Drawn from working printers’ conversations on The Shirt Board, 2013–2016. Source threads linked throughout. Every printer has a coating ritual, one wet pass or two, sharp edge or round, which side last. Far fewer can tell you what those rituals actually produce, because the result of coating isn’t a routine, it’s a measurement: EOM, emulsion…
Here’s the rundown. If you ran water-based ink a 20 years ago, you remember the heartbreak. You coated a screen, hardened it, waited a full day, and then watched it dissolve around print number ten. Pinholes everywhere. A razor blade and a sour mood for reclaim. Honestly, water-based earned its scary reputation the hard way.…
Screen Issues? Screen making is one of the most important parts of screen printing, but it’s also one of the easiest to mess up. Two longtime industry pros, Kevin Kauff and Dave Meekin, say they see the same problems over and over again when they visit print shops. Here are some common problems and solutions:…
A design measured 14 inches wide by 17 inches tall, featuring two distinct text elements: heavy bold text spanning the full image height in the left area, and fine-detail text positioned on the right side. The Problem The original separation placed both text elements on a single spot white plate. This configuration created inherent registration…
Screen printing is an art form that requires precision, attention to detail, and a solid understanding of the fundamentals. Whether you’re a novice or a seasoned pro, there are common pitfalls that can derail your printing process. Here, we break down some of the most frequent mistakes in the screen room and how you can…
What’s the most basic screen room set up you can get away with? What will the screen room of the future look like? Co-presenters @Stan Banks of T-Shirt Side Hustle and our own Rick Roth talked with Kevin Kauth (aka @EmulsionGuru ) of Chromaline, Keith Perkins of Saati, and Brian Giddens of KIWO about everything you need (or…
You can’t make a good screen print with bad screens. We pulled some technical pros in for this discussion, Art Dobie from Chromaline, Bill Smith from Saati and Gerry Charde from KIWO join Rick for this Shop Talk session from Impressions Expo in Atlantic City, March 2022. We’ll be bringing more Shop Talk sessions to…
Seems like trade shows are back on track. Impressions AC was pretty good, FESPA raises the bar, and lots of people at FESPA were all gung-ho talking about the Impressions show in Long Beach as things move in fits and starts back to some sort of normalcy. FESPA is an international printing show, once held…
If your screens aren’t right, your screen prints won’t be right. Sounds simple enough, but it’s only easy to fix if you know what to do. We kicked off the 2022 Shop Talk series at the Impressions Expo in Long Beach talking about common screen making mistakes and how to fix them with Kevin Kauth…
There are a few basic principles involved in the process of drying screens after they have been coated. You can make a “drying closet” out of very simple materials. Lack of sophisticated materials is not a problem when drying screens, but violation of certain principles IS a problem. I have been in beginner’s shops and…
