Is a Darkroom Necessary for Coating and Exposing Emulsion? Screen Printing Tutorial
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- čas přidán 1. 07. 2019
- One of the questions I get asked often is, I thought you needed a darkroom for coating screens and for exposing them?
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How many of you have a darkroom and how many just have a place to store screens in the dark while they dry?
Yesterday I just realized my upstairs hall closet would be PERFECT to dry screens. Zero windows! Multiple side by side shelfs. I could change the light to a (some save light...lol)
@@cherylbrown6746 That's awesome! Wish we had some space here for a darkroom, but we manage quite well as is. :)
I have a vastex dri-vault so I'm set lol
@@jasonenz4238 Must be nice lol
No darkroom. Just dark boxes for coated screens and a heated drying cabinet
Great video. I don't have a darkroom, when i coat them, i coat them in regular light. I only store them to dry in the dark. I always thought a darkroom was necessary, until I met my maestro, and saw how he coated in a lit room by a window and a open door in the day. Was blown away. I realized its no problem as long as you move quick and don't just leave it for to long.
I agree!
I've literally been freaking out about not having a dark room and this just eased my worries. No point in getting stressed over extra light. Many thanks!
Any time! No need to stress. :)
Thanks... Your videos do give enlightenment for those who are need..really appreciate it!
I appreciate it!
Thanks for the awesome video for newbies like myself!
Any time!
I do that all the time and no issues great video Matt
thank you for this, I have been wondering if I had to be in a dark room to get everything done! Glad to see it works anyway!
Any time! I was so nervous getting into screen printing that any amount of light would harm the screens. Then one day, when I was still in our garage at home, I woke up to see that the garage door was open, light coming in... forgot to shut the door. The screens exposed okay but had light getting to the for the first hour or so, even though not direct. It made me realize emulsion isn't near as finicky as it's made out to be.
This is great. I don’t have a dark room. My studio actually gets quite a bit of natural light, and I’ve had zero issues. I built a small drying cabinet and made sure it was completely dark. 👍🏼
Nice! It's not exactly photography film, which is the impression I was under when I first started. Definitely can take it easy. When I was in the garage at home, I would forget I had screens out that were coated. I'd pull out the mower, mow the lawn, and come back to say, oh no. They still exposed fine.
Thank you for this video - it was the brain recalibration I needed! I used to develop black & white film and prints. I've been coating & burning in near-darkness because I still had that fear of one stray beam of light ruining a days work.
I know the feeling! When I first started, film was still actual film and could not see any light, like photography. Emulsion is photographic, but WAY less sensitive. I really needs concentrated UV light to burn the image.
Rad video that makes me look smart. I keep telling people this. But even I didn't know it was THIS forgiving. Thanks brother! :)
Thanks, Jason!
