I'm having just an awful time trying to wash out my images. After burning the image, I mist spray the image and wait for about a minute to wash out with a garden hose. I've been burning for about 5-10 minutes at about 12-15 inches between light/image (I've been playing around to see what works). However, the image doesn't wash out easily with the garden hose - I have to initially apply pressure on the hose to get it to start washing out. It usually starts out fine but I end up with too much pressure on the edges of the image and blow it out, or I don't apply enough pressure and end up with tiny spots that don't wash out in the image.Is it possible I'm applying too much emulsion so the image won't wash out easily? I coat the front, back, and then front again. Also, I sometimes have several tiny puncture holes around/near the image from applying too much water pressure, and I have to start over. I can't find a good balance for water pressure. Any suggestions here?Thanks in advance for any suggestions/advice.
What type of emulsion are you using? I would say you could do without the third coat but you might have a problem with exposing your image. How are you exposing?
I'm not sure of the type of emulsion - it came with my machine upon purchase. It's a purplish-brown color of emulsion if that helps. I will be buying more emulsion soon, so I'm also unsure about what kind to buy (another topic for another day).
For exposing, I'm using vellum with a glass panel to flatten onto the flat side (bottom?) of the screen.
Sorry, I'm new to pretty much new to all of this so I apologize if I'm not making sense.
My first thought was that maybe you are not curing long enough. You should to a time test on your emulsion exposing areas of your screen in increments. It worth doing so you can nail down the proper exposure time for your setup.
Emulsion Diazo is the best
(Chemical Consultants) CCI DXP Diazo-Photopolymer Dual Cure Direct Emulsion.. This is a brand I trust and have had great results with.
I'm sure there are other reasons as well and maybe there is someone else out there who has some thoughts.
emulsion should take atleast over night to cure on the screen before exposure if you do not have a drying cabinet. if you have a cabinet it should take like and hour maybe a little more
Thanks Harlan and Jamie. I appreciate the words and also the emulsion brand suggestion.
Immediately after applying the emulsion I set up a fan for faster drying. The screen is dry in about an hour. My instructions also say I can burn an image in about an hour (when emulsion is dry with fan). Does this sound reasonable or is this bad?
Also, will sunlight entering though windows affect my burn? The sunlight is not directly hitting the screen, but I'm not sure if any daylight will harm the burning process.
yea you want to coat them and let them dry flat with the print side up in the DARK. you do not want any light hitting then until you are ready to expose. also i recommend QTX emulsion by ulano
Also, will sunlight entering though windows affect my burn?
In that instance, sunlight is your burn. Emulsion is exposed via UV, so any stray UV is exposing your screen. If you're not controlling that UV, then chances are it's going to adversely affect your result.
This may sound crazy, but since I don't know what your exposure unit looks like, I will throw this out there anyway. You say you lay glass down to press the vellum to the print side of the screen. Do you use any type of black rubber blanket or cloth to prevent light from hitting the other side (ink side) of the screen during exposure. Because light coming around to the inkside will actually over expose the screen, and you will need a lot of pressure to wash it out. Unfortunately, there is a fine line between too much pressure and not enough pressure on an improperly exposed screen. And the "fine line" is the sloopy wash out you are describing. I agree that three coats of emulsion is not necessary. If the emulsion is too thick, your light source may not be able to expose all the way through. Coat the printside first, and then the inkside. After coating, take a look at both sides. The ink side should be dull or flat in appearance - you can almost see the mesh. The print side should have a nice smooth gloss to it. Dry the screens with the print side down, this allows the emulsion to settle to the print side, which will result in a nicer stencil after exposure.
Washing out images 
