First time screenprinting in a while and it was a failure!

[Ringgold]

I printed some shirts around 2005-2006 and that was the last time I gave screenprinting a shot. I used someone else's equipment then and instead of using emulsion and burning a screen I used this stuff called "blue poly" that held the image on the screen. It worked fine for short runs occasionally, but would start to crack. Prior to that around 2003-2004 I printed some shirts on my own equipment with pretty good luck on those.

Anyways, for what I did today, I used the Speedball kit. I think where I really messed up is with my transparency. I followed the guidelines that Speedball included for burning the screen, but my transparency was layered 3 times, not to mention it was also pieced together because the image to be printed was larger than the transparency sheets I have and larger than what my printer could produce. So my transparency was layered and tiled together, not the best way to go about it, I know, but I tried.

I am using some inkjet transparency sheets that I got off of ebay, and also using an Epson NX430 to print with, but the black ink is not opaque enough at least this time around. I talked with a guy that has been doing some printing lately and he told me that he has layered his transparencies with as much as 3 layers and had good luck with it.

Here is a pic of my failed attempt today. Just a little something I drew and threw together for my brothers and a few friends:



I snoop around on here, but never post. Wanting to get back into doing some printing. Need to get back on the drawing board for this one, thats for sure!

[Ringgold]

All of my screenprinting equipment is sub par to say the least, so I guess that I should not have been surprised at the results that I got tonight.

I am going to do some more searching around on here to see what type of squeegee I should use, maybe change the screen that I have and have used in the past to something nicer with a different count. Honestly, I am not even sure what count the screen I am using is. Also, look into some different inks. I have a container of white Plastisol and I am assuming that the black I used is also Plastisol, but the container is unmarked and the ink is old, again, something else that I need to look into is shelf life of the ink.

I am not looking into running any huge business. Just something for fun right now. Once I get the hang of it a little better, maybe get a little more serious with it in the future, if I can stay interested in it long enough.....:-/

[squeegeethree]

Where you lost the image down the middle is due to your overlapping films and tape job. Try taping them in plave then cutting down the middle to splice so there is no overlap. You should have to overlap so many films either. You will have to fiddle with the different paper preferences when printing (there are multiple threads about this here). Make sure your blacks are truly 100% black (switching to bitmap mode insures so), double check that you are printing with black only and not using the other colors in your printer. Try slowing down the print speed and upping the resolution it prints at.
Quite frankly I'm a little disappointed. I expected a bigger fail from the thread title.

[Ringgold]

Well, in my eyes this is a fail. As mentioned I have had experience printing before.

The actual tape used to splice the screens together did not affect the loss, but it was some of the overlap in the transparency sheets you are exactly right on that part.

Also, I am using Plastisol inks I do believe. A guy I know that has been doing some printing lately has been using water based Speedball inks and they are doing a good job.

I am going to look into what I may be able to do with my little printer to get it to print more along the lines of what you are talking about. I am also going to look into buying some new screens, ink, squeegee, etc.........