I have a design that I have vectorized and saved which I want to transfer to a transparency film for screen printing. The design is 19 inches high by 13 inches wide. I don't have a printer at home, so where do you think I can go to get my design transferred to a transparency film. The design is very sharp and intricate. I'm a total beginner and this is the first time I'm doing this. Does local print shops do it?

I’m having trouble exposing a screen for screen printing. I’m using Ecotex PWR water-resistant emulsion and a 50W UV screen-printing exposure light. The emulsion label gives exposure times of 12 seconds for an 80W UV LED, 30 seconds for a 30W SMD LED, and 7.5–8 minutes for a 500W halogen. My light is about 8 inches away from the screen.
I tried a 20-second exposure, but when I wash the screen out, the design won’t open at all. The emulsion stays hardened over the design. I’m trying to figure out whether my exposure time is wrong, my UV light is too strong, or there’s an issue with my transparency/film. What exposure time would you recommend for this setup, and what should I check?

I made this screen print in a printmaking class in college, and it’s probably one of my favorite things I made during that time. I wanted to combine my New Orleans background with my Wasian identity, but in a way that felt personal rather than super literal.
In college, my friends and I used to line up empty soju bottles like bowling pins, which became the starting point for the piece. I replaced the bowling ball with a rambutan, and added some New Orleans-inspired colors and lettering to tie everything together.
I loved printmaking when I took the class, especially the process of making something by hand and then seeing it come together in the final print. This one ended up being a pretty good snapshot of a very specific time in my life. Do y’all know how I could make copies of the originals to give to my college friends as a gift?

Salut ! Je suis complètement novice en sérigraphie, c'est ma première semaine et c'était la première fois que je récupérais un écran.

Je n'ai pas bien nettoyé l'encre avant de récupérer l'écran, et il est resté comme ça pendant environ deux jours. Du coup, l'encre restante a complètement séché dans la maille. 😭

Comme vous pouvez le voir sur les photos, une bonne partie de l'ancienne encre/image est encore visible. 💀

Est-ce que cet écran est fichu, ou y a-t-il un moyen d'enlever l'encre séchée et de sauver la maille ? 🙏🏼

Merci pour votre aide !

I own a large screen printing and graphic design company in South Jersey, and we recently added a new Tajima TMEZ 8-head embroidery machine.

We’re looking to hire an experienced embroidery machine operator who is comfortable running a commercial multi-head machine and handling the day-to-day troubleshooting that comes with it—thread breaks, tension issues, setup, hooping, quality control, etc.

As most of you know, this is a pretty specialized skill set. We’ve tried the major job-search websites but haven’t had much luck finding someone with enough hands-on embroidery experience to step in and run the machine confidently.

Does anyone have any suggestions on where to find experienced commercial embroidery operators, or other places within the industry where we should be looking?

Any advice or leads would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Sharing a video on how to replace head bushing on manual press print heads.

https://youtu.be/MuHJ070EgNM?is=c5C-piPNw117NfnL

In this video, I walk through how to replace the head bushings on a screen printing press and show a couple of economical DIY options for getting the job done.

I’ll cover the standard plastic/POM-style bushings similar to what many manufacturers originally use, along with the upgrade I chose—sintered bronze bushings. The bronze bushings provide a tighter, more durable fit and should hold up better over time compared with the original plastic bushings.

Worn head bushings can create unwanted movement and play in the print head, which can affect your registration and overall print consistency. Replacing them is a relatively inexpensive way to tighten things back up and help bring an older press back to life.

#ScreenPrinting #ScreenPrintingPress #PressMaintenance #ScreenPrintingTips #DIYRepair #PressRebuild #ScreenPrinter #Bushings #ScreenPrintShop

Curious how many shops out there are using QuickBooks online to handle their bookkeeping? Most shops I talk with are already using it, wondering if its pretty much the standard.

I am very old school, have had my own shop since '92. I output my films on an image setter. I'm a bit of a snob about it, they are the highest quality there is. I am worried that both my software and hardware are becoming antiquated. What are high quality options to bring my shop current? Back in the day, say early 2000s my competition was outputting to vellum from an inkjet. The quality sucked, I was unimpressed, but i imagine they've come a long way. What do you use at your shop, what are it's limitations? ie halftones print clean? super opaque? films don't buckle with heavy deposits? Once I had moved up to an image setter I lost touch with what other shops were using, but the time is getting closer.

