Silk Screening DIY

[stecykmi]

Hey all, I'm building a JCM800 copy (a pair of them actually), and was considering reliable, professional-looking ways to make front and back panels and I'm considering silk screening as an option... Anyone have any experience silk screening metal/aluminum/painted material? The colour scheme I'm aiming for is black background with white or silver lettering.

Most of the tutorials i've found thus far are aimed at fabrics... I imagine the process is similar for metals, except the paint is different. I've yet to see a recommendation for paint, however. Can anyone lend any knowledge?

[Smeero]

(it's silk screening ink" not paint )

burning a screen is the same. you use enamel ink , which may require a different  screen mesh than normally used for fabrics. Not sure if it cleans out of the screen with the same chemicals either. i believe it air dries so no need to flash dry it like normal fabric inks. I believe it is more expensive too.

Positioning and stabilizing screens on 3 dimensional items is more tricky than a flat surface like t-shirt fabric. You will probably have to build some kind of a platen to position and stabilize whatever you are going to screen and some way to line-up/lock the screen with the item on the platen.

[cjkbug]

I'm working on a screen printing project right now. If I get the wrinkles Ironed out soon I'll try to put a tutorial together. Unless someone beats me to it.

[cjkbug]

Update...EPIC FAILURE!!! This is turning out to be a tough nut to crack. I think the heat and humidity is causing problems with the diazo emulsion drying properly. I am determined to figure this out.

[night-B]

If you have some money to spend you can consider using this site :
http://www.schaeffer-ag.de/en/examples/front-panels.html
They have a very cool software and they provide high quality aluminium front panels, they can be drilled, laser etched, plated....

[cjkbug]

cool, but It doesn't look incredibly frustrating enough.

[stecykmi]

cool, but It doesn't look incredibly frustrating enough.

haha. true DIY is always akin to self-inflicted torture.

Anyway, the actual screen isn't drying properly? i've read you need to degrease the screen beforehand, did you try that?

[Jeff B.]

I recently finished my own miserable experiences with silk screening before hitting upon something that works well.
As you've no doubt already seen if you're not printing large signs of T-shirts there is little help available online.

Here what works well for me.  I plan on doing up a guide myself with pictures and more details eventually but here's a quick rundown. 
I literally have a bunch of 1590B's waiting for me to screen them as I write this so it's a bit short on the specifics because I'm short on time.

I built my own rig out of scrap wood and some screen clamps from asc365.com.
It can do any size enclosure up to a 1590D and many different heights.
The mesh is 200 count nylon or polyester that I bought on ebay for cheap.  I would use a bit higher mesh count if I were to do it again but the 200 works fine.
I built the frames with wood from Home Depot.  Sealed with polyurethane (2 coats) after the frames are built.
Stretch the screen across tightly, 2 rows of staples with Gorilla tape around the edges.
You need to rough up the screen to give the mesh a bit of a tooth for the emulsion to grab it.
The simplest way is to use some 400-600 grit wet/dry sandpaper with water, scrubbing both sides for a few minutes.
Throughally wash out the screen afterwards.

For degreasing Simple Green is a common choice or you can mix up a spray bottle of warm water and TSP.
Spray it on the screens for a minute then hose the screens out again. 
DO NOT TOUCH THE MESH.   Your fingers have natural oils in them which will affect the adhesion of the emulsion.

Emulsion is light sensitive.  Mix it and apply it in a dark room with a safe light bulb.  I use a 60W yellow bug light.
Apply one coat to each side and let dry frame side down (screen on top).  I usually let them dry for about half a day.
For emulsion I use Autosol XL.  If you don't have a scoop coater go buy one.  It makes it much easier.

Time to expose the screen......
My exposure unit is a cobbled together thing consisting of a 500W halogen lamp at the end of a telescoping arm/lamp thing that I found in a dumpster.  Remove the shield from the 500W lamp as it blocks the UV light which you need to expose the screen.

