Don't have room for a drying rack! What now?

Drying your screen substrate side down is key.
1) The emulsion should dry within and below the the mesh. This makes an even and good sliding surface for your squeegee as well as creates "a gasket" (loosely used term) on the shirt/substrate side which is important for a good print.
2) Wet emulsion on a vertical screen will run before drying. You will get a coating that is thicker at the bottom and thinner at the top with respect to the orientation you choose to dry the screen.

Without a drying rack, you can still dry screens. Use some bottle caps, or tea light candles or anything that you can get multiples of and is uniform in size to support the screen from the floor/surface your drying on. I used tea candles for a while, they worked like a charm and my darkroom smelled of vanilla as they were the scented type. Actually I kinda miss them.

Understanding that space is a concern for you, it is fine to store the screens in a vertical orientation once they sufficiently dried. Coat before you go out and you can store them after when you get back.

Andrew
Vancouver, BC

Printzilla said:

Do you have a corner and $5? If so you can make a drying rack. Buy a 8' 2x2. Cut it into 4 pieces of equal length. Screw one piece onto the wall in the corner. Screw another piece on the other wall of the corner butting up to the first piece. Measure about 2" (depends on your frame thickness) above the installed pieces and repeat with the other two pieces.

TADA.......instant rack.

Click to expand...

Here is a pic of my rack. Works great. You can make this as big or small as you need. It could be in the top of the corner above "other stuff" completely out of they way as long as you build walls and a door or something to access it. Good Luck