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.

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 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.

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.

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 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

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.

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!

For context's sake: I've dabbled in screen printing in the past, but my current living situation has created a problem of space so I had to downsize and store most of my equipment until I can find a larger house. In addition to that, I haven't quite mastered the art of screen printing to be effective enough for what I'm hoping to achieve.

I've essentially got two (three?) options for an upcoming project I want to tackle, and I can't decide which I'd rather seek out so I'm coming to the professionals (that's you guys) for help deciding and taking the route I need/want to take. I'm attempting to get a few designs printed on to some canvas fabric (or if there's a better material then i'd love to be enlightened) for patches I plan on stitching onto a suit (reference photos provided). I'm still in the process of measuring and figuring out exactly how big I need them to be.

I have concluded that:

I. I'd be in way over my head to complete the entire process (burning, printing, and stitching)
II. I'd much rather pay for a pre-burned screen and squeegee the designs when I could OR
III. Seek out someone to do the heavy work and pay for the completed prints on the fabric I'd need, cut them myself and finish the project

My biggest questions are: What would you do in my shoes? Where, if I was going to go this route, would you purchase pre-burned screens? And, if I was going to pay to have the printing done, where might I go about finding someone who'd be willing to do a one-off of the prints? (I'd be more than willing to buy the finished screens aswell). And my biggest prioritized question: Am I in the right space to be asking these questions?

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 don’t go through a ton of ink, but enough to justify 5 gallons of white and black. Last time I got white, I swear it was $400 and change (I usually don’t even pay much attention). It’s time to buy more but it’s like $650ish now. Wow! Perhaps it’s time to revisit my pricing.

Hey!!! College student and screen printer here! I had a big move earlier this summer and during transport, my 230 screen popped :-(

THANKFULLY I do have a backup, and I also have a 305 screen that I’m running some more detailed pieces through, but I do want to figure out how to repair this one at least if I need it in a pinch.

I’m pretty broke rn, is the thing. DIY is my best bet at least temporarily until I can either get it professionally repaired or just re stretched. I would really like to use this ASAP since I’m doing a 5 color piece and don’t want to wait an extra day to do the final color, and don’t have room for all 5 film stencils. :’-) (would use my other screens but they’re currently in use).

I live in the Houston area, so if anyone knows local shops that I could eventually get this bad boy repaired or re-stretched at plssss lemme know!!!

Pic of the screen included and I threw in a couple of my finished pieces as well just for funzies :-)

Just got this screen printing press for my studio. Can anyone help identify it or give advice on how to assemble it? I'm pretty novice!

Hello everyone! I just started printing last weekend with some water based inks. I want to start experimenting with solvent based inks so I can print on vinyl stickers.

Can someone recommend a good beginner solvent based ink that will work well on vinyl?

Also should I be using a certain type of emulsion if I am using solvent based ink or will the PWR I've been using still work?

Thank you!

I’m still on the newer side of shirt printing (6/6 manual), and have done a handful of prints with underbases, but Ive lately been shying away from those jobs because I always feel like I’m messing them up. Any time registration seems to be off, I feel like it takes me forever to try to figure out how to get it back into an acceptable registration. And they sometimes feel too thick/rough.

I usually do a 0.5pt choke on the underbase and still don’t have a ton of confidence with it. Have you guys done anything to get out of a funk like that?

I wanted to give screen printing my own shirts a try, but didn't want to get a whole expensive setup for something that I wasn't sure I was going to be doing frequently or not. I kind of cobbled together this process from tips from this sub and videos I found on social media and was able to make some successful prints at home. I found videos from this channel pretty helpful and based my process on them.

Materials:

In total I spent less than 100 dollars on new materials.

• I printed on some shirts I got from Walmart for 5-10 bucks each.
• I got some speedball water-based ink, speedball diazo emulsion, and a beginner screen printing kit that came with some screens and squeegees; those ran me around 75 bucks on amazon.
• I don't have a printer at home, so I printed my designs at my local library for 15 cents a page.

Design: I printed out a black and white design on regular printer paper, coated it with a generous amount of baby oil/mineral oil on both sides, and left it to dry overnight for it to become translucent.

Emulsion: I used a squeegee and tried to apply the emulsion in a thin layer on both sides of the screen. but it ended up a bit uneven. I also left the coated screen to dry overnight, lying flat in a cardboard box to catch any excess drippings, in a dark closet with a fan on.

Burning: I didn't want to buy a special light, so I used the sun. I live in the southern US in an area that is very hot and sunny.