For image transparencies I use 17lb. UV Ultra Vellum paper (again sourced from eBay) but regular transparencies should work just as well.  I print the image in reverse and lay it on the back side of the screen so that it looks correct from the actual screen printing side.  Put a piece of glass over the image.  Some glass can be UV coated which can cause problems.  Just go to your local auto/home glass shop and get a piece for cheap.

You must make sure that the back of the screen is well supported or light will leak through around it and harder your image.
I support it with whatever is about the right size and handy.  Like a larger enclosure or a stack of CD's.  You want a good tight sandwich of the glass, the image, the mesh and the backing.  Cover the backing with something that is not reflective.  A black t-shirt works for me.  Anything reflective will bounce the UV to the screen and harder areas that you want to wash out.

At a height of 11" away from the top of the screen I expose for 4-6 minutes and rinse it in very low water pressure from the shower.  DO NOT USE HOT WATER.
Let the water sit on it for about 30 sec so it can absorb into the unhardened areas and then rinse away.
High water pressure at close range will ruin the details of your image, making appear smudgy.
If it's all good after this let the screen dry and then put it back under the light for about 5-10 minutes to make sure the emulsion is set.

If your image is not right after exposure you can remove the emulsion with mixture of 50/50 bleach and water. 
Let it soak in a tub or a pan lightly brushing it with a soft brush from time to time and then hose it out with high pressure.
The "jet" setting on my garden hose nozzle works fine for me.

For ink you do want enamel.  Nazdar 59000 series ink is kind of the standard for printing on metal and other surfaces.
Thin it with it's corresponding thinner by about 10-15%.
Mix up what you need in a little cup or jar.  It's not recommended to return the mixed up portion to the container so you may want to keep it somewhere else.

You want a medium-hard durometer squeegee (ebay again) with a sharp square edge.
Pour some ink on the screen and give it light sweep to "flood the screen".
Go watch some videos of screen printing on YouTube to see what I mean and to see some techniques and other details
because at this point the process is the same for t-shirts and pedals.

You will make a mess and you will screw it up a few times.  If you screw one up just wipe it off with a bit of the ink thinner and do it again.

For cleanup use scraps of cardboard to get as much ink off the screen to save as you can.  Then run the squeegee over it a few times on some newspaper to get the ink out of it.  Pour some thinner on the screen and wipe it up.  Squeegee it with the thinners a couple of times on the newspaper again, then hose out the screen.

Let the ink dry for a few days.  Enamel takes time to cure.  If you have a pedal only oven you can put them in there at the ink manufacturers recommended guidelines but the heat could be too much for your pedal's finish so just let it air dry.

Exposure times and setups are just guidelines and will vary considerably depending on your setup and what emulsion and ink you use.
Experimentation and screw-ups are assured but once you know the specifics you can make them up quickly and reliably.

Here in Canada I get my supplies from asc365.com, screentec.ca and ebay.


Jeff B.

[Haberdasher]

Very nice first post.  There are a lot of details in there so hopefully it will save some folks a lot of trouble.

As for me....I can't see learning this anytime soon, but it is quite interesting and I thank you for taking the time to write it up.  I'm sure I'll re-visit the subject in a year or so when I'm ready for another learning curve and the expense.

I'd love to see some pics of your results when you're ready.

[Jeff B.]

Very nice first post.  There are a lot of details in there so hopefully it will save some folks a lot of trouble.

As for me....I can't see learning this anytime soon, but it is quite interesting and I thank you for taking the time to write it up.  I'm sure I'll re-visit the subject in a year or so when I'm ready for another learning curve and the expense.

I'd love to see some pics of your results when you're ready.

Water-slide and Vinyl decals are very good alternatives to silkscreening and is what I used up until recently and still use sometimes.
I took a long time to find out how to do it and what worked.  I had 30 failed screens before I got it right. So hopefully it will spare a few people the frustration and misery I endured with it.
The inital cost isn't cheap but it sure is faster and pays for itself in the long term many times over in cheaper labeling costs and hours of labour saved.  It only takes a few seconds to label a pedal now as opposed to fumbling with waterslide decals and clearcoat.

