So I am a little new to screen printing and have found this forum to be most helpful. I am a small hobby printer I Have made about 10 screens and plan to do about that many every year. My set up is not fancy or expensive but it was working great until recently. My problem is with a few screens not letting all my ink through to the shirt the image appears blotchy and not full. I have had good luck doing the exact same methods but now am having problems. I use water based ink and Holden’s 206 DC dual cure photo emulsion I have a scoop coater and my 110 mesh screens look great the image is burnt perfectly and washed out just like it should have. I degreased my screens before I coated and burned. The screens in question are brand new and have not been reclaimed. The exact same process has given me some great screens that work perfectly. So what is wrong? Do I need a haze remover? Any help would be appreciated. I can upload pictures if it would help.
Are you fully exposed the emulsion, or is the squeegie side sort of slimy during washout? If it's slimy, the emulsion isn't fully exposed, and unless you blot your screens almost dry with a paper towel or something, and especially if you dry them after exposure standing on their end or side, water with a trace of emulsion may be draining over the open areas of your stencil and partially blocking the stencil as the water evaporates. Since you're using water based ink, I assume your emulsion is waterproof or water resistant. About the only thing you can do is reclaim the screen and try it again, paying special attention to blotting the stencil after exposure washout.
As posted above, you may want to inspect the mesh to see if the open areas are as open as they appear. Upon inspection, if the mesh seems to be fine, it may have something to do with your ink consistency and the action of your squegeeing. Speaking only from my personal experience when I first starting home screenprinting, I was finding issues whereby my screen was sitting too far above the shirt when printing (or in fact, a non-uniform distance from the shirt) and the ink wasn't making contact with the shirt in some areas. Additionally, I find that my "supercover" inks designed to cover darker fabrics and much thicker in consistency and require a really, really good mix before application, or else I end up with the same problem of the ink not getting pushed through the screen correctly.
It makes sense. While I think I fully expose my screens I do dry them vertically instead of horizontally, I will retry this weekend and get back with my results.
Hey there. My experience with water based inks is that they tend to dry VERY quickly in the screen if I don't do a flood coat or wash the screen out immediately after printing. Like ImageIt said, you could use a magnifying glass to also check for residual ink.
Hey so I remade screens this last weekend with much better results. I think it must have been the vertical drying issue. So thanks to all who helped make my project a great success!! But I am not using a flood coat. What is it and how do I do it?
A flood stroke is when at the end of your print stroke you lift the screen and push the ink back across the screen. Try not to push too hard so it will leave a thicker deposit of ink on your screen. This helps keep the ink from drying in the mesh with water base.
I would agree with all the statements made already. It could be an exposure issue, but if you're adoment that the screen has been washed out properly then perhaps its to do with the ink drying to fast in the mesh. Have you printed through the same mesh before, because if theres any ghosting, then that might actually be a clogging issue.
Alternitively I would also check your off contact, and make sure you're using even squeeegee pressure. Have you checked your squeegee to make sure it hasn't got any chips of hardened ink on it that might effect the next print you do.
I never experienced this problem before but I have heard alot of people who have. I would recommend investing in some very good quality 60-70 squeegee blades and a robust handle. Spending abit of money here often helps alot, even if you're just screenprinting as a hobby.
Problems with ink transfer onto shirt. 
