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Screen print looks clear but ink won't pass?

4076 Views 6 Replies 6 Participants Last post by  inkedindustries
Hi I have my screen and am using white water based ink and I noticed in a few fine line the ink won't pass through. I hold the screen up to the light and notice light faintly passing through spots. What can I do? Also is there a superior screen i should be using. I am using speedball I do not have the thread info etc. Thanks
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I to use speedball screens and have not really ran into this problem but I feel like maybe I could provide some help.

For one, if you can only faintly see light through the screen it sounds as if you still have some emulsion locked in your screen that is not allowing the ink to pass through.

Secondly water based ink dries fairly quickly in your screen so if you forget to back flood or don't have enough ink left on your screen the ink could dry up in your screen and not allow the ink to pass through.

I would try re-claiming your screen and re-burning it and trying to get all of the emulsion out before trying to print again.

I'm still a huge noob but I hope something I said helped! Haha!
So I should redo the entire screen over again?
Yes and when you wash out screen make sure you have it all washed out. Then just flood rinse(no pressure) both sides of screen. Sounds like you had some diazo residue left which can be clear so it looks like the screen is clear. When drying only pat the excessive water. Wiping can spread diazo residue and lock parts of screen.
Try spitting in the screen and gently rubbing from both sides. Not the nicest thing yet may work. Beware that it may cause stencil damage where you do not want yet worth trying before reburning.

- Fluid

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What I do at this point is remove all the color and than with 2 (one top, one bottom) pieces of wet cloth rubbing on exposed point to clean up!
With white ink is a bit harder, but works well.
Ad color, test and go again. Time 5min max!
I was looking for a solution for this that is better than the one I have discovered. I get this problem often and it is usually around the edges of the design. I take a q-tip and finger nail polish remover. I rub both sides of the trouble spots and it opens up the screen with a little effort. It is better than starting over sometimes depending on how many trouble spots you have. Give it a try.
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