# Squeegees on the Cheap - DIY Tutorial



## quatto (Oct 9, 2007)

I needed two 16" squeegees for a design I'm doing this week, and since I love doing-it-myself I wandered down to the Home Depot to see if I could just build my own.

If you've ever had a job you might describe as "hellish", there's a good chance you've seen one of these:










It's a floor squeegee, for cleaning rooms so filthy you just hose them down and then squeegee all that slop out the door. Unlike a flimsy window squeegee, these are heavier-duty neoprene, this 24" wide one was the stiffest one I could find, I would guess durometer in the 50's or 60's; good for what I want to use it for.

Unfortunately, I couldn't just saw this metal thing down to the size I wanted, and at $15 it really wouldn't be that cost-effective. So the following is my ingenious 
method of making wide-format homemade squeegees on a shoestring budget.

You will need the following supplies:

an electric saw (not pictured)









measuring tape,









rubber cement,








an x-acto knife,








a staple gun or small finishing nails (my staple gun can fire those little nails, so that's what i used)








a pair of bolt cutters,








and a beer (it's important that you use Miller High Life, as this project is supposed to be as cheap as possible)

For the handle, I found this el-cheapo tounge & groove paneling, it was less than $3 for an 8-foot plank. The groove was almost a perfect fit for the thickness of my squeegee.









I used a mitre saw to cut two 16" lengths of it, these will be my two squeegee handles.









Next I took apart my squeegee, and cut it to 16" too.









The squeegee is really wide, and the groove in my handle is less than a half inch, if my blade is too long the angle and pressure are affected so I measured it in half and then cut lengthwise.









I applied a generous coating of rubber cement inside the groove of the handle and to the corresponding surface of the squeegee blade, wait for it to dry, and then press it firmly into place.








If you try this, your results may vary, but with mine, there was a little bit more space than I was hoping for, the squeegee blade had just _slightly_ too much wiggle-room in the groove, so I improvised, using bolt-cutters I cut several tiny shims out of the metal frame of the floor squeegee, and wedged them in to tighten the blade (you can see them a little in the picture)

Then I used the little finishing nails to anchor the blade to the handle. (Be sure you use nails that are long enough to go _all the way_ through the blade and into the other side of the groove, otherwise they will bend and the blade will eventually escape.)










And _voila!_ Squeegees at considerably less than a dollar an inch.









I don't think that Speedball is in any danger of going out of business over this, there will always be bureaucrats posing as serigraphers, who want to run their business like science and will pay for the convenience of not having to learn the nuances of their equipment, but if you treat this business like an art, (and I mean, technically, it is) the key to your success isn't going to be mesh tension or the preciseness of your squeegees; it's not about needing _better_ equipment, it's how well you _know_ the equipment you have.

That's just my opinion, I'm still relatively a rookie at screen printing, but that's pretty much my whole lifestyle. DIY or die!

p.s. - DIY FUN FACT: did you know that Brian May built a guitar when he was 16. He used an old fireplace mantel, antique buttons, knitting needles, bike and motorcycle parts. The result was a guitar that other guitarists found clunky and difficult to play, but he persisted and eventually mastered playing his homemade guitar, seven years later that guitar's idiosyncrasies created Queen's signature sound. The next time somebody tells you that professional grade equipment is the key to quality, remind them that face-melter solo on Bohemian Rhapsody was recorded on a guitar made of junkyard scrap, by a teenager.


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## tpitman (Jul 30, 2007)

That's a hell of a lot of work to make a squeegie. And most of the people here probably aren't using Speedball squeegies anyway, hopefully. There are handles and blades that, while a little more expensive than your solution, given the lifespan of a squeegie, are more economical, not to mention better suited to the job, than a floor squeegie. I don't mean to knock your ingenuity, but there's a point after which the "DIY" factor becomes more important than producing a quality job. That's about like going to a fabric store and buying organdy as a mesh. Will it work? Yes. Is it the way to do it just because you can push ink through it? No. Your work will be sh!t, but it'll be ink on a shirt.

I bought aluminum handles, and squeegie blades on a roll. The handles weren't cheap, but the blade material is comparable in price to your finished squeegie, and the handles will last forever. I can switch out the blade material as it becomes worn, and by the time you're on your second floor squeegie, I'm probably at a lower cost.

Now I don't want you to think that I'm coming down hard on you. You did have one thing right, and that was the beer (although if I'm going to drink cheap beer, I'd go for Pabst long necks before Miller). Perhaps this is where you're going wrong, anyway. I'm drinking a Guiness Extra Stout as we speak, and if you'd wash down about 3 of those, I can assure you you'd be seeing things my way ;-) Additionally, I read where Brian May recently got his doctorate in Astro Physics from a university in England. Jeez, the guy's in his 60's, and he goes back to graduate school? He's the Man!


