Murakami stencil longevity?

[Aaron Gein]

I printed 1000 of these coffee bags over the weekend.



Everything went amazingly well and the coffee shop guys were really happy with them. It was my first step into using TW ink, and holy sh*t, that stuff prints a lot easier and nicer than speedball! It was also my first screen using Murakami Photocure Pro. It holds detail really nicely and worked great. My question is this...I will be printing these bags probably every month...with a well developed and post exposed stencil how long do you guys think I'll be able to use this screen without it breaking down? Or am I asking for trouble by trying to save it for multiple runs? Should I reclaim it after each 1000 piece run and re-burn? Any thoughts are welcome!

[Andymac]

maybe the image will hold up, but your edges will wear (around the bag.) I find even if you are carefull, the edges of a stencil (no matter what brand) end up crumbling or fucking up.

I would make a fresh screen.

[Aaron Gein]

I was hoping you would chime in Andy! Thanks for the input. I guess I should play it safe and make a new screen. I didn't notice any degradation at the end of the run, but getting halfway through the next run of 1000 and having it fall apart around the edges would not be fun. I was using QTX before this and I would notice it wearing out around the edges of just regular 100# poster stock at the end of a 100 print run. I'm glad the Murakami got me through 1000 but I probably shouldn't push my luck!

[Andymac]

An onpress fix is going to cost you way more than a fresh stencil from the start.

You can buy a hardener for this stencil, but after you use it, forget about reclaiming the stencil/mesh.

Good to hear you got the TW working.

Hey I wore your shirt the other day!

[Aaron Gein]

I was thinking about a hardener, but it seems like in the long run it probably wouldn't save enough time/money to be worth it. I printed these on my big vac table with a jig I rigged up from illustration board. It was a little overkill printing these small bags on a big vac table with my large screens. I'm thinking if it does turnout to be a regular job each month I might build a second mini vac table dedicated to these bags and other small things using maybe 20x24 screens. If I do that then I might consider the hardener and keeping a catalog of smaller frames for stuff like this.

Haha! Glad to hear the shirt is getting some use! I keep meaning to put them up in the classifieds for cheap but havent been able to find the time. I reworked the background of that image and did an art print of it too. Maybe I'll get off my butt and get a couple classifieds up soon.