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I have been monitoring this board for a couple months now and am impressed!!I have been manufacturing ford stripe kits for the old classic Fords.I am self taught in Corel and Autocad r14.That has been fun What I need to learn now is screen printing.I've got a lot of kits that I can do but they all have multi color schemes that are screened on.Could any of you point me in the right direction?Our local library has nothing.Any help would be appreciated.Thanks in advance P.S. I am Ford licensed so trademark is not a problem.
The best source of infomation I've ever found is www.usscreen.com. It as helped me out tremendously as I continue to learn about the various aspects of screen printing.
They also offer a series of books and video tapes that are worth their weight in gold.
Go to http://www.usscreen.com/catalog/ and purchase "How to Screen Print T-shirts for Fun and Profit." The book has drawn plans that can help you with that. Screen printing Coroplast and vinyl in nothing more than a variation on a theme compared to printing t-shirts.
Feel free to contact me and I'll be glad to help walk you through it.
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Thanks Glenn, My husband has had his eye on a one station printer, dryer- but at $5,000 it was too much for us.
I started printed up flag decals on my PC-60 and customers were stopping and buying them as fast as I could print them. I was hoping that I could find some plans and start assembing a press over the weekend. I have a screenprinter supple house close enogh to drive toon Monday and pick up supplies.
-------------------- Laura Butler Vision Graphics & Sign 4479 Welch Rd Attica, Mi 48412
Posts: 2855 | From: Attica, Mi, USA | Registered: Nov 2000
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Lauraif you want to call me i will be glad to help you out. it would take me all day to type the info as slow as i hunt and peck
-------------------- Jimmy Chatham Chatham Signs 468 stark st Commerce, Ga 30529 Posts: 1766 | From: Commerce, GA, USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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You just need hinges (Jiffy Hinges ?) I use C-clamps to hold the 2 hinges to a plywood table. The screen printing hinges have a wing nut to clamp your screen on. For decals use a light coat of spray adhesive to keep decal in place.
Once you have decal stock cut to size (I use a local printer to cut down my 20" x 27" stock on their guillitine cutter - accuracy is critical on 2-color work like flags) Tape your film (that you burned the screen from) centered onto a cut decal blank. Set up the placement of decal under clamped screen. I just run a strip of masking tape on the table along 2 adjacent edges of decal at a corner nearest where I can eyeball the registration of each decal.
Now with a little spray adhesive (not too much), you can get started. You mentioned dryer. Not a heater like t-shirt guys use. You need a drying rack. Also you probably know about shimming the screen up off the decal about 1/4" (depending on how tight the screen is) so it only contacts the print where the squeegee is.
T-shirts absorb the ink so they can let the screen lay on the print. We sign printers can't get away with that. I use enamel receptive decal stock. You can print on vinyl, but you will need a toxic vinyl ink for that.
Last advice: when you set up the second color, use the SAME corner you used the first time.
oops! Laura, I think I confused your post with Bulldog's request for learning how to print. As for the press set-up maybe some of this helps both of you.
[ September 22, 2001: Message edited by: Doug Allan ]
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I've been screening for 25 yrs plus, and still have a simple screening table, 36" high, covered with sheet metal, with clamps bought at Tubelite. Its 4x9.
Rick Williams, the author of "In the Trenches", a column written in Sign Business Magazine made a video about how to screen print. It has tips and tricks a lot like the answers you have been given, except its visual. There are money saving hints on making just about all the equipment yourself even the squeegees from old tires. God forbid. One would think there was a war on!
Even though screen printing is in essence a simple thing, I personally think more things can go wrong than you can imagine. Often they are easily rectified and identified. Keep our phone numbers handy, no need to re-invent the wheel.
Good luck
-------------------- Myra A. Grozinger Signs Limited Winston-Salem, NC
signslimited@triad.rr.com
Posts: 1244 | From: Winston-Salem, NC USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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All this directions are great but I am not only a right brain person, I am a right brain person that has had 3 serious head injuries ( as if one isn't enough in a lifetime)- I NEED PICTURES to see how to build it. Got any pics Myra?
-------------------- Laura Butler Vision Graphics & Sign 4479 Welch Rd Attica, Mi 48412 Posts: 2855 | From: Attica, Mi, USA | Registered: Nov 2000
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here's about the simplest to make a flat stock "printing press" ... pretty darn effective too screw some hinges into the side of your table and a 1x6 (or 2x8,1x10 whatever ... depending on how heavy a screen you want it to hold ... length as long as table side) now just C-clamp your screen to the lumber at desired height (depending on thickness of substrate)(first couple frames of pic) stick to hold screen up and wha-la we have these on three sides of a table and hook up screens for lables (small) or banners (huge) and substrates of all thickness'
-------------------- Compulsive, Neurotic, Anti-social and Paranoid ... but basically Happy Posts: 2677 | From: Rochester, NY, USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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Mark, Thanks for the video.haha. I feel much better at attempting this after all the good replies. Fornunately my production manager knows screen printing and my Printers Resource in Swartz Creek Mi. (my supplier)is always willing to help if I need it. Thanks again.
-------------------- Laura Butler Vision Graphics & Sign 4479 Welch Rd Attica, Mi 48412 Posts: 2855 | From: Attica, Mi, USA | Registered: Nov 2000
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A tip for 2 or 3 colour prints is to lay acetate hinged at opposite ends, screen onto the acetate then position your job under the acetate, hinge acetate out of the way and Bob's your uncle. A fairly easy way to get a good register. My term for shimming is Snap! as explained in one of the other posts. Haven't screened in 20 years, however things might have changed in materials but the basics don't. It also depends on the volume you intend doing as to how much one should spend on equipment.
-------------------- Don Lopez Signs Signwriter Faulconbridge N.S.W. Australia 02 4751 2158 Posts: 80 | From: Australia | Registered: Jan 1999
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Much of the multi colored printing is done with transparent inks over reflective. I've found that using the 3M system has the benifit of them behind me when a problem arrises.
Doing long stripes is a whole different game from smaller emblems also.
You will also need to ask some questions about screen offset.
-------------------- The SignShop Mendocino, California
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Hey, Steve !! You posted just in time! I am cleaning out all my old sign stuff and threw out a video and book on basic screen printing !!! I got it out of the trash and it is yours for the postage. E-mail me your address and it is on its way. 'Cause, you see, it is like this. .. . . I tore the sign off my shop, sawed it up and chunked it in the trash !!!!
-------------------- John Smith Kings Bay Signs (Retired) Kissimmee, Florida Posts: 817 | From: Central Florida - The Sunshine State | Registered: Jan 2000
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What I need to learn now is screen printing.I've got a lot of kits that I can do but they all have multi color schemes that are screened on.Could any of you point me in the right direction?Our local library has nothing.Any help would be appreciated.Thanks in advance
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