When i got into screen printing most, if not all, suppliers and many youtubers said dark room is not negotiable and you have to have one. Two and half years with 4-10 screens a day and I still cant see why they would say you have to have one. I do many halftones, process and other fine detail projects. never had an issue. I have a guest bedroom in my basement and simply stack frames to dry and then stand them upright to store them. I generally do 30-40 frames at a time and some frames of rarely used mesh size, might go two or three months between coating and exposing. I even had some large sized screens go nearly eight months and then when used worked fine. The bedroom has a regular overhead light and is turned on several times a day for probably no more than 1 hr a day with the occasional 4-6 hrs when the kids forget to turn off the light. This spare room is also our pantry and is used every day. The screens are standing on the floor stacked upright together so I am sure there is protection from the top frame. but I have never had a messed up exposure. I followed CZcams's Farmboy Graphics advice since day one and have not had a single mess-up. I built his super cheap exposure table and followed his 2:45 seconds and there has been only one screen with very subtle half-tones that I washed out with a power washer from the wrong side that I had to do over. we are talking in excess of 2000 exposures! Dont get me wrong, I have put films on backwards, upside down and sideways, but they always exposed beautifully..... It isn't my skill, it was simply carefully following the advice of Farmboy Graphics (by the way he has a closet to store the screens to dry and hold, but he coats and sets up his frames in regular room light). I have about $100 in my exposure table, zero in my dark room and all that "extra" money was spent on high capacity/quality conveyor dryer, better/bigger press and a quartz flash dryer which I wouldn't think of not having for a manual press. I usually lay my films on the shirt, on the press and place tape on them so I can mount the screen and get placement just where I want it. I have the main shop which is 26x24 and it has 24 4ft led shop lights. My shop has white painted floors and three small windows. It is very bright but I will shut down the lights directly above the press, but by no means is it "dim" in my shop. I use ulano orange and QTX which I protect a little more from the light, but since it seems like Orange gives almost as much fine detail in half-tones, I rarely use it anymore. Two months ago I did 275 6 color Sep Studio Mahi-Mahi fish fishing shirt on a polyester hoodie for a major high end boat manufacturer and we used Ulano Orange and the sales rep and marketing director commented how they looked so much better than past years shirts. They have since ordered four more jobs with one more on the books for their huge Annual boat dealers convention this coming winter. I am not saying orange is best, just I know how to use it with my system and customers are happy. I do almost all plastisol, so water based shops probably are different in their emulsion choice.
If you are on a budget then darkroom and exposure units maybe should be first to DIY and save cash for press or conveyor. I had a rude , pompous salesman actually tell me i might as well as not invest any time or money getting into the screen printing business if i wasn't going to do what it takes to make quality screens with a $3,600 exposure unit. I saw him last month now working at Best Buy when I went to buy 2 new computers and extra monitor. He came up to me and asked how things were going and I said crazy busy and I had paid off all equipment and was hiring a saleswoman to handle all the sport teams jersey's/spiritwear accounts. I was getting a laptop for my saleswoman and a new computer and two large monitors for the shop. He said "Great, let me help you with that"....I said, "seeing how your recommendation was for me NOT to even bother opening my shop unless i bought your $3,600 exposure unit was unbelievably wrong and false, why would I now trust you for my computers?" .... he shook his head and stormed away. The saleswoman I used at Best Buy whispered under her breath "You have no idea how much he deserved that".
If someone stands to make money off your decision, your guard should be up!!! That includes people who have sponsors or are trying to acquire sponsors.
Thanks for sharing! Funny how things workout. I would completely advise to anyone to make as much of your equipment as possible to save money, aside from a conveyor drier, and the press. Most of the other equipment such as a washout booth, exposure unit, screen racks, drying cabinets, etc can be made easily. I bought new equipment with my washout booth and exposure unit simply because I was so busy that my time getting back at screen printing was more valuable. I think anyone who says you have to have this expensive piece of equipment to get going and a crap ton of space doesn't know what they're talking about, like you mentioned. Start small, buy used, build what you can. Slowly reinvest that money back into better and faster equipment as you go. Rather than taking out loans, buying the most expensive equipment to find yourself drowning in debt with no work to pay the bills. Grow you shop / equipment with your business.
awesome story... both of you. i have a exposure unit with 4 florescent 30watt "grow lights" inside. how long would you guesstimate exposure time with ulano orange? or can you recommend a good calculator? I've blown out 2 screens already using my shower head...not really any pressure either.
Thanks for the info. Very helpful.
Thanks Jim!
Your videos are soo helpful!! Thank you for sharing😆✨
Glad you like them!
Nice Matt!
Thank you!
Blown TF away!!! I didn’t know this. Ty
Any time! A lot of people make it out to be like photography film. Not the case. When I first started I thought even the slightest of light would ruin a screen.
I have been preaching this fact for a while now. Glad you made a video about it.
You and I both. I get asked this question so much, I had to make a video about it.
Mikey Designs & Silk Screen You would do yourself s huge favor to get s heated screen cabinet to dry the screen In. I am sure it’s very humid where you are.
