Very discouraged

[GaryG]

I'm sure the basic 110v pressure washer works for many, but having one like above
from Northern Tool (2500psi) has been a very reliable workhorse.
Used almost daily it has lasted for 10 years and no end in site.

-Keeps me out of the hardware store not having to go back and
buy more "fun stuff" than I should, she said.  ;D

[screenxpress]

I have a gas one too, but decided to put a 1700 psi electric under the wash sink since I didn't want gas fumes in the work area.  The unit got has an on-demand power on and does a nice job. 

Technically if the ink does not lock into the emulsion due to underexposure, you really should not even have to use a pressure washer to reclaim.  Am I right?

[GaryG]

We went from a gas in our very small shop to the electric North Star in new building that
looks like a mini car engine- only like $695. It required a separate outlet 120v, but
it will take care of any blockage issue.

Yeah as we all know any one will work if chemical is used properly.
I'd say 1700 min to take care of the rare sticky messes.  Some you can't see until
ink doesn't transfer as intended.

[Frog]

Technically if the ink does not lock into the emulsion due to underexposure, you really should not even have to use a pressure washer to reclaim.  Am I right?

In a perfect world you're right I've sometimes done it without pressure but pressure certainly helps the job go easier and more guaranteed for better results


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Evo]

I am the screen guy in my shop. All screens, all day, 40+ hrs a week. (I know some might shiver at the thought but I love it)

Here is the life of a typical screen in the shop, from coating to press to reclaim. Note: all shops are different, this is what works at the moment in our shop. Some of the products and conditions I inherited from the former pre-press guys, but most are the way I like to do things.

1) Coating. Right now we use Ulano QTX for most plastisol jobs and QT Discharge for wb and discharge inks. Works for now but I am always looking into other emulsions. QTX coats up nicely with a 1+2 pass with a deep scoop coater. I don't use a rounded edge as it offers little control on finer mesh counts. YMMV.

2) Screens are dried print side down in racks in a warm, clean room with very mild circulating air. (shop vacs and mops are my friends in here, and I use them regularly)

3) Carefully calculated exposures are done with a Olec AL53 and a large wall mounted vacuum frame. Sometimes up to 4 23x31 screens at once.

4) ALL screen exposures are calculated for screen mesh count, color and coating thickness.

5) Exposed screens are placed up to four at a time in a dip tank filled with clear water for soaking. Typically 3-6 minutes depending on stencil thickness.

6) Exposed image areas are washed out from the print side with a pressure washer dialed down to about half pressure and a fine tip 40 degree washer tip. The fine spray helps gently wash out detail areas.

- The pressure washer we use was purchased recently and is my favorite I've used in any shop, the AR 620 with TSS (auto start/stop) It has adjustable pressure up to 1900 PSI at 2 GPM and has a rebuild-able pump. Oil change takes 2 minutes every 200-300 hours of operation.

7) Freshly developed screens are quickly aired off with a compressed air nozzle if needed immediately and set in the sun to dry. (or back in the screen room on rainy days)

8) Inspected, taped and blocked out screens are sent to the presses.

9) Screens returning from the presses are de-taped and a careful and thorough scraping of excess ink is done on EVERY screen. (the press ops and assistants never, EVER remove enough ink) We try to remove as much ink as possible leaving only a very thin film. Best tool for this: a Hyde 4" joint knife.

10) WB and discharge ink is cleaned from screens immediately. We don't do much wb printing at all, so I usually just use  Sprayway 32 to degrade the ink film before cleaning. Plastisol ink film is not typically cleaned from screens before the dip tank, unless it's metallics and shimmers - those screens are treated like they are radioactive and are carefully cleaned cause that sh1t gets everywhere. Screens are sorted to be shelved for later use or reclaimed. We reclaim probably 90% or more of the stencils, but frequently re-ordered designs get shelved.

11) Screens to be reclaimed go into the dip tank four at a time. We use two 37 gallon vertical tanks, one for clear water as mentioned above and one for reclaim. We use Easiway Supra in a 5:1 dilution.