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## quatto (Oct 9, 2007)

I see where you're coming from, man. Aluminum handles would be the cat's pajamas, and someday Lord willing that's a route I'd like to go. But I've seen too many failed printers selling off their top-of-the-line gear to think that there's no connection there. A lot of newbies blow their capital on equipment they barely know how to use, in hopes of being "legit". 

I know I could get real squeegees for a few dollars more, but I don't live in a major metro so i'd be waiting three to six days and I'm just too keen on DIY projects to not try it.

I have to disagree to some extent about quality materials though. Windex has made millions selling diluted ammonia, because they market it as being "specially formulated". 

Neoprene is neoprene, regardless of what it's marketed as, and organdy is multifilament mesh.
The real disadvantage of being exclusively a scavenger isn't inferior materials, it's limited selection. 
I actually did buy a whole bolt of organdy from the clearance bin Wal-Mart last summer, I use expensive mono mesh for artsy detailed prints, which I do order from a supplier because I want a precise thread count but for big block letters or simple logos the cheap stuff works fine. 

I guess Do-It-Yourself isn't just about saving a few cents, sometimes it isn't about money at all. I just enjoy being self-sufficient i suppose. It's like tending your garden when you could just buy produce at the market.


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## quatto (Oct 9, 2007)

i wanted to add another thought... 

There's this dude at my church who plays the guitar, he's talented but he's become obsessed with high-end gear. He spends more time tweaking trying to get the perfect tone than he does playing, which is annoying because nobody listening appreciates that, they couldn't even tell you what chords he's playing, let alone if he's captured Clapton's signature "woman tone".

You may look at a shirt I've printed and be able to tell it's **** work, hell i'd even admit it's **** work sometimes. But 99% of the customers think what we do is magic. I think the best strategy is to offer varying degrees of quality, that way you can cater to quality-savvy customers, as well as the usual cheapskates.

I know there's something to be said for making a product you can be proud of, but I'm still in my "humble beginnings" stage, and I could easily lose my shirt and lose my mind trying to print the Citizen Kane of tee shirts.


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## ino (Jan 23, 2007)

I agree with Quatto, If it works fine, if not try something new.

Not everyone has the possibility of just going to the local shop and buy a roll. 

In my case even if I found a seller willing to ship overseas, it would take me 20 days to get the stuff plus paying approx 3 times the price of it.


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## Unik Ink (Nov 21, 2006)

I see blisters in your future


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## tpitman (Jul 30, 2007)

quatto said:


> I guess Do-It-Yourself isn't just about saving a few cents, sometimes it isn't about money at all. I just enjoy being self-sufficient i suppose. It's like tending your garden when you could just buy produce at the market.


But I was spot-on about the beer ;-)

And truth be told, I'm famously cheap, but I've found out over the years that sometimes you simply have to draw a line on thrift. I built my own washout sink, I built my own exposure unit with vacuum, and I built my own drying cabinet. But I started using retensionables early on when new wood frames were warping so bad I couldn't register colors, and after struggling with 2 cheap presses, bought an almost new very good one. It makes all the difference in the world. Most stuff I own is certainly not first-class, but there are a few places where high quality does make a real difference.
I had an old truck that I insisted on redoing the exhaust system myself, thinking I'd save a bunch of money. I found out after the job was done (and after the truck barely made it through inspection) that I could've had the whole job done for the same or less at Midas.

The problem sometimes with self-sufficiency is, as you've found out, it's sometimes a little too intoxicating. I designed, permitted, and built my own garage, including electric and plumbing a bath in it, BY MYSELF (I'm hardheaded) saving myself a bundle in labor. I also insisted on using pressure treated lumber and plywood for all the sidewalls and sheathing, which was not cheap, but I was determined that wood rot and termites wouldn't be a problem. That was one of my successful DIY's. But I've also ended up in projects where I wish I'd paid someone a fair price to do a more professional job than I was capable of.


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## tpitman (Jul 30, 2007)

One more thing. After all the talk, I have to give you a pass on the cheap-a$$ squeegie solution, simply because you needed it to finish a job and there was no time to order, and it was a workaround.

But, no pass on the beer. The Irish are on to something in that arena.


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## quatto (Oct 9, 2007)

Whatevah. I like my beer like I like my women: a little weak but less bitter than most, and easy on the wallet.


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## radialhawk (Dec 16, 2008)

Love it man! I'm a fellow diy person. I'm currently making my junk of a press into a beast of a printing machine. Gonna have micro registration and everything. I hope anyway. LOL. Oh..and Bud Light all the way.


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