Im thinking about getting a 4 color manual press from ebay for $275
It dosent have micro registration. Im new to screen printing and want to start printing tee shirts. my plan is to use this press to make shirts and make enough money to buy a good press. Im only 14 and dont have a job and DO NOT get money handed to me. I am good with designing digital art via Illustrator and photoshop. I plan on getting my negatives printed at kinkos I just have a couple Q's
Can I make a flash unit?
can I make a light exposer box
Is there a way to dry the tee shirts with out spending Thousands on a dryer?
Hi there. Welcome to screen printing. It's a good craft.
You can't really make a flash cure unit easily, I would save up so you can buy a proper one eventually. In the meantime, you could print shirts with a basic press fine. The table I've used for the last 8 months would probably sell for less than that ebay press. Could you link to the press? You will probably mostly just do one color prints, but you can register a multi color design without micro registration knobs, using different old-school methods and a lot of patience. There are water-based inks that will dry and be supposedly wash-fast without any heating. You can make an exposure unit yourself. There are designs online for various methods or you could find what I basically followed in the book How to Print Shirts for Fun and Profit. When I started I was just using a 150watt bulb to burn screens. You can get away without having a dryer for a long time.
I hope this helps and makes sense. You can PM me with questions if you'd like.
Hi there. Welcome to screen printing. It's a good craft.
You can't really make a flash cure unit easily, I would save up so you can buy a proper one eventually. In the meantime, you could print shirts with a basic press fine. The table I've used for the last 8 months would probably sell for less than that ebay press. Could you link to the press? You will probably mostly just do one color prints, but you can register a multi color design without micro registration knobs, using different old-school methods and a lot of patience. There are water-based inks that will dry and be supposedly wash-fast without any heating. You can make an exposure unit yourself. There are designs online for various methods or you could find what I basically followed in the book How to Print Shirts for Fun and Profit. When I started I was just using a 150watt bulb to burn screens. You can get away without having a dryer for a long time.
I hope this helps and makes sense. You can PM me with questions if you'd like.
Hello, i just started to screen print but dont got a spot dryer unit, i bought speedball ink and screens and was wondering if a heat gun will do the trick???
Dont use your cooking oven, you can get them free in the news paper I set mine out side behind the laundry room changed the plug so it goes in the clothes dryer outlet.If i had more room in the laundry room i would put it in there and stick an exhaust fan in the window but for the small runs i use it for it works fine outside in the carport cecil
Is there a way to dry the tee shirts with out spending Thousands on a dryer?
Yes.
Waterbased: an iron (crappy) or a heat press (fine)
Plastisol: a flash dryer (not its intended purpose and not going to give you best results, but an option if you're on a super tight budget)
Neither option (heat press/waterbased or flash dryer/plastisol) will cost thousands, but both will cost hundreds.
I think the top one is probably waterbased ink, the middle is likely plastisol, the bottom is almost certainly plastisol.
Plastisol will give you the most opaque results on dark fabric. Waterbased is not as opaque, but it has a softer feel. Both can be made to mimic the other (e.g. plastisol can have a soft feel, and waterbased can be entirely opaque), but as a generalisation it holds reasonably true.
If you do a forum search there have been a lot of posts on the subject.
ok so with that said, Can you heat set Plastisol with a heat gun?
Or i have the old toaster oven what if i place a shirt on a oven pan stick it in there for about 3-8 sec and take it out
Ebay screen press 
) depending on your skills and what effect you're trying to achieve.
