# Screen Printing Problems! Help Please!



## TuliLifestyleFam (Nov 17, 2017)

So I'm starting a clothing company, and I bought this little screen printing setup. When I put the photo emulsion on, I let it dry in the dark with a fan on.. Then I put the transparency on, with glass over it, with a light. That sits for about 50 mins to 1hour. When its done, I can barely see the design, and when I go to wash it out, it doesn't wash out correctly... All the emulsion just starts coming off the screen. Not sure what I'm doing wrong, Ive tried some other ways and the same thing happens. Please help!


----------



## JamieLampert (Feb 20, 2017)

Under exposed


----------



## NoXid (Apr 4, 2011)

See the link in my sig for info on how to test to determine proper exposure.

What emulsion and what light?

UV light is what exposes emulsion, but UV is considered an unwanted byproduct in most lighting situations and only a small amount of the output of most lights is UV. Normal LEDs, for example, produce just about zero UV.


----------



## Twisted Grafix (Oct 5, 2016)

I started out that way many years ago. Make sure your glass isn't UV glass. We used a 500 watt halogen and couldn't burn screens either. Turns out the glass on the light fixture AND the glass over the screen were blocking the UV from the bulb. Try taping the corners of the film down with regular tape from Walgreens and ditch the glass. Expose it and see if that works. Over the years, we've stepped up to a metal hallide and now have an LED unit, and will never go back. Gotta do what you need to to start out!


----------



## Ripcord (Sep 2, 2006)

Try making a sandwich out of the screen, a piece of foam rubber, plywood and plate glass. hold it tightly together and carry it outside on a sunny day. Point it toward the sun and count to 60. The sun is an excellent source of UV light and it's free to use.


----------



## Industryps (Aug 9, 2016)

Back in our early days we clamped the film to a coated screen with a 1/4" sheet of plexi on top and pillow underneath and put them on a cart and rolled them outside. We would get perfectly burned screens in about 8 seconds on a clear day.
When weather was bad we used the same method indoors by using two 500watt work lights and would get an acceptable burn in about 20 minutes.

I personally started with Speedball kits and would expose the screens with a 150watt incandescent bulb about a foot above the image area. This method burned small screens in about 30 mins and was very hit or miss.


----------

