Very discouraged

[Denis Kolar]

Yes I do have a pressure washer.
If I do it correctly as the instructions say to..I still have to scrub. It IS easier than before...less scrubbing, but I am still scrubbing.

Screen printing is a hard work, you'll have to put some manual labor in it.
There will be some scrubbing unless you hire someone to clean the screens.
There is scrubbing but it should not be that hard as you describe it.

I started few years ago and I pretty much went in with no experience. Research is a must. Talk to your suppliers, hopefully they know the stuff what they sell. Ask questions here.
Easiway 701 and 901 are great products for ink removal, Franmar Color Change is good for cleanup on the press.
For emulsion removal I use Easiway 500. Great stuff. Works great with Chromaline Chromablue emulsion I'm using.

Been doing this for 4 years and still do not have dip tank. Hate cleaning screens, but it has to be done.

In the end, if scrubbing is breaking point, there is always a DTG printer

[Denis Kolar]

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

That too!!!

[Appstro]

Thanks everyone I LOVE THIS PLACE!!!!

[tpitman]

You mentioned using screens only once.
I met a rep for a press manufacturer at an ISS show who printed on the side. He uses roller frames and uses Shur-loc panels for every job -- but only once, then resells the dirty ones. It eliminates any chemistry on the reclaim side of the process, necessitating only emulsion and a sink with a sprayer to "develop". It also gives him a tight, new screen every time. While Shur-loc panels aren't cheap, the time and chemistry savings, and for that matter eliminating much of an inventory of screen frames above the capacity of his press could actually make it cost effective. It worked for him, apparently. For myself, I get a hell of a lot of mileage out of Shur-loc panels and I dull the misery of reclaiming with copious amounts of "chemistry" of a barley-based nature.

[TCT]

Another thought for you- If you are buying your chemicals from a local supplier/rep MAKE them come out and show how to use the products if you feel it should be going faster or still have problems. If they want to keep your business or even a somewhat decent salesperson they should be out in a day or two to give you a demonstration....

[GaryG]

Covered pretty well- practice makes perfect.

Your pressure washer is a very integral part of reclaiming.
Make sure it is a quality piece.

There are a ton of Youtube videos too.

[mimosatexas]

Not to disagree, but I have been using the same $79 piece of crap pressure washer from Lowes for almost 4 years without issue.  It is like $8 to get a full replacement warranty as well if it breaks.  I know a few shops that have used the same machine and replaced them for "free" when they broke, but I haven't had to yet.  It is 1500 psi and 1.3gpm.  I leave it turned on all the time as well.  I think I've only turned it off once or twice when moving my washout booth.

I personally couldnt justify spending hundreds of dollars on one unless maybe i was using it 8 hours a day and had experienced a series of failures on my cheapo unit.

[Appstro]

I have a cheapo SUNJOE 1450 and it works fine so far as I can tell.

[Prosperi-Tees]

Im going to be testing a "new" panel frame similar to the Shurloc and the Trax frames next week. The panels, frame and tensioning tool are quite a bit cheaper and it may be the ticket if you want to get rid of reclaim totally. Ill report here when I get to play with the system next week.

[Binkspot]

1. We have found some inks react with the tape adheasive and make the ink harder to remove.
2. How far away is the nozzle of the pressure washer from the screen. If it's 12" away all the force of the water is gone by the time it reaches the screen, try getting it closer. We run about 3"-6" away.
3. Arasol screen openers on press alter the properties of emulsion and can cause problems removing it at reclaim.

We use a dip tank. Scrape the ink out, pull the tape off the sides between the screen and frame (leave the rest) and right into the dip tank. Comes out, power washed, degreaser, rinse and racked to dry. A steady 18-20 per hour.

The right combination of chemicals was the key for us.

Not to disagree with Inkman and in a perfect world it would be great only ganging left chests or pockets but with limited screens sometimes you have to do creative ganging. When you do gang use an old film to cover the unused image on the shirt side of the screen and tape around the film, just make sure the water proof side is away from the ink.

