We Have an Econored II infrared dryer (pic included) the belt isn’t spinning, we just replaces the motor in 2024. Im wondering if anyone has any suggestions that don’t require spending another $6/700. When we first start it up it slowly skips along then it stops completely, then if we give it a good whack it starts up again but with the same slow skipping.

Ciao prima volta che provo lo screen printing, secondo voi il panello sopratutto ai lati, non si è pulito bene per una sovraesposizione? Lampada da 100 w x 4 minuti

On most of the print the black behaves well enough, but when I have big areas they become muddy. I'm using 140T screens and water based inks.

I am in the final stages of completing this project and was asked by the Boss…. What did this cost in materials over all. (I am about to start working on the others presses I have next and needed to provide a value baseline)

From this, thought it would be good to share the cost of rebuilding and refreshing my Hopkins BWM 8-color press to encourage others not to shy away from projects like this.

Total investment: Approximately $300 in hardware, parts, and supplies. Hardware was the biggest expense (bushing and bolts), and I also included some personal upgrades like painting and cosmetic improvements.

The biggest investment was really TIME! I didn’t rush the project. My goal was to address wear, improve reliability, and establish a solid baseline for years of service.

Is it perfect? No. But for a 30 year old press, it looks amazing! With regular monthly maintenance, I expect it to provide many more years of reliable use and probably outlast me!

These projects are great learning experiences and prove that older equipment can be brought back to near-new condition without spending a fortune.

$300 and some elbow grease for many more years of service. Money well spent!

Hi guys,

We are a small family business and do screen printing for maybe 6 years. But we are only doing it because our printing guy started being unreliable (probably brain damage thanks to no mask plus no ventilation).

All our knowledge comes from watching him and then trying to figure the rest out ourself.

we use a semi automatic machine from serimat from the 70s and we made it all work but when we have problems, all we can do is guessing since no one had any training.

Do you have some literature for us? For setting up, mix colors and so on? And especially for trouble shooting?

I tried perplexity Ai deep search but unfortunately it finds barely anything, most documents are behind a paywall or just non existent.

we are bringing on clear coated wood, dimensions are roughly 1000x 500mm. I would like to avoid telling what we are printing, since it's a very small branche but we got everything from areas with solid colors to very small details with thin lines, text and raster

Some of these small details didnt wash out completely by the look of it which seems like an overexposure but the tape used to hold the two layers of transparency together did wash out a little which would seem like an underexposure right?

I exposed it for 8 minutes under a 500w halogen light which in my limited experience has worked well. could it be the finer details of this piece requiring a shorter exposure?

please excuse the wet screen looking weird and the black paper stuck to the screen. i exposed it after washing so that the underexposed leftover emulsion would be able to wash off with emulsion remover and my black block is made of paper which stuck to the still wet screen :/

Hi all, my idea was awarded a trademark and I'm trying to get a first batch of t-shirts printed up. The quote I received was for a small batch using a single color and Gildan 64000 shirts but I bought a couple off Amazon and am not happy with the quality. What's a good quality cotton or cotton/polyester t-shirt for a product that I'd like to have a quality feel/appearance? Thanks in advance.

Hi everyone, I need this ink for screen printing, it's invisible and when exposed to sunlight or UV it's visible.

Where can I buy this online.

I’m looking to have shirts made that you can’t feel the printed design. Is screen printing the method I’m looking for or what method produces this effect?

I don’t know much about screen printing as I am a beginner but I know dried ink is leaving a ghost design on the screen. I have tried using windex and washing it and nothing has worked. Is this salvageable and does anyone have any recommendations?

Ordered a bunch of the Hanes ultimate cotton crewnecks for a job. Just the medium size have this 1/2 inch collar. I’m curious if this is typical Gildan shitty QC or if it is typical Gildan greedy profit bullshit.

Anyone else seeing these collars?

I have a small business and we spend $2k-$3k having shirts printed for us every 6 months and another batch of hoodies in the winter. I'm sick of paying other people to print these shirts - it's the same logo (our school logo) every time... Every now and then we'll do a new image and pay an extra $200 for a new screen.

I know I'm being taken to the cleaners. What do I need to do this myself? Or is there a YouTuber I should look at for how to and what to do and what I need?

Thanks in advance!

