# cheap ways to do screen printing



## shirtsari (Mar 15, 2011)

*cheap screen printing ways and testing*

A frame can be made out of melamine. Just use a jigsaw to cut a hole. Then seal the edges with paint. The melamine is very flat and you don't have to connect corners. Melamine is fairly flat and the thicker stuff will resist warping fairly well. It can often be found at the side of the road since it is used for furniture construction. Melamine is also what they use to make platens. Why should I buy one. I used to work in a factory putting edging on all kind of shapes of cut melamine. Melamine can be picked up at the side of the road, just wait long enough and the thickness you need will be sitting there at the side of the road just waiting for your saws to cut it to shape. Sometimes I makes screens for friends or other people and by using melamine I don't have to give away one of my aluminum frames.

Make some small experimental frames. Use sheer curtain fabric of scraps of real silk screen mesh. Stretch them as much as you can. If you are testing emulsion exposures, coverage, reclaimabity, inks, your small experimental screens don't have to be perfect. There is no sense wasting your supplies. Small screens are better for testing and you can use the scraps in a useful way. If something doesn't work and you have to trash the mesh then you won't be wasting your money. These small screens can be easily washed in a sink.

Sheer curtain fabric can be used as mesh. It works well and has a mesh count of about 80 threads per inch. I am sure there are other fabrics that can be used as well. You can buy curtains cheaply at Value Village in Canada or at the Salvation Army thrift store.

Regular contact cement can be used to attach the curtain fabric to the melamine frame. I made some sticky glue by disolving styrofoam in lacquer thinner I will try it to see if it will work well to attach mesh to frames.

I have four kinds of emulsion (that I bought) and I want to experiment by mixing them with a little white glue to make them last longer.

If you are bold you can get a little bit of free emulsion. Just go to a silk screen printing shop and tell them you are you are a beginner and want to experiment and see how it works. I used this technique last week to get some offset printers ink to experiment with to see if it would work on paper bags. Ask them if they have an almost empty container you can have. People are very generous and willing to help beginners. Lucky for me that I didn't have to buy the offset ink because it takes forever to dry and not really what I needed for what I was trying to do. I have plenty of money and can easily pay for hundreds of tubs of ink. I am not suggesting anyone become a beggar. The point is to get a little bit of what you need to try an idea. If it works then you go buy it. I am a very generous person and always doing things for people free of charge and willing to help.

When I was at an industrial unit buying water-based screen ink I saw some tubs on the guys shelves and asked about them. The man said they were old and probably not good. I asked if I could have them for free so I could use them to practice with since I am a beginner. He gave them to me. Now I have too much ink. A lot of the tubs had good ink. To him they were not worth opening to see if they were good or bad. Lucky for me.
Ask and you will receive, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened. You have not because you ask not. I have a right to ask, they have a right to give, or to say no. I am not saying to trick people.


Instead of transparencies vegetable oil can be used to make photocopies or laser printouts translucent.
You can save toner by printing large text and designs with only a black outline and then later using cheap acrylic paint or black solvent paint to fill in the inner areas. It takes extra time but saves a lot of money. Black acrylic paint from the dollar store is a lot cheaper than a new toner or printer cartridge. Just find a cheap black paint that sticks to transparencies. My black solvent based ink works well, it is perfectly opaque and dries fast.


I have used a 60 watt incandescent bulb to burn screens. I would turn on the bulb before I went to bed and then in the morning the screen image would wash out perfectly. The sun can also be used to burn screens.

You do NOT need a pressure washer. I have burned and washed out many screens at the sink or in the tub. I just use a soft bristled brush to get things moving, no need to waste a lot of water. Just be gentle and keep your movements to the image areas and do most of the rubbing on the side that is cured better (the side toward the light). 

You can easily make a squeegee with wood and rubber inner tube.

You can use thickened latex paint or alkyd paint to practice printing onto paper or scrap clothing. (It can almost even be used as ink in some situations, for example, signs. We all know how hard it is to wash paint out of clothes.) (I paid hundreds of dollars for many brands of water based, solvent and plastisol inks. Other people don't have the luxury of having this kind of money and are better off practicing cheaply.) Screen printing places often have opened containers of ink at reduced prices.

Plastisol ink is easily cured with a heat gun or hair dryer to dry it a little and by covering the design with a piece of parchment paper and then ironing it at a high setting. (If you see an old fashioned electric iron at the side of the road, grab it, they get really hot.) 

I use Excalibur plastisol ink and it washes up from my screens very easily with soap and water.

