# Emulsion won't wash out after exposing



## Aaronopoliss (Mar 2, 2013)

I use speedball's diazo emulsion. I coat the screen. I let it dry over night. The next day I expose the screen using 4 high halogen lamps for about 13 minutes and when I go to wash out the screen some parts of the unexposed emulsion simply won't wash out. And when it eventually does, the parts of the screen that washed out first are totally blown. Granted I don't have a pressure washer. I am completely DIY, and am doing this out of my parents garage. I use a pretty basic pressure nozzle attachment. I am extremely new to all of this (successfully made 1 screen), and really need some help.


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## Celtic (Feb 19, 2008)

When you say "4 high halogen lights"........what wattage ?
If they have a glass plate (that comes with the lights) you need to remove those before using.
Also, make sure that your glass plate (that you're using on your exposure unit setup) doesn't have a UV coating on it. That'll block the UV light that you require to expose your screen.
Your image on your film also must be opaque. If it's not dark enough, you're not going to be able to expose it. 
If you can see through your ink on your film you're going to have problems.

more info please !


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## kkevents (Aug 22, 2009)

Sounds like you are over exposing. 

When I first started out I used capillary film and exposed it for 12 min. Then I seitch to DXP Emulsion and exposed it for 6min. Then I later on I switched to HiFi from Ryonet which I started exposing at 3.5 min. and I was getting a good screens for most stuff but was a little hard to wash out.

I did that for about a year and then realized that I was way over exposing when I had a lot of halftone jobs come in.

Now I am still happily using HiFi and burning for 45 seconds getting perfect halftones and washout is done with a very gentle fine mist. I usually mist gently front and back just long enough for the image to really show up and start to become transparent then let it sit for a few min. and occasionally re-misting it if the air is really dry. Then I start gently washing it out with a gentle mist kind of similar to a mister. And it usually rinses right out with out any issues. 

My exposure times vary between the seasons, as it gets more humid and cold I have to burn longer sometime doubling my time.


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## Aaronopoliss (Mar 2, 2013)

I tried exposing for 10 minutes and it worked much better. Thanks for the advice guys. I'll give it a few more try's and I should be able to really dial it in.


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