One more thought for you -- and also congrats on how you’ve been building your business and for sharing so much of your journey. - are you doing halftone screens for your underbases? If not look into it. If so please share your experience with it.
Very good video thx...I can stop freaking out
Hahaha, I used to freak out even if I cracked a door a little. I would think, "oh no! I ruined my emulsion"! That's when I first started.
thanks for helping me understand this!
You bet!
great information thank you.
Glad it was helpful!
Hey I just met this dude!!!! Didn’t even know he did videos... pretty cool
Howard Chatman lol! Hey Howard! Let us know if you have any questions and we’ll be happy to help.
Thanks that was v useful
Thanks for this video
No problem
Very nice !
Thanks!
Great video. I started using a water bottle to pre wet our screens prior to the wash booth. Worked great!
Great screen printing hack!
I’m lucky enough to have a lil open tank sitting next to our washout booth that we put all of our exposed screens in and see the design lighten to ensure it exposed correctly 🤙🏼
@@RookieMistakeYT absolutely. Single dip tank work great or high pressurized spray bottle worse case scenario.
@@arnoldprints high pressurized spray bottles scare me simply because for some reason I’ve had some of the finer lines and details in the designs wash out or fall apart. I will say though i believe it was a bad batch of emulsion because it kept happening with that specific bucket.
Im getting back into thjs its been 5 yrs erso i just coared a couple
I never used a darkroom just a closet or box n fan im no pro but i do okay im looming to up my skills now all in due time
great video cheers n good luck to begin ers
Thanks for sharing!
You can also just put sleeves on your lights to prevent any light penetrating the screen. We leave screens out for 2 or 3 min out in the light and no harm.
Good point. That's how my setup was at the house. My screens dried over night with our amber lights on. Here is a different story because we just have a cabinet.
I asked Ryonet support about this because I dont really have a dark room/area in our house and read in the forums that while the emulsion is still wet, it's not really that light sensitive. Ryonet support said that was true for photopolymer emulsions, but the emulsion that I use, which is a dual cure emulsion that needs diazo, is light sensitive at all times. =( Great video as always!
If you go and check my videos, I like to use TZ emulsion which is a diazo emulsion. Diazo emulsions expose slower by nature and tend to hold better detail. If anything, I have to be faster with the photopolymer emulsion without a darkroom. An employee of mine that's learning took about a good 7 minutes to setup the art on the screen. It was slightly exposed, but nothing that wouldn't washout. From my experience, you'll be fine with a diazo for a moment without issues.
Emulsion IS just as photosensitive. I have been screening since 1992. I work in a room with no daylight, but coat under a 60 watt bulb no issues ever. Coating a batch of screens takes 10 minutes. Leaving the drying or dried screens exposed even to incandescent light will fog the emulsion.
Unless you can economically by small containers of diazo, I would go photopolymer. Storage is a year+ in a cool storage environment. Coated screens stored dark cool and dry will burn a year later. Details wise, I burn 45-55 line halftones no problem.
I started in 1992, went to chromatech PL in 1993, and have never looked back. Bought my first auto this spring, literally burning 45 line halftones process color job, this after noon. Captains log July 3 2019........
@@joeshmoe7967 Thanks for the great info! Yeah, Ive been told that photopolymer has a long shelf life where my diazo emulsion is just 6 weeks at best! I'm hoping to switch to photopolymer soon (SAATI Textil PHU) once I use up my current emulsion and I get a better exposure setup. I'm still using a CFL UV Fluorescent bulb that came with a screen printing kit I bought almost 3 years ago. Right now my money is going into testing water based opaque white inks, since white on dark shirts is what my clients order the most, as well as saving up for a good flash dryer.
Congrats on getting the auto! I just have a one station press, but hoping to get a 4 station soon. My main business has been printing shirts with vinyl, but now my orders are always over 30+ shirts, even 100+. Vinyl does not make sense for large orders, so its time for me to get serious about screenprinting again.
