further up) work great with Chromablue emulsion. We have cut our exposure times by at least half by switching from UDC2 to Chromablue though we are still fine tuning the times for optimal halftone washout
Did you do any extended test... like the coin test or something?
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Not sure what the coin test is to be honest. We used the Chromaline calculator to get close and then just started burning screen after screen with with the same film with halftones until we got the results we were looking for.
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http://www.t-shirtforums.com/screen-printing/t25983.html#post153633 (http://www.t-shirtforums.com/screen-printing/t25983.html#post153633)
This man knows his business.