I have done quite a bit of browsing and it looks like I can get a basic 1 color screen printing starter kit for $300. Is this as basic as it gets? What else will I need?
Originally I wanted to make some shirts for myself and some folks in my motorcycle club, but then I started to think about other applications. My boys Cub Scout pack, annual BBQ we have, etc. They don't need to be the best screen prints ever, but I would like them to look decent.
I have 2 other hobbies that keep most of my play money tied up, so I want to keep cost to a bare minimum while still pumping out good looking t-shirts/sweatshirts/hoodies.
You'll need to make your exposure unit, unless you have one. If you use the heat gone, you'll have to make sure you you get it all the way cured. I'm pretty much making my own press unit, exposure unit, but I'm spending the money on the flash dryer they offer.
Watch that video or take a screenprinting class or call Ryonet for more info.
You will need to spend time learning how to screenprint which will include ruining shirts and wasting paints & supplies so if you have other hobbies taking up your time and money, you might want to just pay a local shop to print the shirts for you.
This sounds like overkill if you are new to this. Why not use the Hunt Speedball water based kit with starter water based inks? It is a lot cheaper and the Diazo emulsion is easy to use. I think that **** Blick Art supplies has the kit. Ken
This sounds like overkill if you are new to this. Why not use the Hunt Speedball water based kit with starter water based inks? It is a lot cheaper and the Diazo emulsion is easy to use. I think that **** Blick Art supplies has the kit. Ken
I did a google search, but didn't come up with any kit, do you have a link to where I can see/buy this kit?
All I can tell you is I bought a $1,000 starter kit. Now I'm up to over $2,000 in screen printing stuff and about $500 is t-shirt (they first $150 worth of t-shirts mainly became practice to get better at it.)
Tomorrow I'll be ordering at least another $100 in supplies.
I think any worthwhile hobby is going to be expensive and constantly cost money.
I hope to be making money off this hobby by this time next year. My goal is to break even in a year.
You can get the speedball kit for around $50 at Michael's craft store. You can make an exposure unit with a 500 watt halogen light, or there is one on the sight you were in. I took the screen from the speedball kit and make a simple screen press using a couple of hinges with removable pins. Take the pins out to expose and clean the screens, put the pins in to print. It's a cheap way to start out.
Ok. Lets ditch this whole $1000 idea and $300 for that matter. I got a simple kit from speedball for about $45 on ebay. It came with some inks (water soluble which is the best way to go when starting, in my opinion), a screen, some ambiguous directions which did include a nice chart for exposure times, squeegee, and emulsion. I'd buy a couple extra screens because when you ruin a screen for being stupid you dont want to wait a week for a new one to come in the mail. If you have shop near you you can save on shipping. thats a big savings right there.
To do my emulsion work i use my bathroom since it often has the least amount and smallest windows in the house and i bought a red light bulb for $3.
For t shirts I went to my local salvation army. Wednesday is family day which means big savings. You can buy shirts for a $1 usually. also you can test run on old shirts in your house.
I think spreading the emulsion and getting the right exposure time is the hardest part of the whole operation so I went to a local screen printer and asked him to do the screen for me. Best $40 I ever spent.
I could go into more details, but the point i wanted to make was that I was making shirts while investing less than $100 dollars. Less than $60 if you have better luck with emulsion than me.
Now I am starting to research more and see what direction I want to take my new hobby in. Also since making my initial purchase I have found a ton of how to's about making my own equipment which would make the hobby that much more cheap and rewarding.
I appreciate suggesting the easy way out and having someone else do it, but that's not my style.
The suggestion was that you take the time to educate yourself so that you at least somewhat know what you're doing, and outsource if you don't want to do that.
By comparison the easy way out would be expecting other people to educate you without doing a modicum of your own research.
The suggestion was that you take the time to educate yourself so that you at least somewhat know what you're doing, and outsource if you don't want to do that.
That's what I am doing, educating myself with the knowledge of others that have done silk screening. I would be willing to bet everyone here (yourself included) learned in a similar manor.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Solmu
By comparison the easy way out would be expecting other people to educate you without doing a modicum of your own research.
I agree, good thing this site is here to allow me to research this topic. Keep up the good work!
i bought that speedball starter kit for about $60 on ebay. . . those bottles are tiny(only a couple of screens can be coated properly with that sized emulsion) so after I bought some more emulsion, and a couple more interesting color inks, and made an exposure unit, i had spent almost $200, and I thought I was done. . . I have been making shirts for my friends and a small network I've built on the internet. . . and my supply cost is close to $700 just getting up and moving. . . flash dryer for curing inks being the most expensive peice, but well, you do need it if you want to wear the shirt more than once! also, the sqeegee included does not get the job done, and im interested in the mastermind who can evenly coat a screen with the bottle and the squeegee like they tell you to do in the instructions. . . those accesories that become almost required to do a good job also add up. . . be careful. . .
Screen printing starter kit.....$300? 
Re: Screen printing starter kit.....$300? 
Re: Screen printing starter kit.....$300? 