@@joeshmoe7967 Good points and thanks for sharing. The basis of the video really is to really make people aware that they do not have to freak out about a little light reaching their emulsion during the coating and exposing process. Unlike photography film which as soon as it's hit by light, it's destroyed. I had a condiment bottle full of Ulano TZ which is a diazo emulsion, and it went from green to brown. The bottle is transparent, sat out in the shop, and I used it for pin holes. So I do agree with you. I'm just trying to help newer screen printers understand you don't have to freak out if a little light gets to your emulsion. :)
How long do you expose it for. I have the same emulsion.
if i have a screen smaller than the emulsion coater, how would you do that?
How many minutes do you keep the coating in the codboard?
Does this apply to all emulsion types?
Did you do the video about the drying cabinet? Couldn’t find it on your channel..
Not yet. Will do that ASAP.
Keep up these great videos! I noticed it looks like you have a dehumidifier in you screen drying rack, I was wondering if you would share the make and model of it?
Thanks, Mike
Thank you! It's actually a cheap $25 oven to heat the cabinet to dry the screens after reclaiming and coating with emulsion quicker.
@@mikeydesignssilkscreen473 cheap and effective. love it.
I just make sure no source of UV light is my studio not necessary total darkness. Thank you for your video
That's a great way to do it. Thanks for watching!
good video providing evidence that if I work quick, i don't need to lock myself up in my closet any more ! :P
Bingo!!!! Time to come out of the closest. ;)
Mikey Designs & Silk Screen lmfao 😂😂😂😂
Lol . como rompes las leyes de la fisica . buen video . ya no tengo q esperar hasta la noche para hacer mi grabado . gracias man
Can you change the pallete and screen on any machine...and do they have to be the same size?
Most screen press manufacturers will have multiple size pallets. You could also make your own and use the stock pallet brackets.
Is a ready to use or do I have to mix something with the emulsion before coating ?
There's photopolymer emulsions which are ready to use out of the bucket, or diazo which you have to mix in a sensitizer. There are others, but those are the main ones.
Not totally related to the video, but how can I go about printing large transparencies? I need about 13x13 inch ones but my laser printer can’t go that big.
You could tile them out if it's just a 1 color design, or you'll have to buy a printer that can print that large. There are also service providers that could do that for you if it's just a one off job.
What kind of emulsion are you using? Does this apply to all emulsion? I’m a newbie trying to decide what emulsion to get? I want to eventually do work that has fine detail eventually.
We have been using Ulano TZ and Ulano Orange at the time of this video.
Hello Mr. would you please tell me the mixing ratio of powder sesitizer with hot water and the amount of liquid senitizer with emulsion?
You just need to fill the bottle up to the neck with water, then add to your emulsion.
Badass
Thanks for watching!
Before I have exsoping box, im using 50 watt LED light and took 18 minit with 22 inch distance to exposed. I dont see a 18-20 watt light bulb up high 8-9 feet on your ceiling can do any harm when coating my screen.
So I dont think dark room is needed.
Exactly!
About how much time did you let your screen dry?
Just depends on the temp outside. Generally takes about 15-30 minutes.
I coat my screens in the light and expose to light prior to exposing on my vacum unit with no problems. old timers dont want to here that tho lol.
LOL Same here... One day we'll get a bigger shop and have a dedicated darkroom, but there's no need to freakout about some light getting to emulsion while coating and bringing them out from their dark space to expose. I recall when I used to be nervous about any light getting to the emulsion when I first started. Now, I'm just like, "why"? With our setup, we've had zero issues with preexposed screens.
How long does the screen take to dry after coating it with emulsion
It depends on the temperature where you are at. In 85-100º weather, it might take 5-10 minutes. Anything below room temperate may take around 20 minutes. Putting your screen out in the sun to dry will help it dry faster.
