Equipment/Screenprinting

Owners

• Jo Brook
• Matthew Taylor

Training

See owners for occasional demos.

House Rules

Waterbased screenprinting does not have many safety issues, although take care when reversing the platen for t-shirt printing as it is solid. The facilities are shared and the printing area is small so there are some house rules for using this equipment.

Ink / paint

• Makespace supports waterbased printing only, whether you are using Makespace shared equipment or some of your own.

Do not use any inks, paints or varnishes which cannot be removed using just water / washing up liquid. (Non-waterbased printing is offered by some of the specialist printmaking studios in Cambridge.)

• You may bring in and use your own ink if it is waterbased. If it is not one of the inks already in stock, you must follow the procedure for bringing chemical products into Makespace (provide an MSDS and leave it at the office).

If in doubt about ink, ask the owners or on the forum before using it in Makespace.

Screens

• • Shared screens are intended for short-term use and learning.

This means that:

• • No permanent stencils should be applied to screens. These are only usually needed for print runs in the 1000s of items.
  • You should aim to finish your printing in one session if possible and remove the stencil at the end.
  • For large print runs and longer-term use, we recommend buying or making your own screens.

Equipment

Screenprinting frame:

• Hinge clamps to hold frame
• Reversable bed with:
  • Hinged platen for printing larger t-shirts, tote bags etc. (Pull t-shirt over platen to stop ink printing through to the back layer)
  • Flat surface for printing onto paper and other single-layer materials

Print-drying rack 20 spring-loaded A2 wire shelves

Plan chest A1 primarily for storage of papers and flat items. Currently in use for screen-drying until a dedicated rack is constructed.

Screens outer w x h (max printable area w x h) Thread-count: Approximately 28T

• 1 x 31cm x 32cm (21cm x 22cm)
• 2 x 45cm x 58cm (35cm x 48cm)
• 3 x 56cm x 77cm (40cm x 60cm)

Squeegees

Textile printing (D or V-profile blades):

• 1 x 8" width, V-profile blade
• 1 x 12" width, V-profile blade
• 1 x 38cm width, round profile blade

Paper/other non-textile printing (square-profile blades):

• 1 x 8" width
• 1 x 12" width

Other small tools:

• Palette knife (for transferring ink to/from the screen)

Protective clothing:

• Printer's aprons (2)

Set-up items / wishlist

Workbench, drying area and storage

• Shelf above area for hanging squeegees and small tools and storing ink pots etc. on shelf itself.
• Adjustable-height bench (as in craft room but somewhat deeper) -- 2 x Finnvard trestles or sheet with screw adjusters (found)
• Space to store screens -- can be a vertical space, also under the table

Small tools and accessories

• Hose for tap to help with screen washout

Consumables

Supplies

• Unprinted newsprint paper, A2 sheets (500)

For test printing and creation of paper stencils (using manual cutting or lasercutter) This is not considered 'stock' as it is not fade-proof and not suited to making finished products

• Washing-up liquid

User stock

Inks/paints

• System 3 Acrylic print medium (paper/general use)
• System 3 Acrylic print medium (fabric)
• System 3 Acrylic pigments for colour mixing: Black, white, yellow, red, blue
• Pre-formulated fabric inks (e.g., Permaset Aqua Fabric Magic) in a few basic colours

Papers

• A2+ 250gsm printing paper. 27 sheets @ £1.30 per sheet.

Issues to be resolved to commission

• How to charge for materials Suggestion is to charge for paper by size rather than ink.

Stencils made on the vinyl cutter would be charged as for other vinyl cutting.

• Methods to Allow/Support
  • Printing methods
    • Allow only Water-based printing -- oil-based methods require toxic products, specialist disposal, ventilation etc.
    • Allow printing using any screens which have stencils compatible with water-based inks. This includes photo-stencils created offsite.

• • Stencil-making methods

The following dry stencil-making methods will be trained or recommended:

• Paper-cut stencils

Using the thin newsprint paper provided, stencils can be made by manual cutting (or tearing) using scalpels or scissors. For trained users, lasercutting can also be used.

• Vinyl-cut stencils

Based on trial sessions, recommend using vinyl on the squeegee side for durability of stencil. Needs care when weeding especially on small details and lettering.

Note: We cannot reliably support photo-stencil creation, mainly because it requires a space which is guaranteed to be dark during the exposure. A small darkroom or walk-in cupboard would be needed for this, and a light-safe screen-drying rack. If there is demand, this is something we could think about, maybe for the future space.

• What classification?

Safe enough to be green but maybe should be orange as would like opportunities to make people aware of good practices to avoid wastage and ruined screens when sharing the equipment. Posters above the area would be useful to remind people to washout immediately after use etc.

• Training session formats

Probably need to run sessions focusing on either fabric or paper printing. If trainees need to demonstrate their learning then sessions will probably be 2-3 people for around 3 hours.

• Storage of screens during work in progress Printing several colours may take longer than one session, as each colour needs to dry. So a user should label their screens with a name and date on masking tape. The policy on re-using screens could be similar to the private stock cupboard.