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Originally Posted by skunk |  | | | | | | | | | wow major information harold thanx...are the steps complicated for screen printing? | |  | |  | |
When I got into screen printing I don't know about 10 years ago. The first thing I did was go to the local art supply store and buy a speedball starter set. You can find them online. Speed ball offers this set that comes with a cheap frame and some hinges and the chemicals to make a screen.
I played around with that and made a b/w tshirt. And was thrilled. I would suggest you try this first. See if you like it before you invest $5000 worth of stuff to sit in your garage and later sell for $2000.
I will lay out what it takes to screen print for you. Well you get everything you need. You will need a dark room. A bathroom with no windows was mine. Also its good to have a shower head that has a gentle spray.
1) prep screen (clean it and make sure there is no dust)
2) in darkroom mix light sensitive coating for screen (When I started screen printing I went to whats called capillary film. Its a little more expensive but nicer to print with.)
3) evenly coat you screen with the emulsion (Kinda like a mud mixture)
4) let screen completely dry (1-2 hours)
5) make a positive of what you want on your shirt. There is a large range of things you can use. Special papers and programs. Or you could start off with just buying some inkjet transfer paper for projectors and print on that. Make sure you use a heavy coating of black.
6) now here comes the difficult part until you get the hang of it. You put the positive on the screen against the capillary film. Tons of equipment can be purchased for this. bought a coffee table with a glass top and put blacklights under it and a chiltons guide on top of the screen for extra pressure.
7) somehow you have to find the designated amount of time thats right for your emulsion and the amount of light you are using. When you find this out you can flash the screen with the light. Did I mention this was all in a darkroom?
8) once the screen is flashed and still in the darkroom. Use a gentle amount of room temperature water to rinse the screen. The image where there was black will washout exposing raw screen. This needs to be done thoroughly but not too much or you will was out detail.
9) you can turn the lights on and let the screen dry. A fan will help. A dehumidifier will help even more.
10) Once the screen is dry use plastic packing tape and surround the area of the screen not covered in emulsion with tape. Taping the fram will help clean up later.
11) now you can print your first shirt. Speedball Inks will dry on their own. But real screen printing inks require a high temperature oven with a belt to melt the plastisol. Or you can cheat and use a flash dryer to dry it to touch and heat press it the rest of the way.
Really things are much more complicated than that. That is the nutshell version. I could go on for hours about technique, proper flooding and cutting edges. But I am not. But I would suggest considering to spend money on a R. Jennings press. He helped me out. He is a good guy who cares about everyone who buys his shirts. He also provides the most boring lecture on how to screen print but you get it when you buy one of his presses.
The screen printing business is not easy. Thats why you will always find a used screen printer for sale. But if you want to do it as a hobby for extra money. I was making as much money selling shirts part time as I was working at a convience store. But the convience store was what brought me business. When I quit to do screen printing full time it was tough.
If there is a ISS show near you you ought to go before buying an expensive press. There are more than one way to skin a cat and 3 times as many ways to make a screen printer.
first purchase 