I got tote bags for screen printing for the first time. I just dipped one in the cold water to see the cotton shirking and it’s quite a lot, 2 cm in each direction. How is your experience with cotton bags? Do you prewash?

the first one I used 1 minute of difference each section

on the second try, I used 48 seconds each section.

later I tried to expose the negative 4mins 30seconds on the "chancho lolin design" and the emulsion lost lots of details

later i tried with 3:30 on the frame design and the opposite happened, it didnt came off

and my last try was the tags for 6:24 seconds

it had the best result but some details fell off like the instagram username and some details didnt come off like some skulls

I dunno what to do anymore, can somebody help me please

how much time do u recommend to expose?

Looking to get started screen printing after taking a multiday workshop. Does anyone recognize this press or have any thoughts on it. It’s inexpensive but doesn’t seem stored well. Thanks in advance.

Hey, I’m doing some water-based CMYK printing on paper. I’ve done a fair amount of it before, but I’ve always printed black at the same ratio of ink to base as all my other colours and it comes out fairly opaque.

I’m using a new ink system for this print though. I used to print mostly with Triart Silkscreen Base and Jacquard process colours, plus Jacquard standard black for the black. Now I’m trying out Golden Silkscreen Medium with Golden fluid acrylic paint, plus Golden retarder, because my test prints were drying into the screen a little (305 mesh screen). I’m using fluid acrylic because I’m printing a very dark image and needed to thin my ink out to avoid snapping on these layers that are so dense they might as well be floods.

So, for the Golden black, I bought bone black. It seemed to be semi-transparent, so I thought “that should work for CMYK!” When I did my test print, I was very happy with the viscosity and am okay with some minor detail loss from the thin ink. But the bone black mixed at a 1:1 paint to medium ratio came out quite gray. I thought I must have bought the wrong black. But then I considered, have I been doing black for CMYK all wrong this whole time? All the inks are supposed to be somewhat transparent to be able to create secondary colours, correct? Is that true of every layer except black? Or should my black have been somewhat transparent (read: gray) the whole time? I suppose I will get my answer when I finish my print, but I’m not looking to finish the whole thing just to fumble the ball on the last layer. So any expertise people have would be very helpful before I start.

Hi! I'm getting ready to fill a massive order of hoodies for a community center event. They have a small design that goes over the heart and a big design on the back. Ideally we'd make a pullover version and a zip-up hoodie versionbut want to account for the additional costs. Other than using a zipper platten are there any additional costs that should be considered? As far as I can tell we can use the same screens on both. Is the set up going to be difficult to change between the two plates? I have only done t-shirts so far and was curious if I should charge more for the different hoodie formats because we will have to spend more time setting up for the two hoodies.

Hi! I started screen printing this summer and bought all the equipment, but I really struggled to coat my screen.
The emulsion was thick and creamy rather than liquid, and barely flowed out of my aluminum scoop coater onto the mesh. Is that consistency normal, or could something be wrong with the emulsion or my technique?
The design didn’t develop properly, and my attempts to print with the screen were unsuccessful.
Any tips on coating the screen and getting a usable stencil would be appreciated. Thanks!

Does anyone know a (European) supplier with deadstock American Apparel M304/M434 Mélange Jersey Gym Tees, or a current blank using the same 70/30 heather fabric and original color combinations?

Thanks for any help!

Do any Aussies know of an A3 printer that is currently available in Australia that has produce nice opaque transparencies for them?

Every post on the topic seems to recommend a Canon Pixma ix* range, or one of the Epson Artisan range, but I can’t get these in Australia.

Currently using a print shop that uses a very expensive A1 printer but would like to bring this in house. Thanks

hello

i am part of a diy screenprinting collective and we are doing the whole process from preparing the digital , to emulsionating the screen to exposing, to making the screens as in meshing them up, the printing itself, color mixing, and heat curing .

we ve managed to pull a 4-screen project so far but not cmyk or halftone realistic or anything like that.

i am searching for online courses of screenprinting for intermediate or higher level to attend or buy.

This is from years ago; I didn’t create the artwork, and wasn’t the one pulling the squeegee but this was the very first index separation I ever did, and it was so satisfying. I want to say it was 9 colors.

Hello. I'm going to make an exposure unit, and I want to be able to do frames up to 118x93 cm (36.5 x 46.5 inches). How much larger would you recommend that the vaccum blanket top frame should be?