here’s what i’d teach myself about screen printing if i got zapped by a Men in Black neuralyzer
7 commandments
KEEP SHIT CLEAN - basically referring to ink on screens. using plastisol ink that shit can get EVERYWHERE. it never dries out either. so it spreads like the damn plague if ya not careful. which leads to my next point:
USE LESS INK THAN YOU THINK - you legit don’t need so much. don’t dump half a tub of ink on a screen, as you’ll only have to scoop it back in later. and more ink movements gives more potential for mess. which would break our #1 golden rule.
HAVE A TEST PIG - i’m super guilty of wanting to try a test print on a shirt for myself asap, only to fuckup the print and ruin a perfectly good shirt. find some old shirts, get some dirt cheap Anko shirts, test the fuck out of your prints on those. and when you’re 100% sure you’re print is good? test one more time on the pig and then try your golden goose.
OVERCOOK > UNDERCOOK - do the stretch test frequently after curing your design. and if i was leaning one way or another, better to heat the fuck outta a shirt than undercook it and have the print start fading and wash out. no worse feeling
SLOW DOWN - the cost of fucking up is 10x more time than if you had just slowed the fuck down and done it properly. what’s the rush?
EXPERIMENT - try weird shit. try dumb shit. just try shit. you can watch 10,000 youtube videos, but until ya try a print ya kinda know fuck all. i’ve learned soooooo much from youtube god bless. but often learned faster and better by just doing the damn thing. in saying that, sometimes by fuckups have been exponetitally worse cause i tried doing something before doing a modicum of research. make of this what you will.
PPPPPP - prior preparation prevents piss poor performance. the more work you do prepping/upkeeping/planning the more headaches you will avoid.
“There’s an old saying that outback survival is about seeing problems and dealing with them before they have a chance of becoming problems that need to be dealt with.” - Russell Coight.
screens:
easiest way starting out is maybe just purchase some pre-burnt screens. they’ve done all the finicky work and trial and error, you just get your design ready to be printed; i’ve used these guys on AliExpress
burning screens is a whole different box of frogs. refer to youtube. be prepared for plenty of trial and error. good luck brochacho.
ink:
start small. you’ll need less than you think. see the 10 commandments again.
use plastisol ink. waterbased is fine. but you have to work fast. slow and steady wins the race for me. plastisol ink you can leave on screens for who knows how long.
again, buy/use less than you think. don’t be a greedy boi.
learning:
watch others as much as you can. youtube, IRL, if you can see it you can learn from it.
even me now, (this is an always open request) if somehow you’re a screen printing shop reading this, pretty pls may i come shadow shift for a couple hours?
same goes to those wanting to learn screen printing, come round and i can show you some shit if ya keen.
printing:
ahhhh finally! idk what to tell ya here. keep a constant tension on the squeegee as your going over a design. be careful of not pressing harder with your right hand compared to your left (a common problem for me). i flood the screen with a think layer of ink, then pull/push depending on the design and how im feeling. its weird. i find printing is a lot about feel. hard to describe. again just experiment with what works best for the prints, your body, your style. some people prefer pushing or pulling cause it’s easier on their body, i just switch it up depending on what i think produces the best results. and fuck knows why i have differing results and why this is even a thing. i only know what i know and i’m sure if a professional screen printer saw me at work he’d have a fucking aneurysm.
curing:
right after printing, quickly dry to touch with a heat gun (i assume a hair dryer would also work???) just because you don’t want to accidentally touch the print, or the tee touch the print, and ink spread everywhere.
after that you can cure. i used this Vevor heat press. things a fucking tank. no complaints. super sturdy, reliable. i have a teflon bbq cooking mat/sheet attached to thing with magnets. i honestly forget the reason why. but it works. so i continue doing it.
cleaning:
if you’ve been printing a design in white ink and want to print in black? scoop all remaining ink on screen back into its tub (now ya know why less is more!). and then ya gonna need turps and a tonne of paper towels to clear all the ink off. especially take note of the ink in the design. a paper towel each side soaked in turps and rub the stencil. don’t use waterbased turps. maybe its just me but it didnt fucking work. dont bother.
also note, going from white ink to black ink i find easier than vice versa.
misc tips
- a screen is a lot of real estate. so ill put 2 logos on it. one on top, and one down the bottom flipped 180 degrees. that way its not just 1 screen 1 logo. not a perfect system by any means, especially when i need to use both logos on one screen lmao. but i feel i can make more screens go further.
if i think of anything else after posting this i’ll update, but this is all my brain can conjure up for now