"He who marches out of step hears another drum." ~ Ken Kesey
With the winter time comes cool air and lower dew points. It sounds like your screens aren't drying properly nor are they exposed enough. You need to get some heat and fans in there to get and keep your temps in the 70's. You don't need a big ole' space heater, just a small one will heat a small screen room to well over 100 if it's sealed up good.
You said a couple of weeks ago you were accidentally overexposing, why was that? Then you brought it back, so maybe you're under now?A long shot but maybe something funky is going on with your integrator and/or your bulb could be nearing the end of its life? I've had exposures go weird on me when my bulb was nearing death, and even though the bulb was still producing light, I think it's UV output was inconsistent, changing the bulb took care of the problem in my case.And to moisture still trapped in the emulsion, this is where one of those little humidity meters from Lowes Pierre was talking about comes in handy (wonder if he ever tried it?), or the Saati aquacheck
hey Brandon and all responding--I'm having the same problem, and I WISH I could say my screens were getting coated the same way every time, but while I'm confidant the variation is minimal, one thing that has changed at our shop is we are now coating with the rounded rather than sharp edge of the trough. The way the screens are breaking down is in a scaling pattern, not just pin-holes. Literally cracking. Does this sound familiar to having too thick a stencil? Has anyone seen this scaling effect i'm describing?
Hey Pierre, did you ever try one of those Lowes humidity readers to see if it would work? Just curious.
Quote from: squeegee on November 29, 2011, 08:48:12 AMHey Pierre, did you ever try one of those Lowes humidity readers to see if it would work? Just curious.Yeah, just before posting a tip on how to patch a screen with two small holes in it! lol!
I just thought of something too, is the scaling visible even slightly on the dry emulsion prior to exposure? If so, I've seen that before and premature breakdown, my feeling is that it's caused by lack of degreasing and or residual chemical in the mesh that has been allowed to dry, but usually only if you can see it prior to exposure.Hey Pierre, did you ever try one of those Lowes humidity readers to see if it would work? Just curious.