[Doug S]

Not to disagree, but I have been using the same $79 piece of crap pressure washer from Lowes for almost 4 years without issue.  It is like $8 to get a full replacement warranty as well if it breaks.  I know a few shops that have used the same machine and replaced them for "free" when they broke, but I haven't had to yet.  It is 1500 psi and 1.3gpm.  I leave it turned on all the time as well.  I think I've only turned it off once or twice when moving my washout booth.

I personally couldnt justify spending hundreds of dollars on one unless maybe i was using it 8 hours a day and had experienced a series of failures on my cheapo unit.

The brand of that pressure washer wouldn't happen to be Greenworks would it?  I had one that lasted a year and a 1/2 and finally died after heavy use and I believe it was only 79 or 89 dollars.  It died during reclaim so I rushed out to our small town store and bought 1 that cost $159 because we don't have a lowes in our town and it lasted a month and 1/2

[Appstro]

When you do gang use an old film to cover the unused image on the shirt side of the screen and tape around the film, just make sure the water proof side is away from the ink.

AWESOME IDEA

[GraphicDisorder]

We had a good run with some $50 clearance pressure washers at lowes.  Dont remember the brand they were grey and black.  Got like 1 year each out of them and I had 3 of them. 

Then tried a couple that were 169 from Depot.  Both leaked within 90 Days or so.  Just bought a $700 buck unit from Northern tool.  Rebuildable, all the lines look way beefy, and so far it seems great.  Time will tell. 

[ericheartsu]

Not to disagree, but I have been using the same $79 piece of crap pressure washer from Lowes for almost 4 years without issue.  It is like $8 to get a full replacement warranty as well if it breaks.  I know a few shops that have used the same machine and replaced them for "free" when they broke, but I haven't had to yet.  It is 1500 psi and 1.3gpm.  I leave it turned on all the time as well.  I think I've only turned it off once or twice when moving my washout booth.

I personally couldnt justify spending hundreds of dollars on one unless maybe i was using it 8 hours a day and had experienced a series of failures on my cheapo unit.

we bought a $600 or $700 unit from northern tool, because we were going through our home depot/lowes ones every 6 months. The Northern tool one had an incident once (because of our waterlines, which is now fixed), but hasn't had an issue. That was almost 4 years ago.

[screenxpress]

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.

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???

I have a dip tank but yet to put it in use.  I don't do enough printing right now and didn't want it just sitting there with the chemicals going weak.

I think from what everyone else is saying, you've got the idea of removing all the ink before trying to remove the emulsion. 

I do it before leaving the press.  I have a pallet, kind of a scavenger one, that I spin around and lay old newpapers on, pull the screen down and card off all the 'easy to get off' ink back into the container, including the squeegie. 

Then I spray the screen down with Easiway 842 screen and ink wash and push it around a bit with the squeegie.  Helps to loosen the ink on the squeegie too. Wipe the screen and squeegie off with paper towels using rubber gloves.  If I still see some difficult ink in the image, I hit it with Cammie screen opener.  That stuff pretty much gets any stubborn ink out.  Yea for Carbon Tetracholoride, lol.  Let the screen dry, take to the wash out booth, spray down with emulsion remover, scrub a bit and wash off.  I do occasionally have to use my electric pressure washer at the sink, but not always.

This should not be so difficult as to cause sleepless nights, lol.

On the ganging, as long as we're not talking large images, I just cover (ink side) the image (overlapping edges) with the same rubber based wide tape used around the outside edges of the screen.  That should leave very small lips if you even have to run over with the squeegie while printing. 

Here's a tip.  When you're covering an image, or even with the tape at the outside of the screens, whenever you get near the frame where no ink should end up, wrap about 3/4 inch of the tape under itself to make a "pull tab"  Makes it so easy to remove later.  I even do that for the tape when attaching film to the screen for exposure.  I just hate having to pick and pick at the tape later trying to get a corner up, lol.