exposure woes

[jillustration]

First of all - love this site. I have learned SO MUCH from everyone so far. I've been having exposure issues. I have tried searching the forums and have tried a bunch of suggestions on here, still having some issues, SO I figured the time has come to post! Basically, I like to print finely detailed posters and prints. However, I am having some issues with my exposures. It seems that I lose details even when slightly underexposed and I am getting snail trails from the unexposed emulsion hanging out in the screen - annoying! I have tried doubling up transparencies and this hasn't seemed to work very well - I'm still losing fine details and the fine lines that do show up are too thin, or the halftones are too small. I often have to use the pressure washer to get little tiny areas which, I know, is a terrible idea, but I don't know what else to do.
My setup - I have a 1000 w metal halide lamp, 230 mesh yellow screens and an epson 1400 that I print onto victory factory 13 x 18 inkjet transparencies. Transparencies are smooshed against the screens on the floor against black felt covered foam with a piece of glass. I print my seps as pdfs from acrobat, make sure to set it to a high quality matte print which seems to lay down the most ink. Again, I usually double these up but I'm still having problems. Everyone seems to sing the praises of the 1400, but I'm wondering if RIP software would do the trick? I am using Ulano TZ emulsion but am considering buying a couple of other types and testing them out. Thanks in advance.

[Andymac]

get a better emulsion one that says 'for fine detail'

Doubling a positive for fine detail is not a good idea.

make sure you are exposing emulsion to emulsion - the print side of your film is pressed agianst the emulsion of the screen. If you are exposing through a layer of clear, this will undercut.

[jillustration]

Thanks Andymac - I put in an order for Murakami Photocure Pro which you recommended a few threads back. The print side of my film is indeed pressing up against the emulsion of the screen. Does the glass on top make that much of a difference? It is not UV blocking glass and is 1/4" thick.

[wearefriends]

I had some similar problems when I started printing flat stock. I bought black max ink and along with accurip most of my problems were solved. Even if someone did a sub par job coating the screen it would still burn fine because the positives were so dense. It's a very expensive option and I don't think it even paid off but I don't have exposure problems anymore so maybe it was.

[jillustration]

Will black max ink clog up the inkjet heads though? I've always heard not to use anything other than the epson ink on those printers... I am going to give the accurip software a spin (they have a 14 day trial) and test it with my new emulsion. I'll let you guys know how it goes.

[jillustration]

Oh dur, I just checked - black max IS for the 1400

[Quinine]

Thanks Andymac - Murakami Photocure Pro

This is the stuff I've been using for a while now. It seems to wash out a bit hard sometimes but holds a stencil REALLY well. I haven't had any issues w/ it holding detail. I think you will like it. Good luck.