12) I go through screens in the tank in a pull-one/add-one fashion. After adding four screens, waiting about five minutes, I pull the one nearest and add one to the back and go along until done.

13) We have a two-section washout sink, so all the reclaim screens go in one "dirty" side and the other side (which is back-lit) is used only for final rinse and for developing. This keeps the inky stuff isolated from the clean screens and/or new stencils.

14) Screens out of the dip tank get thoroughly pressure washed from the print side to remove all emulsion, and then another slower pass over the image areas to remove most of the ink film. I don't bother spraying both sides yet, it's not required and would be just an extra step at this point - see below...

15) Easiway 701 is applied to the mesh and frame on the print side, and then the mesh and frame on the squeegee side. I use a gong brush or heavy sponge, whichever is on hand.

16) I pressure wash the 701 off starting on the squeegee side that is now facing me (see how that worked? it's all about saving steps). I start in the inside corners first, removing any heavy ink stains or tape goop, and then start from the top down making straight sweeps across the screen. It's very much like spray painting, you cover each pass you make with 50% of your next pass to make sure you are getting even and thorough coverage. Be methodical and hit the entire mesh surface and frame, because you are cleaning everything off, even stuff you can't see. Flip and pressure wash the print side. DO NOT let the 701 dehazer dwell on the mesh long, or it can "set" some ink films and leave a permanent stain. It doesn't work any better leaving it on longer, it works pretty much immediately.

17) Final flood rinse both sides of the frame and mesh until the water sheets off the mesh evenly. Degreaser? Only on finer meshes and not always unless the screen had seem some major action before reclaim. 701 does and excellent job of de-haze and degreasing, as long as it's rinsed well.

Total reclaim time? About 3-5 minutes per screen, give or take depending on the ink mess and age of the stencil.

18) Dry vertically in a clean warm room, handling by the frame sides only. Don't grab the top of the frame after final rinse, especially with gloves because all the muck and contaminants on your gloves (trust me they are not clean) will run into the mesh as the screen dries. Don't stick a fan on the screens unless you are certain only pure filtered air will hit them, or you are inviting dust born pinholes in your stencils.

19) Back to step 1...

[Underbase37]

WOW, now that's a good post.:)

Murphy37

[mimosatexas]

I basically followed Evo's advice when setting up my tank and it has worked flawlessly for me so far.  Definitely a good post :)

[Frog]

We were very pleased to get Evo back!

And, also, I'm very pleased to see "Newbie" subjects like this because, as is evident from the participation, there is a lot to share and a lot to learn, learn and even help seasoned pros re-examine long time processes.
When things work right on a forum like this, by teaching, we learn.

[Printficient]

Evo, Great post.  1 area of contention however;

18) Dry vertically in a clean warm room, handling by the frame sides only. Don't grab the top of the frame after final rinse, especially with gloves because all the muck and contaminants on your gloves (trust me they are not clean) will run into the mesh as the screen dries. Don't stick a fan on the screens unless you are certain only pure filtered air will hit them, or you are inviting dust born pinholes in your stencils.

You should always dry a wet screen mesh down horizontally.  This way any chemistry not washed out that is usually stuck in the glue area on the frame will not drip down into your open area.

Again a well spoken post.

[Appstro]

Wow Evo, that is an AWESOME post. I appreciate your typing prowess! (SP?) I think my fingers would fall off after all that!!! I have said it before and I will say it again. I am a member on alot of forums that are nowhere near as nice as this place. This forum is a rarity in kindness and information!!!

Yesterday I did two shirt runs of 30 shirts. I used the least amount of ink that I could get away with! :) After each run I cleaned all the ink off the screen and removed all tape. Then I took the screen over to the sink and sprayed it with ink degradant and scrubbed it front and back for 10 seconds or so, then rinsed. I then stacked the screens against the wall. All that is left on them is emulsion. Will these be OK to set for a week or 2?

Thank you!! everyone for answering my questions and for your willingness to share. :)

[Frog]

Wow Evo, that is an AWESOME post. I appreciate your typing prowess! (SP?) I think my fingers would fall off after all that!!! I have said it before and I will say it again. I am a member on alot of forums that are nowhere near as nice as this place. This forum is a rarity in kindness and information!!!

