New Auto, What mesh should I start with?

[sqslabs]

I know its been mentioned a few times already, but go with S-Mesh.  Get half 150S and half 225S.  Use the 150S for white underbases and as your everyday workhorse screen.  Use 225 for top layers.  From there you'll likely expand into a few other counts but these will get you going and make the learning curve from manual to auto a lot easier than using standard mesh.

[ITL7]

Thanks again for all the advice.  I did go with the S mesh and just mixed up the count some. 

I have been using 86, 110, 125, and 160 mainly on the manual.  I was told that the auto would lay more ink so to go to a higher mesh count to get the same result. I guess I will just experiment and find what works best for me.

It will be here Tuesday so we will see how it goes. 

[blue moon]

just an FYI, S mesh is thinner and thus more fragile. You will have to handle those screens with care. Slightest bump or nick can cause them to split. Tape off the edges on the bottom so you are not crushing the mesh.

pierre

[ABuffington]

You can PM me for a dealer who can supply S mesh pre-stretched on statics, or we can work with Shurloc to get you panels for Newmans.  All can order and have it dropped ship from our stretching facility.
S mesh allows for fewer mesh counts and as Pierre mentioned it takes careful handling to preserve in a shop. No aggressive scrubbing pads, avoid sharp edge ink scoopers, keep tools, flood bar and squeegee off the screen during set up, put tape on the inside of the screen as a landing pad for flood and squeegee, round off and sand smooth your squeegee ends.  Maintain 1.5-2" from squeegee to inside of the frame.  Once you see it print you won't care about the careful handling.

Mesh is dependent on print and ink type.  Murakami S mesh helps base plates for plastisol, bright colors for discharge.

110S for heavy deposit athletic prints, solid discharge vector art.
135S or 150S for vector plastisol bases, discharge, waterbase, spot color plastisols.
225S for halftone bases, detailed discharge, detailed spot color, solid vector overprints
280T or 300T for halftone with some solid areas.
350T or 350S for 100% halftone or stochaistic overprints.
S mesh does help capture more tonals but in the beginning get used to S mesh for bases and then move up to higher end S mesh for overprints.  Some like a higher tension overprint screen to get better peeling action on hot plastisol base plates when their press has no cool down stations.

Each shop recipe can vary.  A lot depends on the art you print, and especially ink types.
The key is a Murakami S mesh plastisol base is very opaque compared to T thread.  The letters S and T refer to the thread diameter.  S mesh is not all the same.  Murakami maintains good workable tensions over the life of the screen.  Always ask your stretcher what they are going to stretch the screens to.  Some stretch too low a tension IMO. PM me for those that do stretch to acceptable tensions.  Or order a drop ship for our stretch which captures the mesh very square to the frame to prevent moire.  You can also contact me directly to help with logistics of your needs. We also offer bias stretching which has some strength advantages as well.

S-mesh plastisol base plates also provide a very soft hand.  The key to getting soft hand is to back off the squeegee pressure and take it down slowly until the ink clears the screen.  It takes very little pressure to transfer ink. 

Here is a video where I am printing it manually, also a great way to save your hands in manual printing so you can do more important things like play guitar that night.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFShG5cWeGY&feature=plcp

I barely touch the pallet with the squeegee.  Watch to the very end after the credits to find out why so many people come to the ISS January show!

Al