Tshirt screen help

DMS General
1

I need to make a screen for my Boy Scout Troop. Where do I pick up the correct kind of screen and do I need to purchase the resist? We are picking up the shirts in the morning, and I need to do them probably Tuesday night or Wednesday night. Any help from @PearceDunlap or @Nick would be awesome.

Doug Emes
2145009813

1 Like
2

Unfortunately,
Iā€™m not educated in the ways of screen printing, at least not yet. :wink: To the best of my knowledge Pearce is the person in charge of the screen printing equipment and the only teacher of the process at the space. If I manage to pick up the skill I would be willing to teach in the future. But, for now you have to tackle @PearceDunlap.

3

I believe Azle Art has the materials and help you may need for this. At least I have seen them carry the materials in their store in Plano.

4

In the silkscreening class, instructor Pearce Dunlap recommended making screens out of vinyl transfer material and gluing that to a ready made silk screen.

The only problem with this plan is that you have to have access to the vinyl transfer cutter and know how to operate it.

There is a process where you buy a blank silk screen, apply a photo resist to it, expose a positive of your logo on it to create a screen from which you can silk screen your design onto the shirt.

Pearce said that you can buy screens with a resist on them, you just need to expose your logo on it and then use that to print it. That does seem a little simpler, but you still need to figure out how to expose the screen, how to wash it out, not to mention how to put ink on it and then how to clean up afterwards. He gave a web site which I could not find, but it sounded close to this site:

Unfortunately it offers many, many options and you would need to know what you are doing in order to order from it.

1 Like
5

I know this isnā€™t exactly what you guys are thinking about but I do this with my students and I have really great results with the process. Seriously - itā€™s worth a shot.

Ps the image looks like garbage but if you do a light color shirt it works really well. Mind youā€¦itā€™s not professionalā€¦but itā€™s all good.

1 Like
6

@ugliness That freezer paper approach seems like it would be ideal using the laser cutter to cut out the pattern.

7

Something you could tryā€¦

  1. Buy a ā€˜sheer curtainā€™ from Walmart
  2. Grab one of the extra frames from the Arts Committee shelve (there were tons donated a while backā€¦).
  3. Stretch then staple the curtain material to the frame
  4. Cut out a ā€˜stencilā€™ on the vinyl cutter
  5. Place the stencil on the ā€œscreenā€ you made with the frame and curtain material
  6. Tape any areas not covered by vinyl that are NOT part of the stencil
  7. Clamp the prepped frame onto one of the ā€˜armsā€™ of the t-shirt screen printing table/device
  8. Use a touch of washable spray adhesive to tack the shirt to the board on the table/device
  9. Confirm the pattern will land on the correct area of the shirt
  10. Place a small glob of the t-shirt paint onto the frame
  11. Use squeegee to firmly spread the paint (several times back and forth for an even coat)
  12. Lift the arm holding the frame
  13. Apply heat (use heat gun - not too close though!) until it reaches (hot? hahaā€¦ I donā€™t rememberā€¦ Ask @PearceDunlap or @Haley_Moore or @Brandon_Dunson or anyone else who has used itā€¦ or maybe look on the side of the paint container? or GOOGLE! heheā€¦ )
  14. Clean up your mess! (THIS is the difficult step!)

ā€¦ or wait until someone who has done it more than once can give you better instructionsā€¦ :wink: :slight_smile:

(at least I triedā€¦ :slight_smile: )

8

I also use the Silhouette cutter (and vector files) to cut freezer paper.

9

Iā€™ve done the freezer paper and laser cutter combo. Works greatā€¦

10

Iā€™ve also tried this technique with middle school art camps. Itā€™s easy cheesy but itā€™s not as clean as the freezer paper technique.

11

@wandrson Ugliness hahahahaha

1 Like