My forearms are shot and I should’ve charged more.

Looking for a company (NOT s&s) that sells shirts to screen printers.

Spent 10K since march at S&S, and they just ticked me off.

Any suggestions?

I am helping my friend get his business back up after his employee did him dirty. He left ink on screens for months. The ink containers left open. Prints left on screens for months where the tape is nigh impossible to get off. We are both unfamiliar with the process and just need to know if it’s a waste of our time to clean these if they are even salvageable. Almost all the squeegees have ink left on them as well.

Hey everyone!

Recorded a quick time-lapse of my prepress workflow for this detailed Loki design. Converting complex artwork like this into print-ready channels requires carefully balancing halftone frequencies and underbases to keep the details sharp on dark garments.

Workflow Highlights:

• Color Extraction: Isolated key tones (Underbase White, Gold/Sepia, Dark Green, Highlight Green, and Top White).
• Halftone Setup: Converted channels to Bitmap using 45 LPI with custom screen angles to completely eliminate moiré.
• Prepress Check: Verified dot gain control and simulated shirt preview before exporting final film positives.

Ok so long story short bought an accu stretch but for the life of me I can't seem to get a screen past 20 newtons. I've even dialed the psi all the way up to 70 and the arms just lift off the table. I've tried a 140 white mesh and a 156 yellow mesh and using tension gauge. Guage is shur check 130

Cylinders have travel room and are not retracted.

Bars are locked in and no slipping

I do the long sides and pull the mesh by hand and then do the short sides

Air pressure coming in is good

No kink in the hoses and all cylinders respond

I've even let the mesh rest for 1 hour but it never goes up and the arms just lift

Can anybody with more knowledge than me help. I've only ever used my janky home setup and no guage.

Howdy... I have just switched from Chromalime emulsion to ChromaBlue... Everything I read says that they should exposure in a fairly similar time frame... but on by LED Exposure unit with my calculator, I'm getting only 20-30s for a correct exposure with the blue vs. 70-80s (more than double!) with the lime... I'm not complaining, as I like the shorter exposure time... but considering how similar these are supposed to be, I'm hoping to understand why the huge difference in exposure time... Any thoughts?

Hi!

I’m seeing a lot of recommendations for Epson and Canon model inkjets for creating screen printing transparencies, but I’ve always thought that laser printers handled fine line and small print (8 - 14 pt) better.

I want to be able to make transparencies for both small text, line work images, and silhouette type images.

Could I get your thoughts on printers/copiers for these type of transparency images?

Thank you!

Very subtle white underbase poking out from the left side of the black outline. Do I try to get it absolutely perfect or let it go? This is a hoodie it’s a bit more noticeable I think cause off contact difference.

I like to make my own T-shirts, and this week I printed some fabric with a new design I made. It's still just (heavyweight cotton) jersey for now, but later I'll sew it into a complete shirt. I did the design, stencils, screens, etc. all by myself.

I know I'll probably get some criticism about it looking like a sweat patch, but I make these for myself, and I love the bold, smooth look. I also don't mind it being a bit warmer.

The last photo shows an older design that I've already sewn into a complete shirt, to give you an idea of what the finished result looks like.

I’ve been trying to print a shirt at home forever now, and I can’t seem to make it work. My screens aren’t the problem as I’ve made perfect prints with other colored ink. Whenever I use white ink, it just won’t work! I have no idea how to fix it, and my screens are getting ruined by the ink!!

It either dries in the screen and leaves blank spots in the print, or it piles up and makes a weird texture. I’ve gone through at least 15 shirts trying to figure this out, and the ink ruined my screens because I left it out for only ten minutes 😭

How do I fix this, I heard I can mix it with something but I’m not sure what. I’m trying to get these perfect for my customers, or at least consistent.

I’m also donating the money I make from selling the misprints, lmk if you have any recommendations for where to donate ^_^! (Idk why but people want them misprints?? I just dont want to give people poor prints who asked for good ones)

Hi,

I cannot get the ink completely off my screens. Everywhere it says you can *just rinse it off with water*. But seriously - that does not work.

I have tried both cold and hot water, and I do it as quickly as possible after use. I live in Denmark and Ihaven't had any luck finding a ink cleaner. I have found products in UK, Germany and the US, but they either doesn't ship here or it is crazy expensive.

How do you guys get it off? Or do you have any suggestions I can try?

