How many reg marks are really needed?

[Dottonedan]

How many reg marks do you use in your shop?


What are your reasons for your choice?


Please also post up images of your preferred reg or custom mark and explain the reason.

[GraphicDisorder]

We haven't used reg marks for nearly a decade.

[farmboygraphics]

One half inch square, with .5 point outline in each corner. Why, because it's easy to make.

[T Shirt Farmer]

We haven't used reg marks for nearly a decade.

This and have been tapeless for 5+ years

[Frog]

What's wrong with my standard of 2 at the bottom and one on top?
I have always found a triangle a very rigid shape, in engineering (like bike frames) as well.

[BRGtshirts]

Okay, because we're all trying to make it to Christmas and I've got the spirit, I'll share our reg marks, not so much for edification but probably more to give some people a chuckle. 

a) you'll see we do three at the top and bottom. That's a holdover from long ago. Our artists have them as a group and pull the down onto the art board in one fell swoop, so no big deal except the taping out part.   I've heard the '2 at the top , 1 at the bottom' for a long time, but still have never committed to doing something like that for fear of registration issues. A few years ago we had terrible image twisting on press which was eventually traced back to different length pegs (MHM press) but I guess I've never recovered as we're on a whole new screen system and that's a non-issue now.

b) the shape is something we created on our own. Idea behind the diagonals were to give a better idea which way something was out. Charlie Taublieb one time mentioned about adding a small filled in square for easier identification of something being out, but won't touch these things again until I want to reduce number and change/modify the shape.

so there you go. one of the many secrets to our success and use of tape    (oh, and btw, I have no idea about the dog art haha).    Merry Christmas and happy holidays!

[Croft]

cross in the centre top and a reg. mark to left and right about 6" out has served us well , use it regularly with tri loc setup with no issue, then all that needs to be taped off is one strip across the top.

[Sbrem]

4 forever, but 3 is fine as well, or as those show-offs say, none, lol...

Steve

[inkman996]

None, but thats because we have a CTS.

[Homer]

We haven't used reg marks for nearly a decade.

This and have been tapeless for 5+ years

same

[screenxpress]

None.  And on an old 6/4 manual press.  Have a platen with pins to set films to screen for exposure and then to bring back screens to press to lock in for print.  Pictures posted in the past. 

To see the vote, I voted for 3 top and 1 bottom center, but really figured 1 top and 1 bottom would suffice.

[zanegun08]

This and have been tapeless for 5+ years

Can you post some details on your tapeless screens?  We have done some trial, but have not had success, mainly because we may not use a hard enough emulsion (Kiwo multitex) and get breakdown on the tops of the screens from the corners of the squeegees, so screens are taped from the top.  We also don't have rounded edges on our squeegees.

Interested in knowing your process?  Would love to be tapeless, I hate the amount of tape we put in the landfill.

When I started working here, we did 3 on the top, and 3 on the bottom, now we are just 1 on the top and 1 on the bottom, mainly for center marks as we don't use tri-loc on all presses, and not on manuals.

[T Shirt Farmer]

Zane this has been the jam for us, saved a boat load of coin and reduced our down stream a lot.

[ZooCity]

That's a cool reg mark BRG.

When using CTS we also did not use reg marks.  Now it's one top, one bottom as that's how our PRU is setup.  Our current PRU delivers more consistent on press registration (complete registration, no micros) than any other method we have used and we've done Newman pin lock, modified tri lock style, CTS now on Roq's PRU.   So two is def enough for successful registration.  We do print the bottom reg at setup but it's more of a confirmation than a guide.

Our top reg is located outside the imprint area so that there's little risk of breakdown there.  Bottom reg has to be taped or blocked out.

Top taping along squeegee path and at drop points is a necessity for us in any scenario.  Even with rounded corners, soft blades and strong screens we need to help the stencil out in those areas over long runs.   

Full tapeless- make a new thread?  I'd also like to talk about that, don't want to muck it up to much here. 

[Frog]

That's a cool reg mark BRG.

Full tapeless- make a new thread?  I'd also like to talk about that, don't want to muck it up to much here.

Yeah that would belong in Screen Making