Photo-emulsion Screen Printing

IT IS WONDERFUL TOURING AROUND YOUR PAGE. THERE ARE USEFUL ILLUSTRATION WHICH MAKES IT EXCITING.
I WANT TO SUGGEST IF THERE IS ANY WAY OF PROVIDING IDEAS ABOUT THE SOURCE OF IMPROVISE MATERIALS SUCH AS: INKS AND DYES.
MORE GREESE TO YOUR ELBOW!!!!!!!!!!!
THANKS BYE.

Please take off the CAPS LOCK!  It looks like you're shouting....

I feel i didnt dry my screen enough before exposing as it was a little bit cloudy coloured in areas after washing off unexposed emulsion... is it safe to put it back in the cupboard with a heater for a bit to dry a bit more...or could that over dry it n be difficult to get off later with the special pregasol solution that removes emulsion once wanting to do a new stencil on the screen?

CHEAP N QUICK! ( P.S) The reference to acrylic is refering to perspex in the above tutorial..To Brainnumbc
yayeee i fainally exposeed my first screen from home!
easy as!
My advice is ditch the bulbs n fancy lighting go with natural Uv sunlight, worked a treat!

1. i applied the emulsion with a sgueegee to both sides of the screen as even as possible (Avoid thick build ups and thick small drips) its important your screen is even so the screen dries evenly)

2. Find a cupboard and have blow heater ready in the cupboard, ensure its located in a dimly lit place, Here place your screen to dry over a few minutes, checking it regularly, you will notice areas that r drying faster than others, dont have the heater directly facing the screen its prob not good 4 it. The dried emulsion will appear less glossy.
3. Have you image photocopied onto 3 sheets of acetate, tape these together to create your stencil, this creates a solid black stencil.
Have a large board to set up your foam & screen to later carry outside
Have a sheet of glass clean ready, tape newspaper over it.
Have a piece of foam that the screen can be placed over, (ensure its thicker than the screen frame, possibly another thin piece of flat board over it and place some dark fabric over it.

4. Now your screen is dry, still in a dark place. Nearby in a similiarly dimly lit place ( eg no strong uv lights) Set up all things in step 3
1 place your large board down
2. place your foam, + another flatter surface such as a book on top that fits the image your are making if you feel you need it to create a really flat surface, and some dark fabric over this.have it set up at the lower edge of the board so wen you carry it outside you can lean it against a wall or prop to face direct sunlight..
3. have your acetate stencil handy and some bits of sticky tape to attatch it to screen.
4.Grab you dry screen, placeing it over the foam paying attention to ensure the image to be exposed is resting on enough flat area underneath creating a seal
5 place the newspaper covered glass over this and Breath!
6. now carry it outside to your decided destination where there is bright sunlight ( you may have asomething like a big board set up against a chair with another flat surface on the ground to angle it up upon, as it may be 3;30 in the arvo n the sun isnt directly above you.
anyhow take it out rest it against the "wall" n "floor" directly positioned towards the sun. Remove the newspaper =0)
Usuall exposure on a sunny day is 3 mins
i let it go for 4 n a half it was fine!!
You may notice the emulsion darkening. Which is helpful in telling you its exposed enough.
When you move the glass away you will see your design in a lighter shade letting you know its exposed.

After this take it straight to the hose to wash away the areas of emulsion that didnt get exposed to reveal your fressh sharp stencil!!!!!! Continue to hose closely on high pressure untill you see the actual screenmesh clear of emulsion. Checking closely.

Im waiting now for the screen to dry off n do my first print
now you can get your paint colours prepared n mixed etc =0)

I don't understand whenever I do this the ink doesn't seem to go through onto my shirt.
can someone tell me what am I doing wrong.

Chances are the emulsion is not washing completely out of your screen. This can be because the screen was burned too long in the sunlight or exposure unit or because your image was not cmyk black when printed to the velum or transparency. The image MUST be pure black or it will allow light to go through and expose the emulsion you need to wash out. Hope this helps.

Screen Printing
T Shirts

Oh duh! The photo emulsion just creates a stencil on the screen! I wish someone would have told me this. All the tutorials I read anyone didn't explain this fact. It just lead you to assume that the photo emulsion chemical was supposed to bind to the fabric of whatever you're printing on

Ok I think I understand the black fabric.. so your medium doent get exposed from the back side, but I still don't understand why you need acryllic. I thought you used photo emulsion solution OR acrylic ink to do screen printing.. not both

Any why are we even talking about acryllic here? I thought the photo emulsion was the chemical that actually binded to the tshirt or whatever you're printing on? What does acryllic have to do with any of this?

Why do you have to put black fabric down? I don't understand

very nice!!! i learn a lot about instructables!!! now its time for me to try

so... each side of the screen gets one coat or two?

need some help? I'm following the time exposure table . and no matter what I do the screen washes out completely.

awesome!! though i have to say i am not too keen about what the shirt says =d <br/>

like the image - what does it say?

