kevjuice

I am new to t-shirt forums and also new to t-shirt screen printing also. I recently bought a speedball screen printing kit and have attempted to screen print a shirt for a local music venue, and it turned out fairly well. My question is, I had used speed ball diazo emulsion and it recommended to use a BBA 250 photoflood light source, which worked fine. However, I am currently trying out a bigger screen (22x18) and it doesn't give the exposure time or the distance from the screen. Can anyone help me figure these times out.

Also if anyone has any recommendations on which emulsions to use in place of speedball that would be very helpful. If you could also give me any recommendations on different cheap light sources that I could try as an alternative to the BBA photoflood 250watt bulb that would be great as well.

Thanks for all your help!

K

 

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darwinchristian

K-

a good thing to keep in mind is that perfecting a screen, or better yet a screened print, is all about paying attention to the variables. only change one at a time, and keep records of the changes. just like the scientists do it.

for the larger screen, move the light source away from the screen so that it still bathes the entire thing in light, and guess your new exposure time. use the results for the next guess, till you get it right.

or search the forums for exposure test.

when you switch emulsions, you will have to perform the tests all over again. but you will most likely find there is a better emulsion for you out there, based on your setup. i'd reccomend calling Ulano for any emulsion questions. they haven't steered me wrong yet.

once you have understood all the variables, you will continue to get consistent results. and it will be easier to pinpoint a problem when one comes up.

hope this helps.

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kevjuice

Thank you DarwinChristian,

I appreciate all your help, and I will give Ulano a call sometime soon. You mentioned that you use ulano emulsions, which kind do you use? and what is your set up? (exposure unit, etc).

K

 

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darwinchristian

no problem.

i am using ulano's qtx right now and it works well for production. it's expensive, but ultra-fast. i'm looking into a slower, dual-cure emulsion to retain higher resolution for 4 color process printing, which i have been playing with for a couple of weeks.

using this exposure unit, i am successfully exposing 230 mesh screens in 1min 20seconds with the qtx.

derek

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