Anyone have experience of silk screen printing

[Linford]

I'm looking for a solution for a problem which has been vexing me for a while now. I am looking to spray colour with an aerosol through a silk screen mask (as opposed to just pushing ink through it with a squeegee). I'm trying to track down some low TPI mesh to acheive this. Has anyone had any experience in silk screen printing, who can advise on this ?

Ta in advance

 

[Ian H]

Presumably the shape is too complicated for a simple stencil? Quality might not be great unless you can keep the mesh firmly in contact with the substrate. Why not just screen print?

 

[Linford]

It doesn't have to be super fine so happy to use a more open mesh. I'm looking to use sprays as they are a lot easier to apply from a can than the solid paints. The mesh will be in contact with the substrate, but its application will be on a curved surface and stencils can lift on the edges when pressed against it which allows anamount of bleed.

 

[Night Train]

You could try net curtain.

The only snag I can see is that unless you wash off all the paint it will gradually clog the mesh and spoil the effect.

The other issue is getting the mask to stick to the mesh, not sure what you are using to mask with but I remember seeing on one of those home improvements programmes a glue like masking agent. Maybe if a positive mask was placed on the net curtain and then the masking agent 'plastered' over then removing the positive would leave the masking agent in place. Need to check if the masking agent is affected by the spray paint.

 

[Linford]

I was hoping to use photo etch as the mask. I know bugger all about it really. I've never used any of the techniques or materials before so working blind and on a big learning curve. The spray paints are water soluble so it can be washed easily enough, and they are virtually dry when they leave the can - like a sticky powder which clings to the substrate.

 

[Ian H]

Try googling 'sericol' for links to various suppliers. You might find what you're looking for. I seem to recall a water-based paint-on masking agent, but it's a long time since I dealt directly with screen print.

 

[Linford]

Back in the Dark Ages, I used to be a silk-screen printer! Net curtain never works very well as a mesh because it's too nylony and slippy, but you used to be able to buy cotton organdie which worked perfectly. We used it to make very cheap screens for short runs of printed t-shirts for clubs etc. There was a stencil material called Stenplex Amber, which you could hand-cut away from a backing sheet with a scalpel and then iron on to the mesh, but I heard recently that it's no longer available (might find a workshop that has some old stock left maybe?).

I used to love my job - it was messy and industrial in some ways, but still very much a craft in others. I did everything from making the frames, stretching the silk, and making photostencils in the dark room to hand-cutting stencils and mixing inks, and in my little workshop I printed all sorts from t-shirts and baseball caps to posters, artworks, stereo fascias and circuit boards. In the end I got fed up with always having inky fingernails, so I moved on to a desk job after 7 or 8 years as a printer!

I'm glad I asked now

My ideal solution to what I'm hoping to achieve, would be to make screens with an open(ish) mesh which I can coat in photo emulsion, and then expose with a photocopied negative to produce the holes in it, which after curing/washing, could be used to lay against the surface and spray paint through it. I can live with a lower resolution if need be if it gives a reasonable result which looks good from a few ft.

How durable is the photo emulsion btw, does it crack after time, do you have to go back over it with filler on a more open mesh ?

Thanks in advance

 

[Linford]

Perhaps I need to try a different tack (thank you so much anyway, this info is greatly appreciated ) , I do have vinyl signwriting machinery which I could cut some signwriting vinyl in a conventional way could apply to a mesh but it would be fiddly, and I don't think it would stay on there as the glue is defeated when it gets wet. In an ideal world then, I need an photo emulsion with elastic properties almost like latex which could be cured using aa strong lamp. I guess nobody is doing this (yet)

 

[Gromit]

Screen printing talk brings back memories of working as a print-room technician for Sundour Fabrics in Bolton.

I think it would be extremely difficult to use spray paint through any type of mesh as it can be quick drying and its all to do with the viscosity of the ink. Have you thought about making stencils and masking off the areas you don't want to spray? I think that would be much quicker.

My favourite part of the job, was picking the photo emulsion off the troths after it had dried a bit.

I never did find out how to measure the viscosity of a fixatropic ink.

 

[Ian H]

CAD cut vinyl? Could you source some peelable vinyl to use as a direct stencil? Spray over and peel off.

 

[Gromit]

Cool thank you for that, I had a stab at spelling it, not an easy word.

FTFY Gromit - sorry, couldn't help myself (see above!)

That's one of those words (along with deliquescent) that I've always wanted to use but never really had the opportunity . Thanks!

 

[Linford]

Thanks for all the responses . The reason why I was looking to use a mesh was to support the design elements better. I already CAD cut stencils as it is out of conventional signwriting vinyl, and also some thicker stuff which is very hard to come by (and costly), but screen print techniques would have speeded up the design process and allowed me to basically run it off as a photocopy, expose the photo emulsion, rinse it off, and that was then it would be a done deal. I can get around it to a point by making up different stencil masks, but this can and would make it prohibitively expensive as well as at least a 2 stage application process to get the finished result.

 

[dano87]

I'm looking for a solution for a problem which has been vexing me for a while now. I am looking to spray colour with an aerosol through a silk screen mask (as opposed to just pushing ink through it with a squeegee). I'm trying to track down some low TPI mesh to acheive this. Has anyone had any experience in silk screen printing, who can advise on this ?

Ta in advance

You might find what you're after from here, I've used them for a lot of my screen printing supplies.