Forgive me for this one. I help my friend do scrap metal and rubbish removal. We always have our eyes open for valuable stuff at the side of the road. Even today while I was out putting out my advertising I found two working halogen fixtures complete with bulbs. Not that I need any more. Now if only I could find a light table, I just might.
Discarded wood, screws, nuts, bolts, threaded rod, hinges can be found as scrap at the side of the road or behind factories to build a screen printing machine. (I have lots of tools to cut wood and basic tools to cut and drill metal.) Spend a few days behind factories in your area check the ground around the edges of the building and the dock areas. You will find thousands and thousand of screw, nut, bolts, threaded rod etc. These things are expensive to buy in a hardware store. You will find all sorts of other thing like hose, plywood, lumber, plexiglass, glass, electrical outlets, sockets just lying all over the place because people go behind factories in industrial areas and dump a lot of illegal construction waste. Careful though DO NOT STEAL ANYTHING. If it is obvious junk then no problem. I am not encouraging anything illegal.

I want to try to encase in thin concrete slabs and sheet metals the heating and thermostat components of a toaster oven or stove burners to see if I can make my own heat press. Just be careful you all you mad scientist don't burn your house or garage down. My friend is a scrap collector and has workshops where I can experiment.

(By the way I have all the right gear (except the printing machine or a flash dryer or conveyor belt. I am thinking about the younger people visiting this site who don't have a lot of disposable cash. I have a job and can buy almost any screen printing equipment I want but I am a beginner myself and while I am learning and experimenting I don't want to waste too much of my hard earned money. I bought six quarts of ink from ASC365.com thinking it was plastisol ink for fabric. They at ASC365 don't even realize it is PVC solvent based ink for printing on plastic and not on fabric.)

If you live in the Toronto area check out ASC365.com. They are located on Midland just above Progress. They have a lot of cheap stuff. I don't work for them or know them or associated with them. They have stuff that is cheap. If you know of cheaper prices in Toronto let me know. You can find cheap screen printing ink and supplies at Gwartzman's on Spadina Ave. just below College St. in Toronto. Again I don't know these people. I buy there and want to help others keep their hard earned cash in their pocket. If you know of cheaper suppliers in Toronto please let me know so I can save even more money myself.

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This thread is for those who don't have tons of money to spend on all the fancy gear to do screen printing. I can personally buy just about anything I want but that does not mean I want to just give my money away to everyone selling me a lot of unnecessary junk that I can devise and build myself. Screen printing is EXTREMELY LOW TECH. It can give amazing results but it is the furthest thing from anything really scientific. Yes there are a few non-household/workshop chemicals but big deal. I have my real mesh, aluminum frames, four emulsions, Excalibur and water-based inks. I spent hundreds of dollar and ruined a lot of expensive shirts. I could easily spend thousands of dollars next week, (I am thinking about buying a laser cutter to cut fabric and laser cut stamps and to do laser etched signs) but why should I. I don't need to cut corners in any way. I have some money I could burn so I don't need any well wishers. Thanks. I am doing fine. My concern is to help those who depend on their parents and allowance to get started screen printing. I am just encouraging those who lack the means (ie. $$.$$) to use their creativity and limited resources. I just bought two embroidery digitizing programs at $1000 each. Thanks but my luck is fine I don't need any more luck.

Besides, I like to experiment.
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## selanac (Jan 8, 2007)

You can get a single color and single station for about $100. Get a part time job to earn some extra money. 

You'll be glad you did.

Good job on your Creativity though.


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## royster13 (Aug 14, 2007)

Or a screen and a couple salvaged hinges (although Jiffy Clamps are nicer)....


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## VinylHanger (Jul 16, 2010)

Good luck. I think you are going to need it.


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## FreeMarketeer (Feb 10, 2011)

Why bother? Steal a sharpie and draw your design on a thrift store t-shirt.


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## VinylHanger (Jul 16, 2010)

I just reread your post. I would hope that any young people that read it and need to save money would ignore it and get some real advice.


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## selanac (Jan 8, 2007)

Personally I wasn't trying to be rude, but give TshirtSari alternatives to make money to buy equipment.

I know it's not easy to start up.


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## FreeMarketeer (Feb 10, 2011)

I don't think your post was rude, Paul. I am someone considering many ideas on how to begin my venture under capitalized. But walking along the side of the road and behind factories to find pieces to build a press? Tricking vendors into giving me free ink and chemicals? Sure, it might work, but so does pan handling. 

shirtsari, some of your ideas are legit and I appreciate you sharing them, but others take the concept too far in my opinion.


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