Just the don't trust anyone over 25 thing =P

=P *shrugs*

Can I get some help please? Everytime (twice), I expose my screen with the 150W light, my screen gets burnt. I had it 12 inches away for 45min. the 1st time and a little further away thet 2nd time for 45 min. and both times the screen got burnt.

I've used some of these materials from a speedball screenprinting kit, they work great, especially the Diazo Emulsion. If you cannot find these items at your local craft store, you can try Dick Blick online or search for 'Speedball Screenprinting Kit'.

Personally I use a twin blacklight to expose my images, it only takes 3 minutes! The bulbs are called GE F40BLB 40 Watt, and I have two in one of those shop light fixtures. I just hang it about 12-15 inches from the screen. I use a piece of foam or folded fabric on the inside of the screen to keep it taut, put the transparency on the back side of the screen, and lay a heavy piece of glass over it, then I expose it. I would like to build a lightbox, but I'd have to find some weird shaped blacklights. Maybe a few of those new screw in florescent types (CFL) blacklights would work well. A company called 'Feit' makes quite a few of the colored types.

Concerning the wash-fastness of the non-toxic ink, it seems to last and is pretty durable if your coat is even and there was enough ink. If you have a bad pull and not enough ink, it tends to fade.

I tried to do a multiple color piece but it is very difficult to get the registration right due to the ink drying in the screen so fast. With vinyl inks and other nasty stuff, that isn't really a problem, but those are horrible to work with in a home environment. I think building a multi-screen shirt jig would be the best way to overcome this, but I don't even know where to start. If you'd like to add a bit of color to an art piece that you think it would look good on, you can make pretty awesome rainbow or multi color gradients by letting the ink mix by itself while doing a few practice pulls. When it looks cool, then do your final on fabric!

Tips:
-You really need to do a flood coat after you pull with acrylics because they dry so fast, at least this has been my experience with the speedball inks.
-Shoot multiple pieces of art per screen and just tape over the ones you aren't using with smooth packing tape, this saves time and emulsion. (you already thought of this!)
-Try using laser or inkjet transparencies for your art. They stand up pretty well and you can save all of your art in a book in case you want to shoot that image again. If you use inkjet ones, keep water away from them.. they turn into gross mush.
-Use a pencil to mark the center of your art on the frame of the screen. You wont be able to see if after you've flooded the screen so it will be hard to center on the next shirt.
-Parchment or Bakers paper works good for heat setting, you can get it in rolls from the supermarket. I don't think wax paper would work very good for this though.
-This isn't really a tip but if you are lazy/busy like me, I've left the exposed emulsion in the screen for almost 2 months with no ill effects. Use a stiff brush and the emulsion remover to get it out, but be easy on the screen, especially around the frame where it attaches. Note that I put emulsion on a screen once and didn't shoot it immediately after it dried (sat for a week), and it did not work out so hot.. but maybe light leaked into my cabinet.
-When applying emulsion to the screen, stay away from the frame! Its impossible to get out, especially if you get it on the back side where the wood touches the silk. You don't need to put emulsion all the way to the edges anyways, because you normally tape all of the insides of the frame. (see pic) Try to apply as little emulsion as possible to coat the screen, and try to do it in one pass. (One on the front and one on the back.) It's really tricky but its less work later when you have to clean the screen.
-If you have a basement tub sink, you can usually attach a Y valve and washer hose to the spout. At the end of the washer hose I attached it to a sprayer that looks like a old fire hose sprayer. It's a very narrow diameter, high pressure source of water for blowing the screens out.

Well done Instructable! Thanks for your contribution!

Can someone recommend a good source for bulk blank shirts, like 50 to 100 or so at the time? Thanks...

cheapestees.com (one t )
good selection - good shirts - great service and prices
free shipping on orders over $69
can't be beat

Try
http://www.blankshirts.com

Thanks! The one on the top was the original and the one below it was a custom one with steadman's writing of instead.. the splattered ink style. I would attach the psd's but I lost alot of the art for shirts in a hd failure. :(

Great Instructable!!!

is it possible to expose the screen outside on a sunny day, instead of using a light rig, like in a similar instructable?

Can you use this method to print designs which are very colorful?
or will the designs made with this method always be one solid color?

