Very discouraged

[Nick Bane]

Like has been said, dip tank and the right chems and five screens to clean, reclaim, dehaze and let dry should take only a few minutes.  I'd be willing to bet that somewhere in your process there are small steps or things that are throwing you off that once figured out should make things very easy for you.  without seeing and walking thru the process with you its hard to say what those are.  and wood screens, please dont.

[Appstro]

Will Dehazer get off all the ink that is on the screen still?

[Nick Bane]

if its physical ink and not haze, that sounds like the cleaning isnt being done properly first.  screens should be clean of ink before you move to dehaze.

[Frog]

Will Dehazer get off all the ink that is on the screen still?

As Nick asked, ink, or ink stains?
Can you snap and post a pic?

[Appstro]

Its ink. not haze. I think I see the main problem here. I need to get my screens as ink free as I can after I do a job. They will clean up much easier that way. Of course I need to learn how to do that efficiently. Anyone willing to post  a video showing post job clean up after doing say 50-60 shirts?

Also another issue...I have been ganging images on my screens and masking whats not being used at the moment. BUT what I notice is that after a job is done the ink is literally packed into the image that is not being used. Thats also the hard crap to wash out later.... How do I correctly mask an image off so that it can be used later and not get clogged up with ink? Or do I not gang images???

[Inkworks]

A lot of people have trouble getting ink and emulsion off with a diptank in one step. many use an ink degradent and rinse off 99% of all ink residue before putting the screen into a diptank. Some swear it's no problem to do the two steps together, but many say only emulsion removal in their diptanks. this is the main reason we haven't gone to a diptank, I don't see the investment paying off if it's just a slightly faster way to apply emulsion remover, but then we don't reclaim screens all day every day either....

Always remove tape right away from a screen, the plasticisers in ink can react with the adhesive of many tapes and harden up if left for too long.

If you want to use an image later, you're best off to put the tape on the squeegee side and not get ink into the image if possible

[Appstro]

How do you do that if there is already ink on the screen?

[kirkage]

Print Job
Scrape ink, dry wipe screen with old t-shirt
spray screen wash clean screen until it looks almost new
remove screen from press
part 2
spray both sides with emulsion remover
wait 30 -60 seconds...power spray the stencil away
squirt ink degradent on mesh, scrub both sides with scratch pad, power spray mesh
spray on simple green, lightly scrub with scratchy pads, power spray mesh

part 2 takes 6 min per screen

wet vac excess water, put into screen room to dry

scratch pads are the ones sold by screen printing supply


If you live near Indy, come by for a lesson or two

[mimosatexas]

I was skeptical of the two part process of Supra and 701...until I started doing it.  You do not need to deink before the tank if you properly card off the ink, AND are doing a print stroke to get the residual ink out of the image area before cleaning.  Without scrubbing or wiping anything, there should be very little ink left.

I use ultimate clean up cards, but any print shop can cut you huge amounts of heavy stock with aqueous coating for dirt cheap.  When you card the ink off, there really should be nothing left but a slight discoloration on the emulsion.  If you are leaving big globs of ink, you're not carding off well enough.  I quickly get off the bulk, then go back and forth with some pressure and really scrape the remaining ink.  Get it into one glob, then remove, and one final quick swipe usually leaves almost nothing on the screen.

The supra and pressure washer should leave the screen with only a slight haze in the image area, if at all.  Everything else should be gone after just a few swipes on the fan setting.  The 701 will remove the haze and degrease in one.  So that means one quick round of scrubbing instead of the 3 or 4 a lot of people do without the tank and proper chemical order.

You mentioned masking areas off.  If you are not clearing ink from the image area you are masking off, then putting tape directly onto it, the adhesive will react with the ink and cement it in there.  You should be doing a clearing stroke whenever you are done with an image so ink isnt sitting in the stencil, and when masking use some kind of paper over the image, then tape around the sides of the paper, no adhesive on the actual image.

It sounds like you just arent being careful about where ink is on the screen.  Letting it sit for weeks with ink and tape will only make the issues worse.

[Appstro]

So, do I tape off the images that are not needed,  from the squeegee side after use and before flipping screen over to use the other image? Wont the squeegee get caught on the paper or card as I drag the flood ink over it for the other image?

I just cleaned 3 screens in 10 minutes as you guys directed!!!! The ink is the problem, Thanks for your advice! I would have kicked this screen printing thing to the curb if it were not for your experience and advice!

[mimosatexas]

How close are you ganging images?  You only need to flood/print the image area, not the entire screen.  I would mask both sides of the other image honestly, or use some kind of press wash, just to be sure no residual ink gets on the next job.

[Appstro]

generally speaking, its been a one color job with a breast 3.75 inch wide image and a full back 12 inches wide. I gang them as close together as I can towards the center of the screen. Usually I will mask off the chest image first on the shirt side of the screen. I will then print the back of the shirt. Then I wipe up the screen and mask off the back image and remove the card and tape off of the breast image. By this time the breast image is FULL of ink so I have to use screen opener to open it up. After I am done printing the chest, the back image is full of ink and completely clogged. I WAS putting the screen away like this after carding but NEVER again!

I guess I need to figure out how to mask effectively or use 2 screens..

[inkman996]

generally speaking, its been a one color job with a breast 3.75 inch wide image and a full back 12 inches wide. I gang them as close together as I can towards the center of the screen. Usually I will mask off the chest image first on the shirt side of the screen. I will then print the back of the shirt. Then I wipe up the screen and mask off the back image and remove the card and tape off of the breast image. By this time the breast image is FULL of ink so I have to use screen opener to open it up. After I am done printing the chest, the back image is full of ink and completely clogged. I WAS putting the screen away like this after carding but NEVER again!

I guess I need to figure out how to mask effectively or use 2 screens..

Theres your problem right there!

A full back and a left chest rarely should fit in one screen. In our shop basically all that gets ganged together is left chests. Either way you should not have two images so close that you interact with both while printing, there should be enough room between each that you can flood and print with out touching the other image.

[Appstro]

Yeah...I was just trying to save screens and money but its not worth it in the end.

[mimosatexas]

Your cleanup efficiency should speed up a ton when you stop leaving the flooded image areas sit for 2 weeks.