Yesterday I did two shirt runs of 30 shirts. I used the least amount of ink that I could get away with! :) After each run I cleaned all the ink off the screen and removed all tape. Then I took the screen over to the sink and sprayed it with ink degradant and scrubbed it front and back for 10 seconds or so, then rinsed. I then stacked the screens against the wall. All that is left on them is emulsion. Will these be OK to set for a week or 2?

Thank you!! everyone for answering my questions and for your willingness to share. :)

Those screens should be able to sit indefinitely.

btw, thanks for the kind words about the forum. We can't go around poaching members of other forums (though I do invite individuals occasionally), but satisfied folks like you can certainly help spread the word.
We really do want to be the "go to" place for all friendly screenprinters, embroiders, and artists.

[Evo]

Evo, Great post.  1 area of contention however;

18) Dry vertically in a clean warm room, handling by the frame sides only. Don't grab the top of the frame after final rinse, especially with gloves because all the muck and contaminants on your gloves (trust me they are not clean) will run into the mesh as the screen dries. Don't stick a fan on the screens unless you are certain only pure filtered air will hit them, or you are inviting dust born pinholes in your stencils.

You should always dry a wet screen mesh down horizontally.  This way any chemistry not washed out that is usually stuck in the glue area on the frame will not drip down into your open area.

Again a well spoken post.

That is why I pay attention to the mesh AND frame in the reclaim process. The 701 will literally "sterilize" the entire screen if you are careful and thorough. The final rinse is not just on the mesh, but the entire screen. I have much better results with drying vertically and the screens dry faster. I've had mixed result drying horizontally and sometimes I get odd spots and muck in the center of the mesh, possibly hard water spots or who knows.

Thanks for the nice words. I'm here to get and give help. This is all not rocket science, but these processes are often a handed down affair.

Like I said up top though, all this works in my shop and in our situations. Time and experience (and mistakes) lead one to the correct path for their production environment.

[Appstro]

Just wanted to report back. I am cleaning ink off immediately after use and its made a world of difference. Phew, thanks everyone. :0)

[Sbrem]

Evo, Great post.  1 area of contention however;

18) Dry vertically in a clean warm room, handling by the frame sides only. Don't grab the top of the frame after final rinse, especially with gloves because all the muck and contaminants on your gloves (trust me they are not clean) will run into the mesh as the screen dries. Don't stick a fan on the screens unless you are certain only pure filtered air will hit them, or you are inviting dust born pinholes in your stencils.

You should always dry a wet screen mesh down horizontally.  This way any chemistry not washed out that is usually stuck in the glue area on the frame will not drip down into your open area.

Again a well spoken post.

That is why I pay attention to the mesh AND frame in the reclaim process. The 701 will literally "sterilize" the entire screen if you are careful and thorough. The final rinse is not just on the mesh, but the entire screen. I have much better results with drying vertically and the screens dry faster. I've had mixed result drying horizontally and sometimes I get odd spots and muck in the center of the mesh, possibly hard water spots or who knows.

Thanks for the nice words. I'm here to get and give help. This is all not rocket science, but these processes are often a handed down affair.

Like I said up top though, all this works in my shop and in our situations. Time and experience (and mistakes) lead one to the correct path for their production environment.

The "vertical" got my attention too, I've dried screens horizontally since I made my first in '75. To be sure, they were mostly dry before putting them in the racks for the window fans to blow over. We've had a screen dryer here that we picked up at an auction for a printed circuit shop, it holds about 30 manual frames, or 15 to 20 automatics, and the bars (shelves if you will) are indented in the middle so that any water not removed prior to putting it in the dryer will run off, since water seeks it's own level. It's probably about a 5° slant, not too serious, just enough to eliminate pooling. Great post Evo...

Steve

[ebscreen]

Great post Jason. And you're right about the Hyde knives. After trying just about everything we've finally
settled on those. One less thing to keep experimenting with, finally.