Great info Mikey, I do have a question and see if you can give me your feedback, what do you think about the Roll of Postive film Rite Film premium from screenprinting.com ?
Save your money and get film from GoldUp on Amazon. amzn.to/2YuwiGi You'll spend half as much. That's what we use, but we use 13 x 19 cut sheets.
Sir
I want some screen photo print design tutorial.
Have you check out some more of our videos? What tutorial are you looking for in particular?
So I have to coat both sides? And does the film go on the squeegee side or the print side?
Definitely need to coat both sides. Coat from the print side, then the ink side to push the emulsion to the shirt / print side. Put your film on the print side / garment side. Not the ink side. Make sure the image / film side is against the emulsion, rather than it being away.
@@mikeydesignssilkscreen473 thanks mate! I got there in the end! I ended up doing two coats on both sides but it ended up working in my favour! Haha! I made another screen up with 1 coat each side and it didn’t work as good as the first… not sure why. But ah well, I know now!
How many minutes did u let it dry
Generally it’ll take 30 minutes to an hour in Houston heat.
Nice! So a couple of questions for you my ninja! Do you have fans in the cabinet? (Hurry up with the specs of that, I need that info...LOL) I noticed that was yellow mesh on a 110 screen, where did you get that? I can only find yellow mesh on 230 and higher at GSG.
I have a bathroom fart fan mount on the top, and a vent on the bottom so it pulls air diagonally through the cabinet. LOL, I'll get to that soon. They're older screens that came with the automatic when I bought it. I'm sure you could have GSG mesh some screen for you if you brought in your own mesh. They provide that service too.
@@mikeydesignssilkscreen473 how do you stop light from getting in through the vent and fan holes?
@@jonathanzambrano6349 The fan and vent is at an angle and place so there's not any light coming through.
bro thanks man i just had major difficulties coating my first screens with major failure but imma try it like you tomorrow
Nice! Yeah, just do 1 and 1 with the sharp side for meshes 195-305. Do 2 and 1 for 110 and you should be fine.
@@mikeydesignssilkscreen473 thanks bro!! just coated my first screen this weekend exposing it in the sun like you did.! fucking excited!
@@mikeydesignssilkscreen473 what kind of emulsion was this? I’m looking for a forgiving dual cure emulsion (water based and plastisol). Also what is 1 to 1, 2 to 1?
How long does it take for this emulsion to dry?
It depends on what your environment is like. It's hot here in Houston and humid. It takes about 10-15 minutes during the summer time. It can take hours during the winder.
How much time the scree spent inside the cabinet ??
During the summer, a couple hours as the most. Winter, could take all day.
With out even watching the video, I will tell you this: I have been coating with a single 60 watt bulb, since 1993. As long as the light source contains no UV you are good to go. You do not want any stray daylight, but room lights are fine for short periods.
I coat 6-8 screens in about 10 minutes. Long enough exposure to room lights will 'fog' the screens so they need to be dried and stored in darkness. You easily know if your coating, drying and storing is OK, by how easily the details of your art wash out when burning and rinsing.
Good point! Thanks for sharing.
Bro I have a 80 w uv led flood light ,what distance from light to screen do you recommend? And time to burn the image ?
I would say at least 12-16 away. Just make sure the light is covering the entire screen. Depending on the emulsion, with a led flood light, might take 7-18 seconds. You'll have to some testing to dial it in.
@@mikeydesignssilkscreen473 im using ulano orange sbq
@@miguelhernandez2769 That's a good one. I'd start around 5-7 seconds and work my way up from there.
Great video. How long does it take for your emulsion to dry before you can burn the screen?
Thank you. It depends on the mesh, emulsion I'm using, time of day I coat them, how full my screen cabinet is, and the season. It could be anywhere from 10 minutes to a whole day. I'd say at the moment, cabinet full, 100º outside, 90% humidity. It'll take a few hours. Only a few screens in the cabinet, about 15 minutes.
