Here's Everything You Need To Start Screen Printing? 

I worked as a screen printer for several years, primarily printing shirts. We had a 6 color manual press. A few things I'd recommend to make things easier/better would be to coat both sides of the screens, use a vacuum bed to expose the screens for more crisp details, center the artwork further from the frame to make printing easier, use bullseye registration marks centered on the design, and pair your screen mesh with the type of ink you're using. Some inks are much thicker than others. For example, white ink made for polyester fabrics(designed to stop color bleed through) is VERY thick, and it's very difficult to push through a high mesh count screen. Ideally, you want to use the lowest count screen you can get the design to hold in with ink like that. Also, when washing out the high mesh screens, I liked to use the mist setting to wet both sides of the design and let them soak for a bit before washing out the details. It comes out much clearer that way.

Having the sponsor over the footage of you rinsing the screen was a good idea. It felt less like an interruption because we could still see you working on the project.

I was a screen printer in a CD/DVD pressing plant for a few years. We used a 6 colour auto print press, but the screens we made by hand. A few tips to make your screens better. 1. When you emulsion the screen do two passes on the front, one on the back. All while it's wet. This gives you a nice thick coating for the film to expose on. It's worth it for image quality. 2. When you do the emulsion, make sure you do it with as little light on as possible - a dark room setting. If you do it with the lights on, that stuff is so light sensitive that it's curing while you're laying it on. 3. We used to dry our screens in a purpose built oven where they would be stacked in. The quicker you can dry them the less time the emulsion has to run, or go off. 4. The screen mesh, you can go for finer screens, we would 180 for all work and this was printing fine images onto CD's and DVDs. It'll be fine around that. The higher you go it doesn't really make that much difference especially on a t-shirt. 5. When you expose your screen to UV it's important that you use scotch tape as it can be removed and replaced over and over again and also the light will go through it easily. Stick it on all four corners of the image so it can't move. We used to then place it in a vacuum light box where the lid would pull a vacuum and hold the image on to the screen as close as possible. This is why you're getting images with feathered edges, because the light is creeping around the edges of the image. 6. When you wash the image out, use a powerful water jet, cold water and the emulsion should come off really easily and leave a nice sharp image behind. 7. Stick some silver tape around the inside of the screen so ink doesn't leak between the mesh and the frame and you can peel it off for a cleaner finish at the end. Loving the T-shirts though - great work!

I screen printed shirts for extra money in college. I had bought my own equipment and watched a lot of youtube videos to figure it all out. I really enjoyed the whole printing process. This video really brought back some memories.

A lot of other people were commenting similar things but my advice is to coat both sides of the screen. when exposing, you can lay a piece of glass on top of the transparency to get a cleaner result. after exposing you can wet both sides of the screen to allow it to soak, helps wash out much easier. For the actual printing, Tape up the edges of the screen so ink doesn't spill out. Most importantly you want to flood your design with the ink before you do your pass, just lightly coat the whole design before using any pressure, this ensures that even if you run low on ink you wont have a blank spot on your print media. Hope this helps!

Love the video! I would recommend spraying some kind of light tack spray adhesive on the board so the prints don't fly away or stick to the screen when you pull it up. For registration, you can also lay down a piece of mylar or a blank transparency on your board and tape the left edge. You can pull your first print on the mylar and then place your paper underneath to line it up. Then you can just pivot the mylar on the taped edge out of the way and pull the print. This is helpful when you want those lines to be precise. For a textured design like yours, I think the watercolor paper worked great. If you're trying for crisp lines, definitely go with a less porous paper like a bristol board. Hope this helps anyone else interested in jumping in.

Great job with the sponsor spot. Learned about an antivirus while watching you struggle with the rinsing. Now I know if I’m having trouble with the rinsing it’s just part of the process.

My family has owned a screen print business for over 65 years running screen presses over 5’ x 12’ (Timsco Graphics). This was great to watch and see all the elements in play. A good screen printer is a true craftsmen. Stretching and coating a 5’x10’ screen can be rather tricky 😅

I started screen printing back in my dorm room in the 90s, it was a gateway to learning about all kinds of stuff. Never tried to really make money with it but it was great for making t-shirts for bands I was in and art prints.

