Hi all, I'm new here and have just dipped my feet into screen printing... I just had a quick question for all you experts and its this. Should your screen be much larger than your platen, or is it okay if the screen frame sits on top of the platen. I have noticed most peoples screen are larger than the platen, but I wasn't sure if that was on purpose or not. My theory is that if the screen frame is lager than the platen, the weight of the frame will pull the screen down a bit tighter against the shirt thus making a better print, am I wrong?
Should your screen be oversized?
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Hi all, I'm new here and have just dipped my feet into screen printing... I just had a quick question for all you experts and its this. Should your screen be much larger than your platen, or is it okay if the screen frame sits on top of the platen. I have noticed most peoples screen are larger than the platen, but I wasn't sure if that was on purpose or not. My theory is that if the screen frame is lager than the platen, the weight of the frame will pull the screen down a bit tighter against the shirt thus making a better print, am I wrong?
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Or it will stretch the mesh and distort the print. You want at least the top part of your screen to sit on the platen. You normally want some off contact when printing so that the ink releases from the screen. If the mesh is pushed up directly against the shirt, there is no room for the ink to release from the openings in the mesh. Here is a good article with part of it explaining off contact- http://www.t-shirtforums.com/t-shirt-articles/t83872.html.
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