Step 5: Printing Your Design
Welcome to Art2Silkscreen's first series of tutorials on how to properly screen print your designs.
In today's, we’re going to take a look at step five, printing your design. In this demonstration, we will be using a single coloured design as an example being printed onto plastisol ink.
This is perhaps the most crucial stage in the whole process so we advise that you read the following instructions carefully before going through with printing.
Before We Begin
Now we have our exposed screen, we need to check it for pinholes, gaps in the emulsion and also tape the edges ready for printing. This is important because you do not want the ink to pass through these areas onto the garment. We also need to make sure it is secured in the clamp head with accurate measurements.
1: Set Your Off-Contact
Also known as your snap off, you must ensure that your print screen is perfectly horizontal with your printing board. Many of the printing carousels we sell have a tilting head, allowing you to better adjust the print screen to your requirements. Above all, however, make sure your print screen is level with the printing board.
Your off-contact is often set to 1 to 2 mm, sometimes more depending on the thickness of your garment (about 3 mm). This is to ensure that you know when your image has cleared as a completely flat print screen would make this difficult to determine.
2: Ready Your Garment
Next, you must prepare your chosen garment for print. Be sure that you have the right size squeegee so that it comfortably covers the entire image. Make sure not to get a squeegee that touches the sides too much or else you could get blobs of ink on your design. Lift the print screen and spray your board with textile adhesive spray. Hold the can about a foot away to spray a light mist.
Now, align your garment on the printing board. Find your neckline and make sure the garment, in this case, a t-shirt, is in perfect alignment. There are several ways to do this but we prefer to put it on by allowing the arms and the bottom of the shirt to fall comfortably onto the printing board. Make sure there are no folds or creases.
3: Apply Ink
Lower your printing board and ready your plastisol ink. In this example, we are using plastisol as it is great for beginners and allows more time for the design to be applied. If you want, you can thin the plastisol ink out but because we're printing onto a shirt, we want the ink to be quite dense.
Using a large palette knife, spread the ink along the bottom of the printing board, the side closest to the clamp head. Make sure there's a lot otherwise you won't be able to fill out your image.* Now, balancing your print screen above your garment, pull your squeegee towards you, flooding the image and the print screen with ink.
*NOTE: Ensure all your registration marks are covered with tape on the underside of the print screen before you apply the ink.
4: Press Ink to Garment
Once you've flooded the screen, press the print screen back onto the garment. Using both hands placed evenly apart on your squeegee, both thumbs facing you, position it at a 45-degree angle away from you then push firmly to the other side of the screen. Ensure you maintain the same pressure from beginning to end.
Once done, check the image to make sure there is no ink left. This is why accurate measurements are important; it saves you time without having to go over the image several times. If, however, you do need to go over it, simply pick up the squeegee with a minimal amount of paint and repeat the motion. This should clear any remaining ink.
5: Printing Onto Black Garment
You may notice when printing onto black or dark-coloured garments, that some of the fibres may still be showing through. To reduce this, you will need to set your flash dryer up and set it to touch dry. Drying the garment will take around four seconds but always test it with your finger before proceeding.
Now, lower the print screen to the printing board and repeat the above process until you can no longer see any fibres showing through your design. This process is called PFP which stands for print, flash dry and overprint.
The Result
By the end of this process, you should have a full image ready to be printed onto your piece of garment. Remember to spread your ink evenly and to press down on the squeegee as equally as you can with your fingers.
If you do not apply enough pressure or do not apply it evenly, the end result may come out looking poor. It is always best to prepare as much as you can before making that final print look good.
Previous Stages
After you have successfully completed this step, you will have a printed image on your garment. If you have yet to read our previous instructions, you can do so by clicking on our blog page or watch a live demonstration in video format.
Now you've finished this step, keep an eye out for our next blog post on the next stage: Drying & Curing Your Print!
Watch Full Video Below
