Silkscreening
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- illroot
Anyone here ever buy one of those home silkscreening kits and make shirts at home? Are they any good? Easy to use? Can the screened shirts withstand multiple washings?
Thanks.
- mrdobolina0
plastisol ink, which most t-shirts are printed with need solvents or screen wash for cleanup. you need very good ventilation because these are pretty toxic chemicals. Also, these inks need to be heat-cured using a flash dryer.
You can use water-based ink, but it won't be as colorfast as plastisol, but cleanup is a breeze with water and you can heat-cure them with a regular household iron or heat gun. Water-based inks are generally recommended for light colored shirts as they aren't very opaque though. By a kit and give it a shot.
- illroot0
Please forgive my ignorance but does plastisol ink dry kind of thick and heavy? I'm trying to avoid that but I do want color that I can screen well on colored shirts. Would multiple coats do the trick? or perhaps screening white first on a colored ehirt and then printing the image?
- mrdobolina0
you can do it using water based ink but the prints will fade over time. Plastisol is the thick kinda of deposit you are talking about. Water-based ink almost impregnates the shirt with ink versus laying on top of the garment. It soaks in more, so multiple passes (coats) tend to bleed a bit. bright colored ink on colored shirts using water-based is pretty tough to get good results.
No problem about the questions, gotta start somewhere.
- mrdobolina0
If you decide to move forward with this, get a good kit. Don't mess with the speedball kits at art stores.
- agentfour0
water based also crack easy
- mikah0
Where do you fnd those kits in europe?
Thanx
- Bottlerocket0
Ever heard of google?
- NegativeSpace0
Yeah w/ water based inks and those speedball inks I definitely had some pretty shitty results.
- oinkoink0
yes, gotta use heat tempered ink to withstand wash, can temper in your oven on low heat.
1. can't print images >90% of the screen size.
2. must use hiinges and marker tags to register multiple inks
3. screen must never sit on-top of substrate, use pieces of cardboard to raise off surface
- Seanbot0
everyone seems to talk down upon the speedball stuff, but i had a lady friend who made some excellent t-shirts with a speedball kit.
though, she did move onto "real" supplies after mastering the craft though . . .
- mrdobolina0
you are never going to get opaque colors on black shirts, spedball is for hobbyists.
- Unorthodox0
Dont buy the kits offa ebay. They is the crap. Bought a two color kit for like 350 and it was made of wood and registration was so horrilbe we went out and got one of these.
http://www.workhorseproducts.com…
Ive been diggin the inks from one stroke. If you have questions talk to Helen she rules up there.
- illroot0
Thanks for all the help and info guys. I'm going to try and see if I can't get some of these supplies separately and see if it's more cost effective. I already have access to 2 large screens and can't see if I can get the rest.
Thanks again.
- mrdobolina0
No problems, illroot. I always like talking about screen printing.
- ross0
it is a lot of fun though.
speedball will do you good enough for the first couple goes, then you buy better stuff as you need it.
- redefine0
on the topic... anyone know much about curing inks on fabric, specifically how you know when it is fully cured?
- mrdobolina0
The manufacturer of the ink will tell you how long it needs to flash cure and at what temp. Then you just do a few tests.
I have a flash dryer at home collecting dust.
- Unorthodox0
i usually set it for 30-45 seconds before another color or if im printing many shirts and the cure the shirts in the end for about 1-1.5 minutes
- mrdobolina0
I scorched the shit out of some shirts one time over-curing them.
- Unorthodox0
mr d scorching shirts sucks especially if its white ink or a white shirt you get that brownish color i hate it