What a great instructable!! Nice work!

very nice instructible... only one thing i would change.
ive been doing prints on the side for about 2 yrs now with a 4 head press and a convyer dyrer. something that helps a lot in the process is an emulsion scoop...
its usually made of aluminum or some sort of metal/steel and you pour a bit of emulsion in there and then ride it up the screen...

you will get a perfect coat 100% of the time and there is no mess at all (unless you have trouble pouring the liquid into the scoop...lol)

Also, another GREAT help is to print the design on a transparent paper (like 'overhead paper' used in highschools) then put that paper on the screen when burning. that will eliminate the 'cutting' and allow an incredible amount of detail on your screens and prints. it works very very well and will save you A LOT of time.

i'm really thankful that i discover your site!thank you very much!this would help a lot....

thank you so much! im using the speedball system and ive never tried the photo emulsion process before. the insturctions they gave are confusing, but this cleared it up!

Hi, great tutorial and i thought the tip about using the pins to raise the screen was very clever.

Just some questions if you don't mind? You have placed your positive on the 'bottom' of the screen, back-to-front. Are there any advantages/disadvantages to placing the positive 'inside' the screen, and the right way round? (I have a piece of glass that fits well inside my screen). I was wondering if with your method, light could 'seep' underneath the positive via the 1" gap between your screen and the black fabric?

My other queston is regarding the lighting rig. I was going to follow the 150 watt described by the speedball instructions and yourself, but I see you mention a lightbox as an alternative. I have an A3 lightbox that I can borrow from work, that I think uses fluoresent strip lights: Do you think this would work, do you have any suggestions for timings, or is there a physical change with the emulsion when it has been sufficiently exposed that i should look for?

Any advice would be appreciated and I'm looking forward to the results of my project!

I used to work at a screen printing shop and we didn't use liquid photo emulsion, we had big rolls of emulsion sheets that were stuck onto the screens with water and left to dry in a dark cupboard. I would cut the huge sheets into 12" x 14" squares which would be put in a drawer away from light, while the huge sheets were essentially a roll stuck in a big black tube (to block the light). The emulsion sheets were pretty much just a plastic sheet with emulsion on it that would stick to the screens with water and when the emulsion dried you would peel off the plastic sheet before "burning" the logo on the screen. When the "burning" was done (on a vacuum sealed light table with timer) I would "blow out" the design with a pressure sprayer, then dry the screen, tape the edges and fill any defective holes with liquid emulsion.

In junior high my shop class did silk screen printing with that kind of emulsion on plastic - only we would put our piece of emulsion plastic-side down and cut and remove the emulsion with an exacto knife. When the cutting was done we would attach the emulsion to the screen with water, let it dry over night with pressure on the screen, peel off the plastic and then print. The teacher had basically been printing that way for 25 years, with very good results.

I see. Well yes I did cut the emulsion while it was still on the plastic, its the same as you have done here but we did not put pressure on it during drying off. The shop i worked at was run by an old couple in their 70's who've been doing it for nearly 40 years. I'm still really proud of that job. How many people get to say "I was a graphic designer at my first job when I was 15." lol

Check out Ulano products, Ulano StaSharp is a really good easy to cut film and you can get smaller pieces online, instead of the huuuge rolls haha.

The only problem with that technique is your design is limited by your xacto skills and it was easy to mess it up, I found

Using the PhotoEmusion approach-- still can't seem to get entire image to print-- It is quite a fine line drawing done from Illustrator Using black speedball ink--any suggestions? Help!
Thanx lots

My first half-toning attempt in Illustrator didn't work because the pattern was too intense and the 'black' areas didn't wash out fully/uniformly. my image was uneven and faded. It is possible that your lines are too fine for the emulsion. try making them thicker in Illustrator and see if it comes out any better.

Also be sure your transparency is page black, not photo black.
i am not an expert in printers by any means, but my transparencies printed from a photo printer were not black enough and caused an uneven washout.

Have you read the graphic novel Watchmen by the way? I know the phrase predates the story but it is my favorite book and deals with the slogan head on.

Can I get one that says "Don't take the advice of anyone under 25?" (joke)

Good instructable though!

I'm a beginner and my first prints were ok but you could see through the inks (I layered each print upon the other-I did not make a reduction print) Are there any inks out there that are water soluble but have greater opacity? I used the photoEm method.

Best,
-Jay

To expose my screens I use a 500 watt photoflood bulb from a photography supply store. I hang it about 22 inches above the screen. Make sure it is in a socket than can take VERY high heat (ceramic is good). A screen with a high mesh count takes about 25 minutes, but this method is very cheap and effective. Add a little time with colored mesh or low mesh counts.

Also, here's a site we free plans for a T-shirt printing press: http://www.printingplans.com

If you are using blacklights light to expose the emulsion, make sure to use fluorescent ones. The cheap incandescent blaclights are actually ordinary light bulbs covered with purple paint.

friend,
i need help, i am a problem through my project silk screen. they gave to me the green film and the laquer tinner. i dont know what im going to do. can you help me . to the easiest way to create silk screen, please guide me so that can i finished my project. please guide at this email address. mamer_2@yahoo.com thank you and god bless....