14:38 If you want better looking registration without having to be as precise durning printing, you can add trapping to the design. It’s where you offset the paths of your text or graphics so there’s a small amount of overlap between different colors. And you can overprint colors like the two blues in that design.

a sheet of thick glass over the acetate/transparency will help get a cleaner edge, with that in mind you will need some firm foam underneath the screen to make sure it all stays flat and level, with the weight of the glass on top. Also laying it out with the acetate ink side down so its as close to the emulsion as possible will help with that cleaner edge. doing a layer of emulsion on either side of the screen will also help you not blow out as much when washing the excess emulsion off. I'm a small screen printer, but all of those tips really helped me when I was just getting started as for me, wasting material with mistakes took time and money! no way claiming to be a pro, but these things worked for me!

13:09 don't use the palette knife to push the ink back to the top. What you want to do is elevate your screen slightly with a block or something on the opposite end from the hinges, then with the same 45-60 degree angle that you would pull as if you had paper, but with less pressure, you'll pre-wet your screen with ink. Then, remove the block and place your screen ontop of your paper. This time do the real pull. Lift up your screen, remove your paper, then pre-wet your image again, pulling the ink back to the other side of the screen (to the hinge side). We do this for 2 reasons, 1 for a consistent amount of ink per pull, and 2 so that our screen doesn't dry and the little tiny holes don't get clogged.

Recommendations (my parents used to do this when I was little, and I remember a lot of it): 1. When rinsing the emulsion, take the time and use low pressure. Don't get impatient! Mom used to spend a long time making sure the screens were good. 2. Use masking tape/painter's tape along the inside edges of the screen. That ensures that ink won't go through unexpected places. 3. Make sure you size your screen properly to give plenty of room above and below the print for ink. 4. We used to draw the ink up (no real pressure) to cover the whole print first, then pull down (with pressure) to transfer the image, with our ink reserve toward the bottom. Not sure it matters, but that's what we did when we were printing clothing. I remember the exposure taking a long time (like an hour or more), but that was 30 years ago.

Pro tip! You can use label maker labels on two sides for alignment, they're a little taller and have a more positive stop than the thinner painters tape.

I tried screen printing single colour in the past, 3 coulor always looked like it needed a huge rig. Cheers for this it makes the idea more realistic for a guy in a 1 bed apartment.

Truly grateful for your generosity in sharing your knowledge with the screenprinting community. Keep up the fantastic work!

Center the artwork, tape the frame off to aid cleanup, use a vacuum frame to expose the art, vacuum table to hold paper for prints, sand blaster adhesive for textiles, use real registration marks and better guide stops for registation. I operated a 54 x101 inch Argon (Italian) screen press for 4 color process in the 70's

Wow, those posters turned out so nice, especially for how little the set up cost. I need to try this! Thanks for the video!

Great video explaining screen printing! Screen printing can be more than just clothing and posters. We screen print electronics with conductive ink. We print membrane switches (think buttons on a microwave), biometric sensors, force sensors, stretchable heating elements, and more. We use basically the same techniques you display here, just a bit more precise and designed to be done at scale.

It would be nice if you showed all the important steps, like how you made the transparency.

Absolutely great video love the explanation, about the paint, in case you don’t use one that is solvent based, one that is a water based paint is better to cover the screen with ink in between prints so the screen don’t clog, solvent based paint is not gonna have that problem. Also attention on paint base and emulsion base, some use the same for removal so when you go clean your paint you might wipe off the design! And one easy product to print on is bags, paper bags or plastic bags and cardboard boxes!

You look SOOO YOUNG in the clips from your old video! Not in a bad way at all, it's just crazy to see time change!

I can see myself playing with various mesh screens, different paints, and different materials to print on. Lots of trial and error, using different techniques, and using different things to print on. I am going to look for books on how to screen print as well as watching RU-vid videos, like this one. I have seen other videos where the whole process was done in very primitive settings. Nothing fancy, like using the sunlight instead of lamps, and so on. I know I am going to blow a few bucks on experimentation, but it will give me first hand experience and I think, with all the helpful information from these many videos, in conjunction with the book(s), I will be on my way! The one thing I do understand, from all I have seen thus far, is that you have to become expert in preparing the screens for use. All the real work is up front. Thanks!

I always wanted to screen print my own record covers. As we can buy plain cardboard record covers (CD and LP), I guess it would be easy to do them by myself instead of paying someone else to do them.

