one color silkscreen
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- heavyarms
I want to get into silkscreen but don't know much about it. If I want to do some 1 color shirts should I pay to get them done or would it be more cost efficient to buy a small kit or build one myself? I would like to learn to do it anyway.
- mrdobolina0
http://www.dickblick.com/zz430/0…
buy this kit, it's really cheap.
- floater0
screening apparel gets really expensive. you have to have special dryers for the ink. unless you just want to screen with acrylics but then they start to fade. all depends on what you want to do i guess.
- radar0
You can build that - easiest thing is to hinge frame to a table top.
Main thing you need to do is read up on burning a screen - buy screen, emulsion, etc. You are probaly better off buying pre-streched screens initially.
You could even do a stencil cheaper if its not a detailed design.
- kld0
first lesson in silkscreen... They don't use silk, hence the new name ... screenprinting
- mrdobolina0
for your first run use dark colored waterbased inks on light colored shirts. they can air dry and will be quite colorfast.
figure out if sickscreening is something you want to do, then you can buy a flash/belt dryer and plastisol inks.
- heavyarms0
So I guess you would need a drying machine for lighter colors?
I need to look into it more because I don't have a clue how I would get the image onto the screen. Some one I know used to have a large machine that does that.
- floater0
the emulsion that you spread on the screen is light sensitive. so when you place an image on it and expose it to light, your image is exposed on to the screen. you then wash off the screen and what ever was bloked by your image will wash away, everything else will hold to the screen making a stencil for lack of a better word.
- radar0
here are some reasonably priced items to start with.
Supplies(screen, frame, hinges, squeegee, emulsion and sensitizer) http://www.reuels.com/reuels/pag…
- radar0
exactly what floater said - and you can use a high-watt light bulb to dry - just takes a little longer.
Your just wanting to experiment right?
- kodap0
any tips on how to burn the emulsion - machines, traditional ways??
I have some interest on this matter too.
- kodap0
that's cool, radaar
- sauerbraten0
yeah, my buddy and i have messed around with it, done some one color prints with a screen we had made from a local shop, haven't tried burning our own, that part scares me..
- mrdobolina0
in all reality, you can use a 150 watt light bulb. photoflood bulbs will drastically decrease exposure time.
- floater0
here's the ghetto way i did it:
i went to Home Depot and bought, you know those light fixtures we had back in school? (imagine a boring cubicle office)
i bought one of those and wired an extension cord to it (cause they come with exposed wires for wiring purposes, Home Depot has extension cords with exposed wires on one end) and i just place that on the ground with a piece of plexy glass on top and whalla! you have a ghetto light box.when you get serious, you'll want one that's enclosed with a vacuum seal.
hope that helps. sorry if it's confusing.
- heavyarms0
so you can use a 150 watt light bulb to make the exposure. How long do you have to leave the light on for? How far do you hold the light from the screen?
- heavyarms0
My friend had this giant machine with a vacuum seal.
I tried stencils but I'm not good at them so far. The edges on everything I did looked like crap.
- floater0
the image, screen and light all need to be sand wiched tohether as tight as possible.
as far as exposure times go, you might just have to play with it. a good light should be like under a minute seconds. my ghetto set up is like 15 min. ha!
- radar0
it can vary, but if your using a 150 watt bulb - I would do it for a while 4-5 hours to be safe - and keep the light maybe 3-4 feet from screen.
- radar0
yeah - I too only know the ghetto approach - but sometimes slightly shotty results add to the design - make kind of old looking.
- floater0
radar-
do you get a better exposure by keeping the light away from the image. all the books i read said to have all that squished together.4-5 hrs sounds like a really long time too.