DIY silkscreen

I decided to give a try at silk screening some panels DIY style this weekend. Having only helped a friend screen some t-shirts a while back I figured panels would not be too hard to do either.  Here is how I did it:


First thing you need is a screen.  I found a place local that will make screens. Mine was $23, but they will be more or less depending on the area of the screen, and the size of the mesh holes.

I bought some screen hinges and screwed them onto a table I found on the street.  You can then mount the screen and have the image you want to transfer be in the same spot everytime.  Notice I taped off the other images on the screen to make less of a mess.

 Using bits of cardboard, I made a jig to hold my front panel.


Fits nice.


and everything lines up well.

Next was to prepare the ink.  You will want to ask a screen printer what type of ink you need for the surface you applying onto.  I used Nazdar 590000 for anodized aluminum. (This ink needs to be thinned out before use)

Almost done.

"charging" the screen with ink

After the pass with the squeegee.

And a bunch of finished panels.  I ended up missing up quiet a few of them but made a few extras for that reason.

I'm very happy with the results and the cured ink is not easily scratched and cannot be picked off with my nail.

edit: fixed links

Now that is DIY :thumb:

I think the bigger question is what are those 500 series modules? Hah hah.

Matt

SO JELOUS...

Awesome! :thumb: :thumb: :thumb:

I want to learn.

:guinness: :guinness: :guinness:

What grade screen did you use? The ones that are used for t-shirts have too big a mesh and can't print fine detail.

In-focus close-up pics of the detail???

Keith

One trick I've used for tweaking alignment is to cover a blank with clear label tape. You can wipe it off or replace the tape until you get it dialed in just right.

JR

I would use a 200 mesh (or more) yellow screen. I did some panels with a 156 mesh screen and very fine detail filled in (also avoid very fine detail). The yellow screen also prevents white light from bouncing around within the polyester fiber and further harming the detail. I used a NAZDAR ink (enamel base) designed for outdoor use on metal, glass and plastic substrates. This is an air cured ink so two or more colors have to be printed over a 24hr. period. It is very durable after it is cured. This is the result:

Moocho digg!

Keith

Keith (or any other mod that might pass by):

Isn't this something that's better suited for the Drawing Board/The Lab, where it doesn't expire after 90 days? This looks Meta-worthy, it does.

JD "just sayin'" B.
[what's the preferred way to flag a thread for you mods anyway? PMing?]

[quote author="burdij"]I would use a 200 mesh (or more) yellow screen. I did some panels with a 156 mesh screen and very fine detail filled in (also avoid very fine detail). The yellow screen also prevents white light from bouncing around within the polyester fiber and further harming the detail. I used a NAZDAR ink (enamel base) designed for outdoor use on metal, glass and plastic substrates. This is an air cured ink so two or more colors have to be printed over a 24hr. period. It is very durable after it is cured. This is the result:

[/quote]


Great info, thank you.

[quote author="jdbakker"]Keith (or any other mod that might pass by):

Isn't this something that's better suited for the Drawing Board/The Lab, where it doesn't expire after 90 days? This looks Meta-worthy, it does.

JD "just sayin'" B.
[what's the preferred way to flag a thread for you mods anyway? PMing?][/quote]


Yes, this is definately a thread worth keeping and developing (pardon the pun).

screening is fun, but can be a pain. I did it for about 8 years mostly with nazdar gloss vinyl stuff for inflatable advertising.
Make sure you floodcoat, and after about 10 minutes, you usually want to clean the screen a bit or add more ink..that thinner dissolves pretty quick. You can get retarder for large runs to minimize the cleaning if you will be printing for 45 minutes or more.

what is really nice to do is to screen on pressure sensitve vinyl(the hardcore bumper sticker stuff).
You can then just put those on your panels...and you can get the vinyl pretty cheap, usually on ebay you can get any color scraps you want.
That stuff will last on jeans when they go through the wash.....from experience.