I've been making decals and vinyl shirts, hats ext for a while. Not to bad to get into. One thing, don't forget all the little things. Tools, material, shipping, packaging ext. I bought my cutter, vinyl and heat press then forgot about the rest at first 🤣

I owned and operated a textile screen printing business (mostly T-shirts) for 22 years. I am surprised you didn’t need a vacuum frame to keep the film tight to the screen emulsion, particularly for detail.

There’s a few places out there that sell sheets with pre-coated emulsion. These can be used from smaller projects including shirts and posters for much less cost. Somewhere in the $50 to $100 range. They don’t require a metal screen and frame and can be secured with blue painters tape. I’ve used them for several shirts for my family. EzScreen print is one company, but there are others.

This video is great! Thanks!

Bob and team are evil. Now i have a new to list item to add to the pile awesome work again and great information here. Thanks

I've done screen printing in a friends shop before, but every time I consider doing it for myself out of my home, I'm held back by the disposal of emulsion and paint. Do people just wash these screens out in their bathtub or is outside in your yard better? Any ideas for proper at home disposal?

You can use screen printing on so many things!! Can koozi, canvas bags, shirts, wood, canvas, to name a few!

Wow, I've been subbed to your channel for a long time. I remember watching all of your screen-printing videos as they were released. I'm re-watching them now because of this video. I remember wanting to try this out all those years ago, but I got sidetracked and forgot all about it.

The og screen printing video is what brought me to this channel. So cool to see how far it has come. Keep it up!

To get a cleaner stencil it's best to apply pressure (like a weight or a vacuum) against the transparency when exposing, so there's no space and it's flush against the screen. You can get clean lines even on a 160 mesh. Also - coating both sides with emulsion helps.

I had no idea how this all worked before watching. Thanks for making the whole process look easy and approachable!

One thing about getting some place to print out your transparencies is make sure the black is opaque. I've had places print films for me and the ink from their printer wasn't solid enough and still let light through causing my screens to not expose properly

I remember the original Screen printing video was the first video of ILTMS that I watched

This was one of my favorite videos of yours lately. I like this teaching style from you.

You can basically screen print any flat surface like business cards, letter heads and so on. Learned several printing techniques like screen printing during my training as a graphic designer.

Hey Bob, thank you for probably the only video on printing posters! I am a musician illustrator as well and most of the merch demand from my fans is for visual posters of my songs .But I want to silk screen print bigger posters so I can either cut them up in smaller separate prints or just sell them as larger posters on nice thick paper. My question to you is what do I need to change the the set up and tools required to print larger posters than then ones you just printed here? I am looking to print minimum size of 50x70 cm (19.7x27.5 inch) posters or slightly bigger if possible, the bigger the better . Thanks

Yeeeey. ILTMS is baaaaaack baby!

Lol, that vevor label keeps jumping out at me thanks to all the recent videos from Lift Arc Studios :D

I did this exact same process for a 24 t-shirt run for a friend's small business startup marketing campaign.

Little tip. If possible get a single LED light, the multiple leds spread out can cause blurred lines because of the angle the light is hitting For sharp lines a single light source works better!!

Awesome video, do you have a video please on how to screen print on plastic shopping bags?! Thank you and hope to hear from you

It seems like 10-12 seconds could be possible if you held the light 1 foot over the screen, or even wave it over just a few inches. To be clear, I don’t know that, but the strength of any light diminishes rapidly with distance (to the 4th power? I don’t remember my last physics class). Mounting the light 3 feet over the screens seemed to work against you.

you can screen print hats, towels, textiles, and paper products other than posters such as invitations.

You need to listen to Jimmy, sell these!!! I'd buy one in a second! Great video!

So how do you clear the emulsion for your next project? Or do you throw that screen away and get new ones everytime?

Excellent video, one question - is it possible to clean the emulsion off a screen to start from scratch? If so, what's the best way to do that?

Good tutorial for beginners!

I understand that you explained the registration marks. But you don't show how you lined things up after the fact before printing.

Add something to the top of the frame a bout 3-5mm depending on screen tension. Off contact so the only time the screen mesh touches the substrate is with the squggee blade.

Have you ever done other forms of printmaking, like lino cut or etching?

What is your response to people saying that screen printing will be replaced by Direct To Film transfers?

Awesome!

Thank you for this Bob! Fantastic!

Do you have a list of materials with brands and details?

You could take posters to another level, and make them on metal or plastic. You could also use other shapes like circles to make really unique artwork.

Try moving your UV light closer to the print. The intensity will increase the closer it gets. You might have to play around with the distance a bit but generally the closer the UV source is the more the intensity is.

