Printing on my homemade silkscreen press

Here's a quick video of me putting the last layer on a 3-color shirt I printed up this past weekend using my homemade 4-color silkscreen press. Generally, stroking more than once is completely unnecessary, but I was using waterbased ink, and wanted to clear out some ink that was drying up.

Thanks to my GF for being the lazy camerawoman ;)

And thanks to the guys at http://www.printingplans.com/ for making my press possible!

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• homemade
• silkscreen
• screenprinting
• the shallow end press

[THENISTIK760]

niiice. what kind of ink do you use?

[flameswithin]

@THENISTIK760 For shirts, pretty much exclusively NazDar unless I'm doing discharge printing in which case I've gotta use Rutland or Union. Hopefully NazDar will come out with a discharge ink soon, tho!

[flameswithin]

It took me about two weeks to build, but, I work full time, and have a girlfriend, so I was only working on it some evenings and weekends!

And as for the designs staying in the shirt, that all depends on the ink you're using and how you're treating it. You'll have to look into whether your ink needs to be heat cured or not! Mine stay just fine though :)

[flameswithin]

Heh, thanks man! I've been printing professionally for 2 years now. I still work a dayjob for someone else, but now I've got my own rig for printing stuff at home :)

I really don't like plastisol, it's too heavy and course feeling. I like using waterbased ink when I print at home :) I *do* need a flash, though! Using a hair dryer and an iron sucks!

[kiskrisndie22]

what size screens do you use>?

[AlexHumphreysMusic]

Tegan and Sara. Sick press dude.

[PrintingPlans]

@FtheFubb You can find the metal at a hardware store, and then you'll need to cut and drill it. Or you can buy it at printingplans d o t c o m.

[saltfan2]

Is it stable?

[FtheFubb]

I cant seem to find the angled metal pieces. :/

[EZA757]

haha I love screen printing. Ever since I learned it in high school, I enjoyed the craftsmanship of it.

[DCindustries619]

hey i was wondering if the t shirts stay nice for a long time? and does the design stay on the shirt for a long time? also how long did it take to build it?