The a pic of yesterday's batch on my websites facebook page.  Every other picture is either waterslide or vinyl decals as the transition to silk-screening only started yesterday.

[jimmybjj]

Very nice first post.  There are a lot of details in there so hopefully it will save some folks a lot of trouble.

As for me....I can't see learning this anytime soon, but it is quite interesting and I thank you for taking the time to write it up.  I'm sure I'll re-visit the subject in a year or so when I'm ready for another learning curve and the expense.

I'd love to see some pics of your results when you're ready.

Water-slide and Vinyl decals are very good alternatives to silkscreening and is what I used up until recently and still use sometimes.
I took a long time to find out how to do it and what worked.  I had 30 failed screens before I got it right. So hopefully it will spare a few people the frustration and misery I endured with it.
The inital cost isn't cheap but it sure is faster and pays for itself in the long term many times over in cheaper labeling costs and hours of labour saved.  It only takes a few seconds to label a pedal now as opposed to fumbling with waterslide decals and clearcoat.

The a pic of yesterday's batch on my websites facebook page.  Every other picture is either waterslide or vinyl decals as the transition to silk-screening only started yesterday.

Thanks for the write up! What would you estimate startup cost for a total noob be? Do you have any pics of your work. Thanks again for your efforts.

[Jeff B.]

Very nice first post.  There are a lot of details in there so hopefully it will save some folks a lot of trouble.

As for me....I can't see learning this anytime soon, but it is quite interesting and I thank you for taking the time to write it up.  I'm sure I'll re-visit the subject in a year or so when I'm ready for another learning curve and the expense.

I'd love to see some pics of your results when you're ready.

Water-slide and Vinyl decals are very good alternatives to silkscreening and is what I used up until recently and still use sometimes.
I took a long time to find out how to do it and what worked.  I had 30 failed screens before I got it right. So hopefully it will spare a few people the frustration and misery I endured with it.
The inital cost isn't cheap but it sure is faster and pays for itself in the long term many times over in cheaper labeling costs and hours of labour saved.  It only takes a few seconds to label a pedal now as opposed to fumbling with waterslide decals and clearcoat.

The a pic of yesterday's batch on my websites facebook page.  Every other picture is either waterslide or vinyl decals as the transition to silk-screening only started yesterday.

Thanks for the write up! What would you estimate startup cost for a total noob be? Do you have any pics of your work. Thanks again for your efforts.

It probably cost around $300 for absolutely everything including 2 cans of ink and the emulsion the wood for the frames, specific tools etc.  Shopping around helps considerably and it's probably much cheaper for US builders as there is more to choose from.



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[cjkbug]

cool, but It doesn't look incredibly frustrating enough.

haha. true DIY is always akin to self-inflicted torture.

Anyway, the actual screen isn't drying properly? i've read you need to degrease the screen beforehand, did you try that?

now that you mention it...no

[cjkbug]

is your emulsion pre sensitized? and how long is the shelf life? does it need refridgeration?

[Jeff B.]

is your emulsion pre sensitized? and how long is the shelf life? does it need refridgeration?

It's sensitized now.  I had to mix the sensitizer in it before the first use.  Now when I need some it's just straight out of the bucket and on to the mesh.  I could keep it in the fridge but it's not required.
I keep it in a cool dark place.  I don't recall the shelf life and I can't find the paper that has it on it.  I think it is quite long though.
There is a lot in the bucket.  My screens are about 8.5x11" and including screwups I've made about 30-35 of them and only used about 15% of the bucket.  You don't need very much.

I managed to damage the screen I was using today so I had to make a new one and took photos of the exposure process every step of the way.  I'll post them tomorrow if I get the time.