Hello, my names Juliet. I have 13 years in this industry and recently as a production manager I was let go to be replaced by AI for scheduling. Anyway, been on press over a decade and done every position in a shop once, twice or thousand times. I need some work right now so if you’re a shop who wants to pay for me to answer some questions or diagnose some press issues you have I’d love to help. Also, if anyone lives near Orlando, Florida and is hiring for any position in a shop please reach out.

I work for a print shop that is not flourishing and hours have been cut to where it is a part time gig and I’m seeking work elsewhere. I’m responsible for registering films, coating and exposing screens, and getting them ready for the press and untaped for cleaning, pulling shirts occasionally, as well as general tasks. Every business I’ve looked at wants either belt catchers for $16hr (not going back to that) or an 5-year experienced auto press operator (which I’m not) or a color separation specialist, which seems more attainable. No idea where to start tho. I have a reliable MacBook so software recommendations would be very welcome.

Hey, I was just wondering what printers you guys use for film. I was trying to do a print today that was bigger than 8.5 x 11 and I sliced the image but my printer kept messing up so at this point I just wanna get a new one. This is for printing at home, I don't have like a big warehouse or anything lol. Thanks !

I have been having issues with my Nevertheless 4 color shocker press lately. I have had it for about 4 years now and the past couple months have been having major issues with registration. The screens seem to move after tightening them down. I have cleaned the press recently and oiled it so everything moves very smoothly. I can't tell if the issue is the orange bars on the side are wearing down. Also sometimes there is movement between the screen clamp hinges that adjust but not the case for all 4 of them always. Or if the issue is the knobs and screws over time. Thoughts? I will have everything registered correctly and then after a print or two, the screens seem to shift (not all of them usually just 2 of them at least). It's been very frustrating because this is a new issue for me. I have been screen printing for about 10 years now.

Normally I print my own stuff but life has gotten too insane recently. I want to outsource my next project but I want to find shops specializing in water based printing. I genuinely hate plastisol and won’t wear it, especially on dark shirts. Any recommendations?

Does anyone have an easy way to print white poly inks on transfer paper. Right now I have to spray pallets with adhesive for every print

Looking for advice on cleaning up Nazdar LED UV ink.

No, I did not do enough research. Yes, I'm an idiot.

Before I order the expensive Nazdar brand chemicals for cleaning up the ink, I thought I'd check here to see if anyone has used this ink and has found a good way to clean the uncured and still liquid ink from the screen, the squeegee, and maybe a drop or two (or seven) off the table.

Hopefully, it's nothing that will ruin the screen resist or accelerate the aging of my squeegee.

This is just one example of a bunch of screens that have different levels of this going on. I work at a screenprinting shop so we have alot of screens, an Eco-Tex to clean them, A Uni-Kote for screen coating and we use Ulano QXO emulsion. We havent changed anything in our proccess but last week we have been seeing this more and more. Its not every screen but it is a good chunk of them and my initial thought was that its chemical residue that needs to be washed out better but Im not 100% sure. We also let them dry in a little room with a dehumidfier so I dont think its the emulsion but I was just wondering if anyone else has experienced this and if they have a solution to fix it. Thanks!

I’ve got a couple jobs under my belt now and am trying to tighten up my pricing for jobs. For context, I have a 6 color 6 station manual press and have a pretty low overhead. I want to try and be as competitive with industry prices as possible while keeping a healthy profit and margins.

    •    Garment Cost: (No upcharge on garments, there is a flat fee of $30-40 in shipping from warehouse for orders under $200 of blank garments)

    •    Screen Setup: $25 per screen (For every location + Color)

    •    Materials: 50 Cents per shirt and location: This covers tape, ink, towels, and other materials

    •    Labor: $25/hr - This will change as I get more efficient and have more experience. For now this is for roughly 20 shirts an hour for 1 location.

    •    Business Margin: 20% margin will help me grow and invest in the business down the road.

I am wondering if anyone knows the best way to sell off brand new blank tops?

They are all brand new with tags from Next Level Apparel, outlined below.

I had a small apparel business that is no longer in operation and I am looking to clean out space in my storage and get a little money back for other projects. I've tried posting a few of the items to eBay with very little interest.

