Screen locked up....? How I fixed it.

[DudetheDestroyer]

I'm not sure what I did or how it got to this point but I ended up having three screen's emulsion lock up in the screen. What I mean by that is, the emulsion remover was not working and I couldn't get one bit of the emulsion to come off when I tried to reclaim, even after soaking it in remover.

I'll tell you how I fixed it in a second. But first I was wondering if anyone could help me figure out why the emulsion had become so tough.

Some things I did...

-Used Saati dual cure emulsion, the pinkish stuff.

-One coating on each side.

-Exposed for 3 minutes.

-Sprayed the image out.

-Then exposed it for 6 minutes. I did this because I'm using water based ink, but I'm not sure if its necessary.

I've only used the screens on maybe 20 or 30 tees. Not all were ran at the same time. I'd do maybe 5 to 8 tees at a time, then clean the screen with Saati - REMOVE PW5 and come back the next week and do 5 to 8 more in a different color.

I should note, I have diluted my emulsion remover with water. BUT... when I used the diluted emulsion remover on other screens for reclaiming it has worked fine. These three particular screens were just not accepting the remover. But they were used quite a bit more than the others.

Usually when I would put the remover on I would use a pad and scrub it around and I could tell the emulsion was all loosened from the screen, then I would spray off with water and it would come off real nice. I don't have a power washer though. But it wouldn't have mattered, these screens were locked up SUPER tight, the emulsion was just not budging one bit. I saw no cloudy residue when I scrubbed the remover around, the image stayed really crispy in the screen.

I was fairly convinced I would have to throw the screens away. Then I remembered there were car washes You know, the ones with the super powerful sprayers that feel like it cuts your finger if it gets in the stream of water. I thought the power of the sprayer would stretch the mesh but I figured I had to throw them away anyway so what the hell, ya know?

I basically had to hold the sprayer an inch away from the mesh and go really slow to blast all the emulsion off. I had a bunch of other screens I needed to clean as well so I just did all of them with the car wash sprayer. The sprayer was pretty intense, I was sure it was going to blast a hole in the mesh but luckily nothing was wrong with the screens after I was done! It had actually worked!

I really don't want to do this again but if it comes down to throwing screens away its a good thing to try at least. I was actually able to blast out some haze in another screen.

Anyway, I'll probably not dilute my emulsion remover anymore and possibly invest in a power washer.... although, the car was is only $1.50 for 3 minutes at full power. I don't reclaim screens very often so I might go that route for awhile.

Any ideas on why the emulsion solidified so intensely? I did nothing else except for what's listed. No extra chemicals or anything. I thought maybe cleaning the screen with the Saati Remove PW5 sealed it somehow, but I have no idea.

Thanks!

[Catspit Productions]

While it does seem that you used the correct emulsion and chemicals for the type of ink that you are using, it may be that you are experiencing screen lock. Screen lock occurs when emulsion absorbs chemicals or inks. Normally this occurs when the emulsion is underexposed. In your case it may simply be that the emulsion was difficult to remove and not really screen locked.

Diluting the emulsion remover with water will decrease its performance. Also reclaiming should be done always with the pressure washer. There will definitely be screens that are not ruined but they will be unable to be reclaimed without a pressure washer. Honestly the pressure washer probably does more than 50% of the work in reclaiming while the chemicals do the rest. Therefore if you are reclaiming without a pressure washer your problem may be as simple as that.

You will find some of your screens will reclaim easier than others. Some may appear to reclaim so easily that you don't need a pressure washer and garden hose water pressure works fine. However this will not always be the case and even though the screens may not really be ruined you will need a pressure washer to reclaim them properly. And as you saw with the haze, only the pressure washer will help you remove stains on the mesh. The haze remover can break down the stains but it needs the pressure washer to push off the residue from the mesh fibers.

Also be very careful how close you put the spray gun to the mesh. The closer the pressure wand is to mesh the higher the pressure is. The higher the pressure is, especially in a pinpoint situation, the more likely it is to tear the mesh.

Basically I think what you experienced here is simply a few screens that were difficult to reclaim and without the pressure washer compounded with diluted emulsion remover you were unable to remove it in your normal fashion. Try using the emulsion over in full strength and adding a pressure washer to you reclaiming process and I think you'll find it much easier to reclaim all your screens.

[DudetheDestroyer]

Thanks man! I think I've learned my lesson