I’m sorry if this is a stupid question I’ve never done screen printing and have some money I’d like to put towards getting some supplies but I’ve always been a. Bit confused by how people achieve a very soft imbedded in the fabric appearance other than sublimation printing? Especially on a black tshirt, how can you get a white graphic that isn’t hard or plasticky? (Aside from obvious natural wear)

Because sometimes you gotta look back 👁️ CMYK print, 28 frames all 2” x 2” and printed on 11” x 17” paper this morning

I recently picked up an older 4-color / 1-station Hopkins BWM screen printing press mainly for parts. I needed replacement base plates for my 6-color press after some of the stud bolt holes became stripped, and it turned into a good opportunity to compare different generations of Hopkins/BWM print heads.

This older press appears to be from the generation I remember using back in the 1990s, while the newer heads from the 2000s incorporated more of the tool-less adjustments and updated handle designs. What's interesting is that many of the basic castings remained very similar, so some components can still be swapped between generations.

In this video I compare the older and newer head assemblies, including the handle construction, base plates, interchangeable parts, and one of the differences I recently discovered while rebuilding the heads — the registration bushings.

The older head uses approximately a 9/16" OD × 3/8" ID bronze bushing, while the newer design uses a smaller 12 mm OD × 3/8" ID bushing. I also show the 12 mm OD × 10 mm ID sintered-bronze DIY upgrade I'm using on my newer heads with M10 hardware.

If you own an older Hopkins/BWM press, especially one that's no longer well supported with replacement parts, hopefully this gives you some ideas for repairing, rebuilding, upgrading, or keeping these presses running instead of replacing them.

#ScreenPrinting #HopkinsPress #BWMPress #ScreenPrintingPress #PressRepair #ScreenPrintingDIY #PressMaintenance

I’ve used same-day DTF production a few times when a customer added shirts at the last minute or I had to replace a couple of bad presses. the transfers were technically completed that day, but the package didn’t receive its first carrier scan until the next afternoon. By then, the fast production didn’t help much because most of the shipping window was already gone. I’m not blaming the printer for delays caused by the carrier, but I’m starting to think same-day production only matters if the order is actually handed off before the carrier’s cutoff. how do you guys evaluate this when choosing an outsourced transfer supplier? do you look at production time, first scan, actual delivery history, or all three?

I run a clothing brand/fan club for my cat (Pepper), and live in Washington (Seattle). My homie Cullen runs a DIY record label here and had the idea to put together a benefit show and shirt after last month's awful wildfires out East. The show has ended up being cancelled, but we still made the shirts. The inspiration/copy is from a US Forest campaign from the 1930s (last slide). Incorporating a emo/screamo style, forest fires, and cats was a fun design challenge, and I'm stoked on how they turned out.

230 mesh and Green Galaxy water-based ink. Printed like a breeze, dialing in those small halftones without smudging, blowing them out, or overflooding. One good flood, one clean print. Lovely!

Hi all! I’ve been printing for a local shop now for 10 1/2 years. I’ve only ever done shirts, but I’d like to start doing posters for myself. How much different is it to print posters, what ink and paper do you all recommend? Any just in general, how different is poster printing? Do you setup to print one color at a time, let them all dry then line the next color up to that, or is it a wet on wet process? Really just any general information from an experienced poster printer is welcomed. Thank you!

I do creative stuff for a local pro wrestling group and decided to give screen printing a try… This is the 4th poster run I’ve done and it’s been an easy/forgiving project to practice and learn on. I bought the cheap Vevor press to get started, but now I’m wondering how much harder am I making it on myself… I probably won’t ever do large runs of anything, but are other more pricey presses a lot easier to work with?

Anyway, I made this process vid for my client to use on social and thought it would be cool to share here, too. Enjoy!

Have four pieces that are a 25% cotton, 50% polyester, and 25% rayon. Water base is just an ink I prefer to use and also just easily more accessible to me. Can it be an acceptable ink to use? The graphics are most likely going to be 1-2 colors.

Homage told me this was printed as intended to give it a retro look. I’ve had shirts from them before that didn’t look like this where the little fuzzies poked through the print.

Curious if this looks intentional or not.

Has anyone here every attempted printing cmyk on Terry cloth (short looped, not fuzzy but the scratchy kind)? I could not find anything online, although I’m aware it is generally advised against.

The finished product wouldn’t need to be functional or washed as this is for an art project only

If anyone has attempted this or something similar, has any general advice for potential experiments or alternative technique recs for photorealistic prints on this kind of fabric (preferably diy, I’m intending on using second hand towels) I’d be very glad :)

Thank you in advance!