# Very simple basic steps to screen printing?



## Chae1993 (Sep 16, 2008)

So i looked around, and most of them have the same basic information on screen printing [manually] while some differ.

so please correct me, but so far i have these steps as creating a screen print shirt manually.

[these steps are what i gathered for a 1 color print]

1. get a 110-160 mesh screen
2. squeegee emulsion on both sides, no gloop, coating the mesh with bare minumum.
3. print a black and white design on transparency paper
4. put the transparency on top of the mesh on the side that has the 4 sides bordering it.
5. steps 1-4 are in the dark, and now i apply a bright light to the transparency paper/screen/emulsion with black cloth or paper on the bottom to absorb the light. 
6. now the light exposed part of the screen will harden and the part of the screen blocked out by the black ink will still be loose.
7. i spray out the loose part.
8. put on top of a shirt.
9. apply ink.

amiright?

also, is there any place that would sell fabric ink or airbrush? like big stores such as stables, home depot, etc.?

and are there such things as a fabric spray-paint, and if there is, could i just use a cardboard stencil and paint my shirt? would i have to heat-set-it-in afterwords?

please and thank you

-daniel


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## brent (Nov 3, 2006)

Some spray paints will last on a shirt, and you could just cut a cardboard stencil. I have a friend who has done this. Maybe look for paints that are NOT water-soluble? I've never done it personally.

Your list of steps is pretty accurate. You can get halfway decent waterbased inks at dick blick art stores ("union aerotex" brand. Speedball inks aren't that great but okay to start with, just don't bother with the white ink).


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## omnicow (Jun 3, 2008)

Chae1993 said:


> [these steps are what i gathered for a 1 color print]
> 
> 1. get a 110-160 mesh screen
> 2. squeegee emulsion on both sides, no gloop, coating the mesh with bare minumum.


Make sure after you coat the screen, you store it in a horizontal manner with the bottom (shirt side) down. If you store it vertically, the emulsion will run down the screen and create streaks that can potentially ruin the stencil. It has to be stored in a place with no light, such as some kind of cabinet, but it also has to have airflow, so the emulsion can dry, and it must be stored in a manner so that dust can't get on it. If you're trying to keep expenses down as much as possible and you're only doing a couple screens every now and then, then just take two blocks of wood, and lay the metal edges of your frame on them so that it is raised off the ground. Then, put a cardboard box on top of it, cut holes in the cardboard box (two sides, one, then the opposite side) for ventilation, point a fan at the holes, and then put some sort of blanket over the whole deal to keep light from coming into the holes in the box.



> 3. print a black and white design on transparency paper
> 4. put the transparency on top of the mesh on the side that has the 4 sides bordering it.
> 5. steps 1-4 are in the dark, and now i apply a bright light to the transparency paper/screen/emulsion with black cloth or paper on the bottom to absorb the light.


The spectrum of light that emulsion reacts to is UV light, which we can not see. Some lights that are very bright do not have the range of light to effectively burn a screen. I believe the sun is the most abundant (and cheapest) source of UV light if you do not have an exposure unit.



> 6. now the light exposed part of the screen will harden and the part of the screen blocked out by the black ink will still be loose.


It is loose, but not loose enough to fall out, and it is still sensitive to UV light. When you're taking your screen to the washout booth, don't let it get too close to any big lights, dim lights down if possible. If you're exposing it using the sun, cover it with a garbage bag after exposure to take it to where you're washing it out. In the shop that I work at, I usually don't turn off the light when I'm washing out a screen, but I do always make sure to close the door, as sunlight contains lots of UV rays and the emulsion can actually harden while you're washing it out. This is especially important if you don't have a pressure washer and your screen is going to take a long time to wash out.



> 7. i spray out the loose part.


Use a pressure washer if possible. You can pick one up for around $150 or so at Lowe's or Home Depot. These things are really prone to breaking though. I'd be extremely curious to hear if anyone knows of any pressure washers that don't break, and don't cost an arm and a leg.
The key to being able to wash a screen out well is balancing your pressure and distance. Start out farther back on full or close to full pressure. If certain places are not washing out, back your pressure off and get a little closer. You want to wash your design out as fast as possible. The longer you keep spraying it, the weaker your stencil will become and emulsion will wash off in placing you don't want it to. I believe this is called blowout.
Also, start out by spraying just enough to get each side wet, and let the screen sit for around 30 seconds or so. Water will soak into the unhardened emulsion and it wash out much faster, give you a considerably smaller risk of blowout.



> 8. put on top of a shirt.
> 9. apply ink.


Be sure to clamp your screen down so that it doesn't move while you're applying the ink. If it was to, then your design would be totally smeared and people would not think it was the bee's knees. 



> amiright?


Yes.

-Ryan


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## Asche (May 10, 2009)

Some very helpful tips in there for sure. I just started printing and am using the sun to burn my screens. works great but I may be messing up when I go to spray out the emulsion by doing so in an area that is not completely shaded. I'm using 155 and 120 mesh right now. I have no pressure washer but a pressure nozzle on my hose that works ok. White's seem hard to print on dark colors but I think once I get my flash dryer I will step that up with a fbfb concept. Another thing I have been doing is laying my screens shirt side up while drying. Now I will change that. I have a lot more questions since I have never done anything like this before and am just starting out.


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## VirtualIsland (Sep 22, 2007)

try a youtube video just put in silkscreen and you will get many. screen depends on what your doing too.hope this helps because there are alot of people (myself included) that have learned through forum,google then youtube video.


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## Asche (May 10, 2009)

yes youtube is actually where I have received a lot of my information especially since i am more of a visual type learner. i just got my flash dryer and need to find out the distance from the palette for it to be for curing.


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