Just come across this site - been looking for something like this for a while!
I wonder if any of you could help with a problem I have. I have just started screenprinting (fabric mainly) and, though I have managed to work out how to create photoemulsion screens (with much trial and error!) I am having trouble with the actual printing.
I'm using 43T mesh and waterbased ink (one colour at the mo..) and basically I can't seem to get a decent print out of it. Either not enough ink comes through, or if I run it again too much ink gets deposited. The instruction I got with the kit says to flood the screen once before commencing a print stroke (this seems to deposit too little ink) but I have read elsewhere to flood 3/4 times in a rocking motion before doing your first print stroke, but this seems to deposit too much ink. The effect seems to be the same whether I print on fabric or paper.
I am also unclear on the full process of flood and print, do you pull ALL your ink across the screen before the print stroke or just enough to cover the screen? And what happens to the ink thats left on the other side of your flood stroke, or do you pull that back across as you print?
I don't know if its important but my squeegee has an 'angled' cut blade - not rounded, and I seem to have better results if I print side-to-side as opposed to up-and-down.
Apologies for lengthy first post, but its becoming really frustrating - I have some great ideas and I can't wait to see them in print!
I'm fairly new to this and so I can ony go off my own experiences. I got a 43T and a 90T screen when I started and I've yet to get one decent print from the 43T - similar problems with too much ink. Basically, it seems that the mesh just lets too much ink through. I'm having that screen re-meshed to a 90T.
The 90T seems perfect for me (although that's just down to my own experience).
Different inks have different consistencies, eg white tends to be a lot thicker than black which is a lot more 'runny' and so I find black a lot easier to print with. You can 'extend' the inks or make them 'softer' but it depends on what type of ink and whether it's plastisol or water based, for example, so best to search around this forum for advice on how to do that.
With your strokes, basically, the flood stroke fills the holes in the mesh with ink. When you do your print stroke, you pull another layer of ink over the mesh, forcing the ink in the holes out onto the printing material. If you do three to four flood strokes you're just pushing three to four layers of ink onto the print side of the screen surface which will then just be too much when you do your print stroke.
BTW, yes, you should take the ink back across the screen for the print stroke as that's what pushes the ink through the mesh.... also, you'd end up with a lot of ink at one end of the screen if you didn't take it back.
Another thing I've learnt (if you're using water based inks) is that you should do an off-contact (ie screen away from your print surface) flood stroke straight after your print stroke to prevent the ink drying in the mesh and clogging up your artwork.
Hope this is helpful and good luck with it. Perserverance and advice from this forum will get you there
I got 2 43 and one 32 with my kit. Looking around the net a little it would appear that the 43 is for 'general' textile work (which could be curtains or something!) and the 32 is for printing with a thick white ink.
It seems to make sense, the image is not as sharp as I would have expected.
Thanks for the info on the print strokes, one question, though: If you deposit an ink layer with the very first flood stroke then you push that through with the ink deposited on the print stroke, if you then do an 'off-screen' flood straight away are you not adding another layer of ink in there? Does that make sense or have I mis-read it?
Either way, thanks for the info and the quick response!!
Glad to be of help Mark, all this stuff is what other people have taught me on here.
I know what you mean about the ink, but you'll probably find that nearly all of the ink from the print stroke goes through as well. If you look at the screen straight after the print stroke, you'll see that there is very little ink in the mesh. If you leave this while you take the shirt off the platen and put another one on, the small amount of residue ink in the mesh will dry (usually around the edges of the artwork) causing the next print to have gaps and/or poorer edge definition. This will worsen for every subsequent print unless you do the off-contact flood stroke after the print stroke. You can wash out the dried ink, but you'll lose time waiting for it to dry before you can print again.
WRT to the mesh sizes, just a warning in csae you didn't know, but you'll see mesh counts of 220, 190 etc mentioned on here. These are American sizes and different compared to the metric 43T, 90T, etc counts that we use in Europe. It threw me at first.... I thought my 90T mesh must be way to lo-res compared to the 220s. I'm not sure what a 43T is in American sizes.... I'm sure someone on here probably does though.
I'll see if I can get my mesh changed to something more hi-res then. Admittedly, when I bought the kit it was advertised as just 'screenprinting' not necessarily t-shirts (or clothing in general), so I guess thats why we get 'general' mesh sizes.
Out of interest, if I were printing sweatshirts for example, would I still use the 90T mesh? Is the 43 etc only for really coarse fabric?
I'll chime in on this one, i print alot of t-shirts and i use 155 mesh screens, i get very crisp prints everytime(at least when i get the screen right, lol)
Don't get caught out with the mesh counts... Dave's probably using 155 American size, which is probably something like a 60T (if that exists). Speak to your supplier and see what they stock and recommend.
43T is basically standard for textiles - t-shirts as well as other fabrics. It's not unusual to use something a bit higher, but it's not unusual to use 43T for just about everything either.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mikiec
Dave's probably using 155 American size, which is probably something like a 60T (if that exists).
Would be, yeah. My supplier has (amongst other things) 55T and 62T, so there are certainly options in that neighbourhood.
Do you think that the mesh size is not the root of my problem?
Given that you've had problems in both directions (too little ink and too much ink) I'm more inclined to think it comes down to technique. But I suck at diagnosing problems, and others here who don't have attributed problems to the mesh count in situations where I wouldn't have (I rarely vary my mesh count, so in that regard I'm a poor printer).
Too much/too little ink? 
Re: Too much/too little ink? 
Re: Too much/too little ink? 
I'm not sure what a 43T is in American sizes.... I'm sure someone on here probably does though. 
Re: Too much/too little ink? 
Re: Too much/too little ink? 
