Help! Screen falling apart....

[tyrant]

Using Plastofast emulsion.one coat per side.24 hour dry in the dark.using vac. table,arc light 2 feet away for 45 sec. same as always.spray with hose at night. no light.entire process done in dark.image falls out but starts to streak/foam?/and pieces just "flap" away when water hits it.the only thing i have done different from past is diff screen cleaner.easystrip.could this be a problem? I clean and degrease everytime.never had a problem in 6 years.
thanks.

[IVARTON]

How old is your emulsion? Could have gone bad.

[squeegeethree]

If 45 seconds has always worked for you (seems fast to me) then it could be your emulsion has gone bad. How old is it? Did it freeze or get too cold? Emulsion that gets too cold will never work again. It could also be that your bulb has gone bad. Do you use a light integrator that adjusts the time as the bulb gets weaker?

[Hrabovsky]

Foaming and flapping = Bad juice.

Or my ex-wife.

[IVARTON]

If 45 seconds has always worked for you (seems fast to me) then it could be your emulsion has gone bad. How old is it? Did it freeze or get too cold? Emulsion that gets too cold will never work again. It could also be that your bulb has gone bad. Do you use a light integrator that adjusts the time as the bulb gets weaker?

My son put some qtx in the back of the fridge that semifroze and it worked fine after.

Do a step wedge test to see if its holding at all. Has anything in your coating process changed? I got a new scoop coater that fucked my exposure times up and it took me 3 days to figure it out.

[squeegeethree]

My son put some qtx in the back of the fridge that semifroze and it worked fine after.

Do a step wedge test to see if its holding at all. Has anything in your coating process changed? I got a new scoop coater that fucked my exposure times up and it took me 3 days to figure it out.

In the winter if we order emulison on a Thursday or Friday and our emulsion sits in an idle truck or warehouse it often freezes and is completely ruined. Hence the do not freeze label on the box. Under 85 degrees F and above freezing. Maybe if you've already mix in the sensitizer it's ok. Dont know. Frozen emuslion doesn't shoot so good.

[IVARTON]

I dunno .. i mean i wouldnt SUGGEST freezing or anything but QXT is 1 pot so that might have had something to do with it.

[squeegeethree]

I dunno .. i mean i wouldnt SUGGEST freezing or anything but QXT is 1 pot so that might have had something to do with it.

Temp not the most likely factor, agree.
#1 Poor exposure
#2 Poor coating
#3 Bad emulsion
#4 Poor degreasing of new screen
#5 some or all of the above

This is probably one of the most hashed-out thread topics ever Tyrant.

[Andymac]

sounds like underexposure or bad degrease or coated on a damp screen

Underexposed - try a step wedge or exposure calcuator and a wider range of exposure to see if longer = harder stencil

Bad degrease - check for water sheeting down the screen. If it doesn't, get some proper degreaser

Damp screen - dry it completley before coating

[tyrant]

I thought it might be bad emulsion as well.so I got a new gallon yesterday.same result.I don't have a darkroom so my entire process is done at night.So far I have tried 8 screens with no progress.I live in Georgia and we haven't had cold enough weather for a freeze yet.I keep emultion in a basement closet where all my equipment is.this is killin me.My friends band goes on tour tomorrow.