[socceronly]

I was in a shop recently, and I mean both shop and shop. It's a retail store where they have shop in the basement.

Some of the items they sell regularly, I noticed in the shop they leave the plastisol in the screen so it's just ready to go to print more when they need it.

Does that break the screen down? Do other people do this?

I am only printing water based ink right now. But for some projects where I am printing the same thing repeatedly for a full year, I am wondering if this would be a good thing to do.

Thanks
JM

 

[socceronly]

Found a lot of posts with people asking

How long can you....

 

[pacehotep]

I've left plastisol in screens for probably weeks at a time when I've been slow.

I've also taken screens off the press and set them to the side with some ink left in them when I've been busy.

I know that it's not the best practice to do this but I haven't noticed any kind of breakdown of emulsion or stencil or anything like that.

I would say that if you were going to leave a screen on your press for any extended length of time to clean your image area as best as you can and to take the tape off of your registration marks and clean those out real good too.

Of course if you keep leaving screens laying around with ink in them eventually you will create quite a project for yourself when you decide to clean and reclaim them all, I've found this out the hard way.

-Nick

 

[kirkmansigns]

I've left returning customers screens covered ink for 6 months at a time, no problems. May take a few passes to print correctly but it doesn't hurt the screen or emulsion

 

[NoXid]

Wrap it in plastic wrap, or a garbage bag, or something, just to keep dust and bugs and poop out while it is sitting around. For my business model this one capability would be a great logistical advantage ... but I prefer waterbase prints, so not an option for me.

 

[PatWibble]

I do it for several regular customers who order weekly over the summer months.
You need to cover the frame to keep it clean. Make sure the image area is either completely free of ink OR properly flooded, never 'half and half'.

Use an old shirt for the first couple of prints until you get a good print.

The only time I have had a problem is when I have been using low temp. plastisol and the heat of the platen and flash has caused the ink to partially cure in the screen.