posted
I want to add screenprinted signs to our list of services and don't have a lot of money to spend right now. We have a "clam" for heat transfers and I was told that could be used for drying/curing. What size/type squeegee do I need? What type of ink? What type of frame? Thread count? What chemicals? Additional equipment? Once again, funds are severely limited so we just need enough stuff to get started. Thanks for the help
-------------------- Wayne Webb Webb Signworks Chipley, FL 850.638.9329 wayne@webbsignworks.com Posts: 7405 | From: Chipley,Florida,United States | Registered: Oct 1999
| IP: Logged |
quote: What size/type squeegee do I need? What type of ink? What type of frame? Thread count? What chemicals? Additional equipment?
Wayne,
we are doing mostly flatbed printing and little or no textile printing. I hope that i can help you get started. when i started i made all my equipment(frames, table, light table) but as the the years have progressed i have acumulated much "store bought" equiptment.
There are 3 kind of stencils that are made...
Hand cut: water based or laquer based, these can be cut by hand or the plotter.Waterbased for solvent based inks and laquer for the water based inks.
Indirect Emultion Film: this is a film with a clear backer that is pealed after the stencil is aplied to the screen Then "burned" with ultraviolet lights.
Direct Emultion: this is a light sensitive Stencil that is applied to the screen as a fluid, dried then "burned".
The kind of ink is determined by the substrate that you are printing on. Nazdar has a complete line of inks for any thing that you may want to print on.
The size of you screen will be determined by the area that you want to print you need about 3"-4" boarder or margin around what you will be printing.for example if you are printing a 18"x24" sign you will need a fram with the inside demention of 22"x28 frame ect...The squegee will need to be about 2" bigger than you image..see? you will want to glue your screens to the frames rather that staple..the glue is like a superglue and has a activator that dries it instantly..this means that you will need a streacher i use a retensionable screen to streach my fabric on wood or metal frames.
i use a 240 mess count and up, depending on the job and the ink you are printing and what the image is ...does it have a dot pattern ect...
The chemicals that you will need are..Sreen prep(degreaser), stencil remover, Screen wash(to remove the ink) retarders and thinners for the kind of inks you will be useing.
the first equipment that i would suggest that you buy is a good pressure washer(electric for inside use and gas powered for outside use) also a good drying rack ...if you don't have a place to dry your product, you are limited to your volume think big in this department!
there is so much to share...and so little space, if you want to call me i will share any thing with you that you need to know...can show you how to make a vacume table out of MDO and a shop vac..a light table out of floresent fixtures and white blacklight bulbs! you can spend as little or as much as you need.
Nazdar:1800-537-4606 (Atlanta) they will sen you a catolog with all the inks, solvent, stecils, equptment in it. great resorce
Tubelight: 1800-432-8526 (orlando) another good sorce for supplies
call me lets talk..i can help you get started...also have a friend that is in the t-shirt biz and has about 20-30 screens that i can get for you for $0
Chris
[ March 03, 2002, 08:07 PM: Message edited by: Chris Lovelady ]
-------------------- "We have been making house calls since 1992"
Chris Lovelady Vital Signs
NOW WITH 2 LOCATIONS! Tallahassee, Florida Thomasville, Ga.
I have been silk screening since I was in Mr. Wilczak's 7th grade art class, 31 years ago or so... We have all the equipment needed to do all my own screen printing. Funny thing is I don't screen anymore.
We farm out all our screen printing to several different wholesale screen printing firms. It has been very cost effective and highly lucrative for us.
Send off the designs and get the signs back all done. There are several wholesale screen printers around. I would be happy to share the ones we use. There are several in the back of SignCraft, one of which we use from time to time.
Have you ever screen printed 200 18 x 24's? I have and it is no picnic. It is near impossible if you don't have a drying rack or an extremely big shop. Ever print the second side upside down? It is not a pleasant thing. LOL!
Farming out screen printing means that they do all the homework on inks, inventory, and printing. No need to stock all that stuff. No need to clean out screens. I don't miss it at all.
Don't be using your clamshell to cure those prints either. It wasn't designed for that and will put a strain on it. We used to do that at a t-shirt shop to dry our plasti-sol prints. Burned the durn thing up and reaped a heap of trouble for it, too! Go figure...
To proper cure stuff and force dry stuff, you will need to have a commercial type dryer. They aren't cheap but work great. You might check with some closeout or auction places for used equipment.
We sell more screen jobs than we ever did and make a heap more money at it. No fuss... no muss... Works for us. I would look into it.
-------------------- Bruce Bowers
DrCAS Custom Lettering and Design Saint Cloud, Minnesota
"Things work out best for the people who make the best of the way things work out." - Art Linkletter Posts: 6464 | From: Saint Cloud, Minnesota | Registered: Jun 1999
| IP: Logged |
posted
Ya Know...if you want to farm out you silk screan print jobs and not mess with the "hassle" of in house printing..then www.stouse.com is an excellent place to start and they will send you a catalog that will help you with sales and pricing!
don't be discouraged about learning somthing new to add to your tallent...it is not that hard to learn and the profit margin is good! if you want to learn i will offer my knowledge and invite you to my shop to print something for you, so to see if you want to do this kind of thing...im just down the road from you. (kind of) i can help you get started with minimal cost.
say Bruce...any of that equipment for sale!
Chris
-------------------- "We have been making house calls since 1992"
Chris Lovelady Vital Signs
NOW WITH 2 LOCATIONS! Tallahassee, Florida Thomasville, Ga.
posted
Bruce...if you sell some stuff to Chris..lemmie know...I gotta git this zaust fan ta Wayne..maybe we can do a road trip? Oh boy....no Shirley or Dana...us...on the road???????? sign kits n wallets!