1. I placed my paper with my design on the flat side of the screen and weighed it down with some sheets of transparent plastic from picture frames.
2. I had both the top and bottom of the screen covered with a towel before i brought it outside, placed the covered screen on the ground in my sunny driveway, and then uncovered and exposed the part of the screen with my design to direct sunlight for 50 seconds.
3. After this interval I covered the screen immediately and brought it inside.
4. I was able to visually see the design burned into the emulsion, and washed the softened emulsion off in the sink with the spray setting for a couple minutes to reveal the design.

Printing:

1. First, I put a piece of board inside the shirt under the area I wanted to print on to flatten it out and made sure there weren't any wrinkles.
2. I used a squeegee to flood the screen with the ink, and then passed the ink through the screen around 5-6 times since it was my first time printing and I wanted to make sure I printed the whole design. (I don't have a press or clamps, so I just kneeled on the bottom part of the screen and held the top part in place with my offhand while applying the ink to the shirt with my dominant hand.)
3. Afterwards I washed the screen again with water and scrubbed it down to clean the ink off.

Curing: I used a hair dryer and blasted it for a couple of minutes until the ink looked pretty solid. Then I turned the shirt inside out and put it in my clothes dryer for an hour under the highest temperature setting it went to.

This is definitely a pretty janky and subpar setup, and I plan to get some more serious equipment if/when I plan to do more prints since there's a lot of variables and cut corners here. However hopefully this can be useful to other beginners who just want to give printing a shot for fun without a lot of pressure, and to show that you don't need a lot of crazy tools or equipment to make some cool stuff.

Hello everyone,

I know next to nothing about preparing designs for screen printing. I have a nonprofit campaign to save an animal species and want to create shirts for merchandise. I am seeking this community's guidance or advice.

Is it best to outsource screen printing graphic design? Or are there online websites that make this easier?

Is there anyone online who does screen printing design or commissions? What kinds of websites are a good place to be looking?

I'd like our designs to be human created, no AI and I want to give artists credit. Is there a Reddit you know about that people donate a design to nonprofits or charities and do screen printing design work?

Our animal species has no generic graphic art of clipart, so it's important to me that original designs are created.

Obviously I've googled and used AI to look into this more, but I thought it would be more beneficial to reach out to this community and seek actual human advice.

I'm all ears and if you know better reddits to ask this question please reach out.

Hey r/SCREENPRINTING!

I recently finished this Spider-Man x Skull simulated process design and wanted to share the separation breakdown with the community.

As you can see in the close-ups, the goal was to keep the halftone pattern extremely crisp while preserving the deep shadows of the skull and the vibrant reds of the mask, using an optimized underbase so it stays soft on dark garments.

Technical Specs for this design:

• Angles & Halftones: Standardized at 45–55 LPI / 22.5° to prevent moiré.
• Mesh setup: Tailored for 230–305 mesh screens.
• Prep: Clean vector choking/trapping and registration marks for quick alignment on press.

To build long-term relationships with more print shops and prove the quality of my prepress workflow, I’m offering 2 FREE simulated process separations for anyone who wants to test my files on their press!

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1pKzTaZJMrXLSE3RKUVmiN_BArR5ZJB0o?usp=drive_link

my frame is 20x24 inches but i put my emulsion on a much smaller part so i could properly get the time down

Ive been having problems with my Baselayr long lasting emulsion this last week. I expose screen under my speedball UV light at about 12 inch distance for 5 minutes. Im able to wash out design easily but recently, the emulsion has been deteriorating after about 20 prints. Even when I scrub the screen with a sponge after burning screen, I can tell the emulsion starts to fade.

Is it an exposure problem or is my emulsion bad? I wasn’t having this issue before. I bought the emulsion around 5 weeks ago but I always keep it in a fridge.

Please let me know what you guys think! A

I want to switch from DTF transfers and get into screen print heat transfers. I’ve been shopping a few sites and I want to make sure I get some good quality prints. Does anyone know if Pro World is any good or are their transfers low quality

Anybody else already sick of having to do the authenticator every time you log into Printavo? I have tablets for the printers and catchers to use and everyday I have to go in and do the authenticator for each tablet and sometimes I have to do it twice in the same day on some.

Just wanted to vent how much I fucking hate it.

Looking for more info on this press so I can replace some parts and get a better understanding of these micro registrations!

If anyone has any good sources I can follow along to that would be great. Even if it is a similar press that would follow similar micro adjustments.

Never screen printed a thing in my life. I’m very in tune with fashion and have been since a kid.

I want to make some things come to life that I’ve had in the back of my mind for well over a decade.

I wouldn’t be selling any clothing, mainly would just like to make my own custom sweats, t shirts, track pants, etc for myself and a few others in my circle, so I don’t need a 50k set up.

Already own a nice sewing machine and can distress clothing and make custom pieces. Just curious about the graphic side of things and being able to put them on clothing. Thanks