<Tips/Techniques> silkscreening tips

Frequent question about boxes and accessories: painting, etching, clearcoating, lettering, glueing, and so on.
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sosodef
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Post by sosodef »

I have a handful of pedals I put together. I want to do a cool project out of it. I need to learn the art of silkscreening. any tips? do most builders get these made for them or just send their boxes off for screening? I want to do something fun with the screens so I am curious about the screen process. Anyone?

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Brian M
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Post by Brian M »

I used to do my own screening. While it is possible to do at home, the results of your efforts will vary much depending on how much you are willing to spend, and how much experience you have.

Cheapest way:
Go to a local art supply store. Most likely the only brand they will have is speedball kits, and ink.

Essentially you need four things at a basic minimum.
1 a screen
2 ink
3 a spatula thingy (not sure of the technical term)
4 emulsion for the screen.

There are other things you COULD buy, like an exposure unit for the emulsion, and maybe some sort of jig thing to hold your screens in place. Maybe down the road if you find that you enjoy it. I'd recomend getting some emulsion remover as well, that way if you want to reuse the screen or make a mistake you can.

Your art supply store will probably have a kit that will include all of those.

Unfortunately all the ink that is available at art supply stores will probably be meant for fabric rather than metal or painted surfaces. So you will probably have to put some clear coat over your screen to make it durable. The good thing about the cheap ink is that it is water solulable, so you dont have to buy nasty chemicals to clean up your screens or any mess you might make.

If you call around to supply shops (usually you can't walk in to them) you could find some more professional supplies to work with. In general really good ink for non pourous surfaces is sold by the pint, and is not cheap... and of course you will need some sort of solvent to clean up your ink from the screen once it's used.


The process:
First things first. prepare the screen. should be done in low light conditions, as the emulsion is light activated.
Get your spatula and emulsion out, and make a fine coating of emulsion down the screen.... should be done all in one motion. if you screw up no big deal, just rinse it out, and try again when it dries.

once you have your emulsion on, put your screen in a dry dark place for at least 24 hours.

Print out your artwork on a transparency as dark as possible. Lay it over the dried screen with a piece of glass sitting flatly on it, and put it under a light. I always used a 250watt light i bought at the hardware store. The light needs to be pretty even. Exposure can take anywhere from 10 to 20 mintues. The best way to tell if it is done or not is to set something else on the screen like a penny. after a 10 minutes check and see if the area under the penny is a different color than the exposed part of the screen.

with some experience you'll figure out the exposure time.

After it's exposed spray it out with water, and the parts that were covered by your artwork should spray out after a few minutes.

Wait for the screen to dry

lay your screen over your pedal, and line it up right.

dab some ink across the top of the screen, and all in one motion, run the spatula down the screen... preferably at a 45 degree angle leaning towards you.

Lift the screen straight off

wait for the pedal to dry

I actually made a screen holder with hinges to avoid smearing the artwork when lifting the screen off.

Anyways, I dont do my own printing anymore. It is an utter pain in the ass for how much room it took up, and I was never really able to get the results out of it that i wanted.

Eventually i was looking in to getting some better equipment, but while i was calling around, i also checked out some shops that did screen printing. a place that is close by basically has a $100 hour rate. which may seem high, but they can do 150 or so boxes in an hour, and they do a really great job.

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super velcroboy
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Post by super velcroboy »

youtube is your friend




there are a whole bunch

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Brian M
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Post by Brian M »

super velcroboy wrote:youtube is your friend




there are a whole bunch
well, id stay away from taking too much instruction from printing on fabric. The general idea is the same, but the devil is in the details for good results.

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Post by super velcroboy »

Brian M wrote:
super velcroboy wrote:youtube is your friend




there are a whole bunch
well, id stay away from taking too much instruction from printing on fabric. The general idea is the same, but the devil is in the details for good results.
i think devi is doing something like this. Maybe she can chime in.

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sosodef
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Post by sosodef »

cool thank you brian and thanks super for the links.

now where do you go to get someone to just make them professionally for you?

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Brian M
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Post by Brian M »

sosodef wrote:cool thank you brian and thanks super for the links.

now where do you go to get someone to just make them professionally for you?
there are a bunch of places that do screens... most places charge 40 to 50 bucks. just check your phone book.

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Post by MoreCowbell »

I actually prefer this video....


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