Except for the ink, we are keeping the other stuff. I have several Newman roller type frames,a box full of squeegees, and a roll of screen along with rolls of handcut stencil material. Every once in awhile, we have to do the odd job for 3 or 4 prints. The ones that are a pain in the patootie but need to be done.
When we do screen, we don't clean out the screens. we just set it out back until it dries and then we throw it away. Its the clean up that really is the rottenest part of the job.
We often cut the screen for the one guy who screens for us because he gives us a ripping deal if he doesn't have to mess with a stencil except for adhering it. He really likes it on multi-color jobs.
I am not opposed to someone who wants to learn how to do screen printing. I was merely pointing out an alternative. Heck, it probably is a good thing to know for the odd jobs or you get caught in a pinch.
Have a great one!
-------------------- Bruce Bowers
DrCAS Custom Lettering and Design Saint Cloud, Minnesota
"Things work out best for the people who make the best of the way things work out." - Art Linkletter Posts: 6464 | From: Saint Cloud, Minnesota | Registered: Jun 1999
| IP: Logged |
posted
When I started making signs in the mid 70's, almost everything I did was screen printed. Been taking every step possible to avoid it lately. As said in earlier posts, clean up will harm you.
That said, I don't want to sound like I am discoraging you from learning something new. You have been given some good advice already.
Something you may want to do is to try to find someone within driving distance of you who does screen printing and see if you can observe them. When I started out, I drove about 2 hours to a large sign shop (D.W. Miller Inc.) and spent a day watching, asking questions and getting some hands on. Al Perry, the shop supervisor was great. He didn't veiw me as competition and was eager to help me learn. He even came to my shop a couple of times and helped me through the early learning curve.
Something I do now on short run, has to be screen printed, jobs is to cut 2 mil premium vinyl and apply it to the top of the screen. Unless you are using a ink with harsh solvents, you can get 30 to 40 prints easily. Just make sure you clean the screen as you normally would and allow it to dry before applying the vinyl.
You can call me also if you want to pick my brain. Shouldn't take long (hehe). More than willing to help. 724-639-9013. 9am - 5 pm est. Mon-Fri.
-------------------- Dave Johnson Saltsburg, PA
724-459-7240 Posts: 228 | From: Saltsburg, PA | Registered: Dec 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
Have just finished printing a run of 20 of 1'x2'9'' posters using vinyl inks. While we have screenprinting capabilities, we now only do the short runs and the emergency jobs. Much healthier to farm them out. Half an hour later I still have the smell of the inks lingering. If you are going to screenprint then make sure you have excellent ventilation. Water based inks for printing fabrics are OK, though if you use an activator in the ink (cold cute) to avoid hot curing, then the activator needs careful handling. Screenprinting can be profitable, whether you farm it out or do it yourself Kerry Kerry
-------------------- Kerry Wright Gladstone Australia Posts: 119 | From: Gladstone, Queensland, Australia | Registered: May 1999
| IP: Logged |
posted
Thanks everyone for the excellent advice. I have been farming out my screenprinting to a company in Louisiana. I just thought that I could offer a more competitive (not undercut) price by doing the work myself. After reading the warnings though,(Thanks Bruce, Michael, Kerry) I'm kind of leery of it.
Chris, that is a very nice offer and I will get in touch with you. Tallahassee is just a hop and a skip from here. Our kids are in 4-H and we take them and their critters to the fair there every year.
Are the waterbased inks non toxic? Glenn, I would like to print T-shirts, vinyl decals, coroplast signs, etc. Thanks Dave. If I decide to plunge into this, I'll give you a ring.
Some of the prices I now pay now are: For 18x24's(I supply the EPS artwork): 10 single face one color $9.02 double $11.73 50 ..................... $3.26 ...... $4.24 100..................... $2.18 ...... $2.84 200..................... $1.83 ...... $2.38
What do you pay for them?
[ March 04, 2002, 01:08 PM: Message edited by: Wayne Webb ]
-------------------- Wayne Webb Webb Signworks Chipley, FL 850.638.9329 wayne@webbsignworks.com Posts: 7405 | From: Chipley,Florida,United States | Registered: Oct 1999
| IP: Logged |
Screen printing t-shirts and graphic printing (decals, coroplast and so on) are two different animals. Each has it own set of rules and requirements.
One of the first things I'd do is to go to www.usscreen.com. Their primary focus is t-shirts with some info on graphic printing. There are a lot of terrific articles, how-to videos and how-to books. I just invested over a grand of my own money buying some of them last year and they have been worth every penny.
The number one problem with screen printing is not the squeege or pressure or having the best equipment -- its the screens. You have got to have tight screens. Without them, everthing else is useless.
For specific answers to specific questions, feel free to contact me at anytime. I'll be glad to help in any way that I can.
posted
you'll have to wait a few weeks, but be sure to check out the May issue of "Sign Builder Illustrated" (SBI). There will be a few articles on screen printing, including a "beginner level" article (by yours truly) on using your plotter to cut screen stencils. i list all the equipment and supplies you'll need -- you can get started for about $300 to $500 (depending on the size of the largest signs you want to be able to tackle).
-------------------- :: Scooter Marriner :: :: Coyote Signs :: :: Oakland, CA :: :: still a beginner :: :: Posts: 1356 | From: Oakland (and San Francisco) | Registered: Mar 2001
| IP: Logged |
Printer-friendly view of this topic