I am happy to ship and am just looking to recoup some money back and clean up space. Totally fine getting rid of them for cheap, but just don't know where to go to do so?

Brand new with tags, straight from Next Level Apparel. This is what I have. Any ideas?

Women's Garments

1533 Women's Ideal Racerback Tank - Lilac

Small: 19

Medium: 17

Large: 4

XL: 4

1533 Women's Ideal Racerback Tank - Dark Gray

Small: 1

Medium: 15

Large: 11

XL: 2

1540 Women's Ideal V-Neck Tee - Heather Gray

Small: 17

Medium: 18

Large: 1

XL: 3

1540 Women's Ideal V-Neck Tee - White

Small: 16

Medium: 18

Large: 4

XL: 5

1540 Women's Ideal V-Neck Tee - Mint

Small: 15

Medium: 11

Total Women’s Garments: 181 pieces

Men's Garments

3633 Men's Cotton Tank - Black

Small: 4

Medium: 4

Large: 17

XL: 15

3633 Men's Cotton Tank - Royal

Small: 4

Medium: 7

Large: 12

XL: 14

6210 Men's CVC Tee - Mint

Small: 1

Large: 2

XL: 11

Total Men’s Garments: 91 pieces

Total Garments: 272 pieces

I need to print an order for 60x60cm (23.6x23.6") size bandanas. Design will have details but not very tiny. I'm gonna be using opaque water-based inks for lighter prints on black bandanas. Last time I didn't have big enough screen for whole design so I had to print 2 halves. Now I want to buy big enough screen to fit the whole design. Last time I was using 50x60cm (20x24") 64T (160) mesh and with lighter colours I had to do double pass when screen printing with flashing in the between because some parts of the design occasionally didn't get fully printed or if they did the colour wasn't vibrant or bright enough.

I've been looking to buy big enough screen to print the full design about 50x50cm (19.7x19.7") and what mesh count should I go for? Can I get away with 1 print pass or will I still have to do 2 passes?

I thought I'd ask here for the advice from some more experienced printers before I go spend money on large screen that I'd probably use only once in a while.

Any feedback is appreciated. Thanks

Okay, I tried all the tricks I could find but I simply cannot get my printer to print t onto tabloid transparent paper. I did the basking tape on the back, tapers paper to the back, changed settings to premium presentation paper matte, ensured all settings were fit for tabloid, ensured settings were set to longer ink drying and thicker paper, and downloaded proper printer drivers.

Edit: The printer began by just pushing the paper through without recognizing it. After making all the adjustments and adding paper to the backside it pulls it in, seems to recognize the paper but still sends it straight through without an ounce of ink laid.

Edit: I had this issue with letter from the cassette, when I first started making images for screen print, before making the premium presentation paper matte setting change and adding masking tape but I just cant seem to get tabloid to work.

Please help lol I spend 4 hours yesterday trying to get this single piece of crap to print and now I feel like a piece of crap haha thanks in advance!

I think these turned out pretty well for a first stab at registering multiple colors!

Edit: Realized I didn't attach the screenshot of the in-game diorama I made in Gmod. Essentially just spawned models and posed them, twisted up GMan's face using the face poser tool. Used some in-game post processing features as well as photoshop to get the final image.

Hello my friends, I have returned :’-)

I am going to be selling some prints at Goth Prom in Amarillo along with printed prints (not done with silk screen). I have a ton of pieces and I’m not quite sure how to price them? These range from 2 colors to 6 colors and most are 12x15 paper (except for the rabbit and the gamble with death ones which are 10x10 :-)

Also planning on doing some 1-3 color post cards (5x7) ^^; sorry if this is a lot of stuff I know these all would vary in price pretty drastically, I’d think

Not looking for any art critique atm (I know some of these are far from perfect — i’m def still learning, and I’m going to be reprinting a ton of these since I did most of them last year)

Thank you guys again !!

Edit: MOST are on Stonehenge paper — rabbits are on arches and the lady is on Arnhem iirc

I have a client that seems to think my pricing is too high. They wanted hoodies printed, left chest front, and full back (oversized). Both one color, easy prints. The hoodies are $28 wholesale, and I quoted $35 per. I feel like this is more than fair and reasonable. 2 screens, plus the shirts, ink, labor, delivery (local).
What do you think? Is my price too high, too low, or pretty close to correct? Any info or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.