Flooding gets too sloppy
Posted: Wed Sep 06, 2017 9:26 pm
I've just gotten started with screen printing and have only made one shirt using a basic Speedball kit that comes with 110 mesh screen and Speedball fabric ink. I was watching these videos on how to do it so I built a little wooden press to help me out and then lifted the screen, flooded it with ink and then lowered it and printed my shirt. My problem is that flooding seemed to allow way too much ink through the screen ahead of time and then when I put the screen down, it leaked around the edges of the image and was very sloppy. I actually had better luck not flooding at all and just putting the clean screen down and then wiping ink across it a few times. That led to a much crisper image. What do you think is the issue? That ink seems pretty soft, is 110 mesh too big? Am I flooding with too much pressure? Any tips?
Examples:
Blurry - flooded first
Crisp - no flooding
Examples:
Blurry - flooded first
Crisp - no flooding