[4oclockteetime]

Hi,

Can you tell me which of these three products is best for cleaning my screens directly after use?

Mineral Spirits, Screen Wash or Turpenoid?

And secondly, I screened some tees using metallic ink (plastisol) for the first time yesterday and after washing the screen out, I still have gold specs all over it. Can't seem to completely get rid of them. Any suggestions?

Thanks

 

[TshirtGuru]

Screen wash.

About the gold flakes, are you using a pressure washer? (metallic inks are killer to try and "clean") sometimes they never become clean...

 

[4oclockteetime]

No, I don't have a pressure washer. Isn't that for reclaiming the screen? Anyway, any other suggestion for getting the flakes out? And I will look into screen wash.

 

[TshirtGuru]

Yeah, you didn't specify that you were just preparing to store the screen.

Screen wash will do the trick. (if you let the metallic ink sit too long, it may harden...use screen opener if this happens)

 

[CVL Ink]

I'd not worry too much about those flakes - it's not likely going to affect the next color that you put in there. Even if they get in the next ink, any opaque ink will just coat the metallic flakes and they don't sparkle anymore. Try mixing a gram of that metallic gold with a gram of white or black and see what I mean.

Out of those three choices i would go with press wash, but there are a lot of different kinds - some are too oily and don't dry fast enough, some smell like toxic death, some break down emulsion too fast - so try and get samples to try out first if you can. Also most press wash gets amazingly cheaper when you buy volume.

 

[tpitman]

One thing about using mineral spirits for screen cleaning – it can lock in your emulsion, especially with some of the pure photopolymer emulsions that are sensitive to "hot" cleaners like mineral spirits, acetone and so on. I've had problems with one particular brand of press wash. The screens will reclaim, but it comes off in gummy wads instead of breaking down. The stuff has a lot of alcohol in it, which makes it dry quick on the screen, but I think contributes to the mess during reclaim.

 

[4oclockteetime]

I'd not worry too much about those flakes - it's not likely going to affect the next color that you put in there. Even if they get in the next ink, any opaque ink will just coat the metallic flakes and they don't sparkle anymore. Try mixing a gram of that metallic gold with a gram of white or black and see what I mean.

Out of those three choices i would go with press wash, but there are a lot of different kinds - some are too oily and don't dry fast enough, some smell like toxic death, some break down emulsion too fast - so try and get samples to try out first if you can. Also most press wash gets amazingly cheaper when you buy volume.

I was mostly concerned with the flakes on the bottom of the screen attaching themselves to dark tees... I ran the same screen using a black ink and the flakes didn't show and it was on a white tee. My concern is if they will adhere themselves to the next black tee I use. The turpenoid cleaned the ink with no problem but it did seem as if he dissolved the ink, but left the flakes behind... I will get some screen wash this week. I am however, not reclaiming the screen... Just putting it aside until the next run for that design which is this weekend. As I said, I'm mostly concerned with the flakes that are on the bottom of the screen, all around the image (spread when wiping down the back during cleaning) sticking to other dark tees.

Thanks for the help!