Mikey Designs & Silk Screen Cool. Thank you so much for the videos. They really help rookies like me.
@@mikeydesignssilkscreen473 How do you know when they are done with all those variances? I am very new, just getting started. Do you touch the screen? Does it look different?
@@chrisnwendyduncan It will look different and no long look wet. The edges that bead up will look dry too. You'll notice the difference once you get into it.
can anybody guesstimate a good exposure time for ulano orange? using 4 florescent 30w grow lights? im kinda new to this
As long as your films are dense, I would try a minute and 30 seconds and work backwards from there.
@@mikeydesignssilkscreen473 thanks for the reply. i actually had to buy new bulbs. got 8 new ones exposing around 30 seconds.
@@backhandthings4942 Nice! I'm glad you got it all sorted out.
I am about to give up on screen printing since I can't expose my designs even after a month of trying .
Don't give up! What problems are you having?
how long did you burn your film for?
On our unit, about a minute for a photopolymer, and 2:30 with a diazo emulsion.
@@mikeydesignssilkscreen473 awesome im using photocure wsr mixed with diazo emulsion and i have a well kinda makeshift burner its pretty bright and it worked with 1:20 but i just wanted proper advise im pretty green at this and i also have a ricoma mt1501. so i hope you dont mind me droping in for info brother? i appreciate you for taking the time as well. god bless bro
Can I ask about the title card?
“I thought you needed a darkroom?” I really do not understand this type. Unless it’s a simple typo. Then if so, take care
Questioning whether or not you actually need darkroom.
How long can they sit in a dark cabinet before use? If you want to have some ready to go.
My understanding is about a year, but they only stay in the cabinet about a day or two. We go through about 20 screens every couple of days. During the slow season, we've had some sit for a week or two, and no issues.
you only add one coat of emulsion to each side ?
That's correct. If you're starting out, you'll get the best results that way. Later you can try experimenting with 2-1, 2-2, etc.
Thank you!
@@stephanielisenby5743 Any time!
Hello bro
I am sanjit
From India
Exposing vackense for me
how long can it set in the dark before use?
Depending on the emulsion, 6 months to a year.
Mikey Designs & Silk Screen while on a screen?
@@l.a.the.w3026 Definitely! As long as you keep it store at room temperature, out of the light, and where there's little to no humidity.
Mikey Designs & Silk Screen ah thank you.! I got worried cause i have from couple days ago i didn’t end up using.
@@l.a.the.w3026 You'll be fine a good while. We coat 22 screens at a time and it takes us, depending on jobs and how many colors, a couple days to go through them.
Have you used the Ulano orange with water based?
I have. It just falls apart. I like to use Ulano TZ with water based and discharge.
Using the orange emulsion, how long do you typically expose for?
Depending on the mesh, and with our multi bulb exposure unit, it takes anywhere from 45 seconds to about 1 and a half minutes.
I use the ulano orange with a ryonet exposure beginner unit and I’m at 3 mins . It all depends on your exposure unit set up
What brand of photo emulsion did you use???
At the time of this video, Ulano Orange. We solely use Ulano TZ now.
I know how to print cartons
Nice!
I love your work, but unfortunately haiti is different.
Thank you!
I'm a graphics printer and have had a running argument with my tshirt printing friend re this topic. I've been coating in regular light for years, no problems, he swears on the darkroom necessity, lol. Oh well, thanks for this video, you are like the supreme court ruling on the presidential election.
Hahah, glad I could help on the ruling.
All the people here including the video poster have studied light and different types at a university? My finding came accidentally when I bought a certain type of screen for a lamp made by Kodak. In the packet comes sheet describing which light are suitable for what. Example: X-ray the dark room is red, for photographic film development has its own color dark room. Kodak has had light engineers for almost half a century. The right to an opinion is politics, the technique for the usage of proper light for your tasks is science. You have the freedom to decide which avenue to follow.