acrylic ink prints on cardboard unevenly
Posted: Sun Oct 19, 2014 12:18 am
[img]Printing black on cardboard record sleeves.
230 mesh, aluminum screen, Speedball acrylic black ink with silkscreen medium added
halftone is 45dpi
printing with hinges on table, equaling the off-contact on the other side with a thin piece of masonite-type material.
You can see by my images that I can't get the black to print consistent in the halftone. I'm experimenting, but maybe someone has some pointers - even though this isn't t-shirt printing. The stencil was made and then exposed by a screen-printing studio. Line screen 45dpi, round
Some things I"m trying, but have not been successful:
() adding more or less screen printing medium, up to 1:1 approx. Next I was going to try 98% speedball acrylic ink, with just a small bit of medium to slow drying time
() squeegee technique - should I skip the floor stroke? or maybe I'm pushing too firmly? Some were too light, so I tried double strokes, but then that was too dark. After checking forums tonight I thought I might be flooding too heavily, pushing ink through the screen instead of just on surface.
() the cardboard 45 sleeves I'm printing on aren't smooth -- is this part of the problem?
() the off contact -- could it be too much? Since I'm using hinges on an aluminum screen, it's almost a built-in off contact that I match at the other side of screen
Any ideas are welcome!
(I'm not sure how to put an image into this message -- these are the links to open them)
-Marian
https://www.dropbox.com/s/gx5aeavdy199t ... 1.jpg?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/7h4lrcajllkag ... 2.jpg?dl=0
230 mesh, aluminum screen, Speedball acrylic black ink with silkscreen medium added
halftone is 45dpi
printing with hinges on table, equaling the off-contact on the other side with a thin piece of masonite-type material.
You can see by my images that I can't get the black to print consistent in the halftone. I'm experimenting, but maybe someone has some pointers - even though this isn't t-shirt printing. The stencil was made and then exposed by a screen-printing studio. Line screen 45dpi, round
Some things I"m trying, but have not been successful:
() adding more or less screen printing medium, up to 1:1 approx. Next I was going to try 98% speedball acrylic ink, with just a small bit of medium to slow drying time
() squeegee technique - should I skip the floor stroke? or maybe I'm pushing too firmly? Some were too light, so I tried double strokes, but then that was too dark. After checking forums tonight I thought I might be flooding too heavily, pushing ink through the screen instead of just on surface.
() the cardboard 45 sleeves I'm printing on aren't smooth -- is this part of the problem?
() the off contact -- could it be too much? Since I'm using hinges on an aluminum screen, it's almost a built-in off contact that I match at the other side of screen
Any ideas are welcome!
(I'm not sure how to put an image into this message -- these are the links to open them)
-Marian
https://www.dropbox.com/s/gx5aeavdy199t ... 1.jpg?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/7h4lrcajllkag ... 2.jpg?dl=0