washing out inks out of stencil

[yoonbokim]

Hey guys,

So I am screen printing plastisol ink only.

Do you guys wash the plastisol ink out of the screen/stencil after the end of every work day?

If not, how often do you guys wash the ink out?

What is the max amount of time I can leave plastisol ink on a screen/stencil?

Thanks guys!

[blue moon]

you can leave the ink (plastisol without any additives) indefinitely.
We reclaim daily, but have screens that are several years old and are used on regular bases without reclaiming (repeat orders).

pierre

[mooseman]

scrape out the leftover ink with a card, a putty knife (dull the edge and corners) a cake frosting spreader (restraunt supply) spatula, playing cards, old credit cards, etc. Dump it back into your ink bucket.
Take an old tee shirt ( we use a shirt of many colors) wipe up the remaining ink that saves on some chemicals. Reclaim the screen or like Pierre said you can leave the ink in the screen until you are too old to care about it any more. the only draw back of that is it will collect dust, bugs, the occasional homeless guy.
mooseman

[screenxpress]

scrape out the leftover ink with a card, a putty knife (dull the edge and corners) a cake frosting spreader (restraunt supply) spatula, playing cards, old credit cards, etc. Dump it back into your ink bucket.
Take an old tee shirt ( we use a shirt of many colors) wipe up the remaining ink that saves on some chemicals. Reclaim the screen or like Pierre said you can leave the ink in the screen until you are too old to care about it any more. the only draw back of that is it will collect dust, bugs, the occasional homeless guy.
mooseman

I have found ink left in/on the screen for extended periods tends to attract small insects and gnats (Like Moose says).  What you can do to slow hold them off is to carefully lay a sheet of newspaper across the top of the screen and scotch tape to the back (back clamp knob) and to the front of the screen frame to suspend the newspaper sheet ABOVE the ink - DO NOT LET THE NEWSPAPER LAY IN THE INK OR IT WILL START TO PULL THE PLASTICIZERS FROM THE INK LIKE A BLOTTER.  Seems to be some kind of reaction between the Plastisol and the ink on the newspaper.  Once that happens, the ink will start to harden and essentially be useless for printing.  Don't ask me how I know that.