This is so cool.

What should we do to increase the life and durability of printing on leather? Can we use colorless UV coating on printing?

Can you print the photos Of the beatles

when applying emulsion most do the back first and then the front

I’m currently a screen printer and while a lot of the info here is fine, there’s a lot more that goes into screen printing, the lines on the logo screen didn’t come out crisp because there wasn’t a vacuum to hold the design right to the screen. 320 count for printing manual is honestly overdoing it unless it has tiny tiny details, even 160 mesh count is too high depending on the color you’re gonna be printing. Most of the info here is fine for at home printing though

I worked at a screenprinters with a guy who looked just like you. 😆 It was hard work!

Have you used a cricit to make screens before? I used that on the bottoms side of the silkscreen and it works well

What to do to avoid paint smell?

My experience working in manual screen printing is almost 5 years. The work is very time consuming and energy intensive. If I can help, the results will be good.

Another great episode! Q- Can you reuse the screen for a different project after you have used it already?

What about the lights that were on while putting the emulsion on, wouldn’t that mess up the emulsion

Any recommendations for making a diy frame with those clamps capable of being the right shape for a t shirt?

Looking good y'all!

Do you suppose bringing the screens outside into the (UV) sunlight could have added to the difficulty in getting the "uncured" emulsion to rinse properly? I'd think keeping them away from all UV light prior to rinsing would be optimal. Thank you for the video.

Hey, please tell me what is the power of the UV lamp? 100 or more Watts? Thx

Could you screen print white yard signs for your next video

Hey if it isn’t too much trouble could you remake the video where you make the “4 color screen printer”? This was really helpful and I am at the point of making one for myself/my brand and would love all the pointers and information that you put into your videos-

What printer was that in your video??

A very important part that I don't understand at all so far: how am I supposed to line the layers up and when do I do that? When I make the screens? Or do I print the first layer and then attempt to place the second screen over the printed first layer so it lines up with the marks? And doesn't that mean I have registration marks on my print? I'd rather not... I have watched both your old videos and there is not hint on how to do it in there either.

Great

Where can I order screens from with my design so in don’t have to do this myself?

So cool 👍👊

I can't say I have had much of an interest in screen printing; however, after this video I want to give it a shot. Thanks for this video, Bob and team. It was very inspiring and informative.

I would really like to do this on my guitars I build instead of waterslide decals for the headstock.

UV Need to be 2 to 3 inches from the surface

A couple things about the resolution with the logo it has less to do with the screen. One problem is having too thin a coat of imulsion and then second I don't think your exposure was exposing the screens well enough. The fake pressure washer might have been to strong and your emulsion didn't cure long enough so you were having some blowouts. Though the 300 does help with more details and a sharper image I still think you could have gotten a better stencil out of that 160.

What is that larger printer you are using? Epson Surecolor T2170?

could you do one for glass?

Sir which application you are using

No mention or showing how the ink dries/cures?

I guess the screen mesh they are using these days are calculated differently or your lack of vacuum to hold the transparency to the mesh was the reason you had such bad light bleed and not good enough. PS the yellow mesh is used to help with light diffraction so you don't suffer from saw-tooting when exposing the screen. While around 110 mesh was used back when I was screen printing I used 90 to get really good coverage and not have to worry about the ink being transparent or translucent, uses a lot more ink though! You also need a flood coat and some snap off and a light coat of spray adhesive to hold the stock in place.

Great video! What printer did you use?

This really made me want to try screen printing, made me realize that screen printing is easier than I thought. Easy to get *a result* but difficult to master.

Printing designs on leather or cloth would be an interesting way to make your products have that extra custom aspect to them.

you could do hats

Can use a tonner printer??

Fantastic work, Bob! Pretty interesting process! 😃 Some day I'm going to try it! Stay safe there with your family! 🖖😊

Question: At the beginning, you mentioned 3-color printing. At the end I saw blue and yellow. What don’t I understand? Does the background count as a color?

What software u advice me with to separate colors image like , jpg,vectors,rbg ? Thnx

So this means I have to buy/create ink of many different shades and colors if I had a multi-colored shirt to make. 1. How do match the colors I need perfectly? 2. If I'm printing a shirt based on a photo (which can hypothetically have many shades of green if there's trees or grass in the photo for instance), won't I need a ridiculous amount of screens/inks?