Emulsion problems

[hauntedsteps]

Hello! This is my first post here so be reasonable if I'm asking about something that someone already asked but I'm kind of in a hurry right now and don't have the time to search the whole forum. Anyways...a while ago I started on a D.I.Y. screenprinting project, I made the exposure unit and all the stuff on my own and it works great...there is only one problem...for now. When I expose a screen it washes out nicely and the emulsion doesn't wash off which means that it has been exposed enough...but when I start printing the emulsion starts to fall apart after a few prints and when I want to wash the colour away from the screen the emulsion just goes away and it looks as if the colour I use would be damaging the emulsion...I use water based emulsion and water based colours so I really dont see what the problem should be...I even left the screen on the sun for a few hours so that the emulsion would harden itself even more just in case, but the problem was still the same...Is it possible that I didn't apply enough emulsion on the screen? Is there maybe something wrong with the emulsion? I really don't get it...Please help me if you have any idea what the problem should be or if you had the same problems when you started...

p.s.: exuse me because my english is not that good as it should be...I'm from Slovenia.

[domineight]

Reads like underexposure or the wrong emulsion. At a stretch someone might consider your screen cleaning/degreasing process. Somewhere between these three thing's there is probably a solution.

How did you determine your optimal exposure time? You can way under-expose a screen and not have the emulsion fall off as you're washing it out.

[paul204]

waterbased emulsion gets eaten away by water. waterbased inks have water in them

you need to use emulsion for waterbased inks, no waterbased emulsion

underexposure is not the problem if you're post-exposing in the sun and still having the problem

[caribou]

what brand emulsion and ink are you using? i've had similar issues in the past (although i use ulano fsx emulsion for waterbased inks) when the emulsion layer was really thin. also it was a problem in the past when i would add a little black latex house paint to speedball black (to make the black a little more glossy).

[Andymac]

did the emulsion come with diazo? - you mix with a bit of water and add to the emulsion before use? If it didn't it probably is not water resistant. this sounds like it is not water resistant, if it exposed fine and you post hardened.