The Catspit Screen Printing Blog: How To Screen Print T Shirts

Another video about screen printing has been uploaded to YouTube today. I was looking at my collection of videos the other day and much to my dismay, I realized that I had never really talked about the flash cure unit.

This video covers the basics of a flash cure unit and goes off the beaten path a bit to talk about options or ideas for flash curing plastisol inks at home with alternative devices. Many of these options I have seen on YouTube. The video is called “How To Screen Print: The Flash Cure Unit & Options For Home”.

Make sure to check this video out and stay tuned for more ISS videos! Follow How2screenprint on Twitter for daily video release updates and more.

Learn how to screen print with Catspit Productions, LLC!

When first starting out in screen printing, people often wonder how to go about making the screen. Sometimes purchasing costs can make it look like it is cheaper to build them yourself. But it is important to note that the quality of your screen greatly affects the quality of your print and the ease of which you can print it. Using a tightly stretched screen on a rigid and strong frame has many benefits including saving ink in certain applications.

Roller frames are the best for high tension screens in screen printing. They have the perfect characteristics to give a solid frame and ensure high tensions. This is the best for high resolution printing like four color process. Roller frames are most often used in demanding print applications like on automatic presses. These can be easily stretched by the user with a little learning and experience.

Static metal frames are great for simple spot colors and some duo tone or one color halftone work. They have good rigidity and can hold enough tension for many simple manually printed spot color applications. They wear out over time due mostly to loss of tension. But today these types of frames are readily available at reasonable prices pre-stretched with mesh. Most of the time the profit margin in the job should be able to pay for screens like this unless it is on a very small quantity. But static metal frames need to be stretched with a stretching device. In many cases that is a pneumatic stretcher where adhesives are used to attach the mesh to the frame after the mesh is stretched over the frame using air pressure.

Wood frames are the easiest and cheapest to stretch by hand for beginners but they are also the most unstable and problematic. Two of their biggest problems is the wood absorb liquids and the wood frame cannot hold high mesh tensions. Using wood frames, especially if they are in poor condition, may make screen printing more difficult for beginners. Doing your first four color print with old wood screens just might not be the best idea.

The bottom line is, yes, you can make your own screens for screen printing. However, it may be beneficial to make a small investment into an aluminum metal frame. For simple 1 to 3 color home applications, I think it would be the best choice.

Learn how to screen print with Catspit Productions, LLC!

Another brand new video about inkjet transfers and screen printing has been uploaded to YouTube this morning. This video compares a few samples of Avery inkjet heat transfers to direct, plastisol screen printing. Here you get to see what an inkjet transferred shirt looks like after it has been laundered as compared to screen printed garment. The video is called, “How To Screen Print: Inkjet Heat Transfers Vs. Screen Printing”.

I often am asked about which process to use when starting a shirt business. I think people have the misconception that heat transfers are the same or similar to direct screen printing. That is not the case and direct screen printing using plastisol inks will always give the best colors, coverage, durability and flexibility needed to produce a long lasting high quality commercial product on light or dark garments.

That is not to say that you can’t make some money selling novelty items using the transfers processes. There are definitely commercial grade heat transfers printed by computer that will give great results on a variety of items. But for tee shirts; transfers tend to be best for point of sale, where the customer will settle for a lesser product in return for immediate customization or in very low quantity print runs with complicated graphics.

This video should help you understand the differences in quality, longevity and overall print results. As always, thanks for watching Catspit Productions videos on YouTube.

O.K. So here it is. I had a lot of fun making this video with Ryan from Ryonet. He was so kind and very friendly as well as light hearted. It seems like he has just as much fun making screen printing videos as I do.

This video is called: “How To Screen Print: White Ink On Black Shirts By Ryonet”. In this video, Ryan talks about using very tightly stretched Newman Roller frames and his special Ryonet white ink for printing on black shirts with minimal effort. This video was done at the ISS show in Long Beach and the sound is such that you must pay close attention to hear everything Ryan has to say but you can hear and understand him. The show was pretty busy and there is a lot of background noise.

Make sure to check it out. Please comment, rate 5 stars and most importantly, subscribe! An a special thanks to Ryan Moor from silkscreeningsupplies.com.

Learn how to screen print with Catspit Productions, LLC!

Don’t worry; you won’t get in trouble or anything. I just wanted to let you know where you can get some great information related to your Yudu machine. There is a cool screen printing blog run by Michelle Licudine that really focuses on the Yudu process. It is a screen printing blog so you will find other great information there as well.

The blog site is called You can Screen Print. This is a great website for anyone who is just starting out to print at home in the garage or people using the Yudu in the kitchen. Either way you should find some helpful information to get you going at home with screen printing.

Michelle was kind enough to network with us here at Catspit Productions and I was happy to do an interview article for the blog site. You will find the You Can Screen Print link in our link exchange as well.

Makes sure to check it out and get all of the inside info on the Yudu!