I've talked to people who designate squeegees to certain colors. No harm in that...

We don't, we just clean them really good after each use.

We'll usually keep a squeegee on press as long as that size is needed in the color it is inked with.

are you using an ink degradent?

 

When I first took silkscreen classes, I was told plastisol ink breaks down the rubber in squeegees after a while. So we clean them after each use. It is impossible to remove every last bit of ink from them during cleaning. But so little is left it does not really impact using it with another color for the next job.

 

I have a dedicated white squeegee. The other ones usually have one color on them for a while, I'll scrape them clean if I need one with a similar color. When I need a completely different color, I clean as needed. Occasionally, I'll go through and give them all a good cleaning.

 

Tape the squeegee. Wrap it around the wood and plastic. This will make cleaning faster. Just remove the tape after cleaning the squeegee blade and replace with new. No nooks and crannies to drive ya nutz!

 

I love you

 

I bought a couple 16" from Nazdar, and they came without the blades screwed in. The blades were just glued in. The wood has started to separate from the rubber and ink works its way up in between, and then squeezes out again when pressure is applied. They are pretty much impossible to clean completely, so I think I may have to designate the ones I have to certain colors. And I just won't be buying this type again. Nor would I suggest them to anyone else needing to use one squeegee for multiple colors..

Thanks very much for the input and advice. I'll be posting more questions soon.

 

the same thing happened on one of my 12" squeegees. i cut it into 3 4" squeegies on a chop saw and fastened the rubber back into the wood with an epoxy on the third one. works great and even though i lost a good one, i picked up a few great ones for breast prints and small logos...

 

I used to rub the ink on my shirt but i was brushing against things in the shop and getting ink everywhere... I tried going through the dryer but i got stuck and it was way too hot... lol...

j/k I clean them as best i can by scraping off the ink with a small piece of flat plastic... then i use paper towels and a little screen opener...

 

Ummm, this is April Fools day...

Glad to offer something useful!

 

We have two dedicated white squeegees, one black, and one red. The others we clean in a safetyklean washout tub with a scrub brush.

 

We use to keep some dedicated to certain colors, but we've also gotten a safety kleen tub so we wash off all the squeegees and keep them clean and ready to go.