I’m so I excited thought I would just share that last night I coated and exposed my own screen at home. My home made coating trough worked a treat. Screens took ages to dry left them for two hours then had to get the heater. Using two halogen light on a stand I exposed the screen, thank God for my darkroom safe light as it allowed me to position my images on the screen, exposed for 9½ mins then took it to my bathroom to washout and it was fine some of the finer images lines aren’t that’s sharp but the main image is great, I’m so happy, I got a bit of work to do but later I’m gonna mix up some inks and do some test prints.
Great feeling isn't it? I remember how excited I was when my first screen came out.
Now you'll need to start fine tuning it to get the screen perfect. The whole image should be nice and crisp. Might want to get an exposure calculator. Some suppliers give them to you for free when you order emulsion. It's a BIG help to determine correct exposure times.
But congratulations to you!
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Thanks every one, yep it’s almost printing time gonna mix up some ink and test this screen out,
Well the process went like this…
Set you halogen lights on stand
Learned screen on wall
Turned off normal light put on safelight
Poured emulsion in to trough got some on my hands and newspaper
then remembered my glove put them on
then coated coating trough worked amazingly
did a few coats then realised it was dripping to scraped the excess emulsion off
then put it in wardrobe on shelf to dry
thing an hour would be enough time two hours later it wasn’t dry so I got out the - heater and waved it in front of it till it dried this was done in the dark
safe light on positioned images onto screen bit of glass on top
safe light off
Set countdown timer on phone
halogen light on 9½ mins
Then took it to my bathroom when I had already attached a garden hose
coved it all in waster then focused the hose in the image area
The coating trough was made from a bit of guttering and some guttering ends
It only comes in 2meter bits so I cut it down to size using a heated scalpel blade, Glued the end on then I had to cut an extra bit for the side (see pics) so the emulsion wouldn’t pour out
thanks a lot fizz for great product and all the help and info and everyone else for your support and advice
Just need to do some tidying up then I’m gonna do some test prints
i hate to sound a bit daft, but i'm unfamilar w/the emulsion trough...
The emulsion trough would actually be what you lean your screens in to catch drips. Normally it's called a scoop coater.
Quote:
Originally Posted by anomad
i've usually coated my screens w/the emulsion fluid w/a squeegie. am i missing something (a thread in the forums somewhere? )
I've heard of people doing that... sounds hard
I doubt this has been covered on the forums.
With a scoop coater you fill the scoop with emulsion, then tilt it toward the screen a little and run it along the screen. It would be much the same as using a squeegee, except that the scoop holds the emulsion so that you have enough of it, and it has an edge that is probably slightly more suitable for coating.
They're not particularly expensive, and like squeegees they're normally cut to the length you require.
Coated and exposed my first screen. 
Re: Coated and exposed my first screen. 
Re: Coated and exposed my first screen. 
