Screen Printing Forum

I just recently started screenprinting and have had three attempts so far. I will explain each one as specifically as possible, maybe then i can get some help. Thanks.

First Time:

Emulsion:Applied in dark room, dried for 45 minutes in dark room.
Exposure: Used sun, about 45 minutes, image was not full-but still came out somewhat.
Washout: After lots of scrubbing image was suitable for printing.
Printing: OK. Not enough ink used. End of first attempt

Second Time:

Emulsion: Applied at night, dried overnight.
Exposure: Hour and a half in the sun.
Washout: No image was seen. I thought that the coat of emulsion was to thick.
Printing: None.

Third Time:

Emulsion: Applied in a semi-dark environment. Dried overnight.
Exposure: Hour in the sun. Ghost image was seen.
Washout: With more pressure than both previous attempts, image was washed thouroghly, but with only a ghost image remaining.
Printing: None


The emulsion used was Speedball.

I hope that from this information, I can maybe get a reason as to why my second and third attempts were not succesful.

Not familiar with speedball products as I am a professional screenprinter and not a hobbyist (no insult intended) but I'll give you my best guess. If I use sunlight to expose the ulano rlx emulsion that I use it takes 3 minutes in summer and 4 in winter. Sounds like you are seriously overexposing your screens.

Like Madman said....it's seems as though your totally over exposing your screens. Try starting at a relatively short time like 1-2 minutes in the sun and work up from there.