What kind of Emulsion?...

[Sommerfeld]

Hi,

I'm relatively new to screen printing - I've made several different screens using Diazo Emulsion (Speedball), and even printed onto shirts with some success. The question I have is this - after watching some of your videos, I noticed that on your screens - the emulsion covered (ink is blocked in these sections) portions of the screen, along with the non-emulsion covered sections (of course), are all transparent, thereby making it easier for you to line up your screen for multi-colored prints. However, on my screens, the Diazo emulsion is opaque - which makes it difficult and time-consuming, and somewhat less accurate on my part, when I try to line up my screens to add a second color/layer, by looking through the non-emulsion covered sections.

What kind of emulsion is semi-transparent - as in the kind I see in your videos?

Thanks for the help and advice!

Ben

[Catspit Productions]

Very interesting as I have never worked with the Speedball products to any real extent. I would suggest SaatiChem emulsions for you. Since you are already using a diazo emulsion which needs to be mixed with the sensitizer and has a short shelf lifer thereafter, I would suggest a dual cure emulsion.

A dual cure like SaatiChem’s Graphic HU will be familiar to you in relation to the emulsion you are using but it will have a wider exposure latitude and you should be able to see through it just fine when it is ink free. As long as you are not double emulsion coating after drying the first coat.

http://www.catspitproductionsllc.com/sa ... icals.html

You can get it at a discount using the Catspit promo code listed at the webpage above. The follow the links there to the Graphic HU emulsion. The emulsion is listed there with links to quarts or gallons which you can buy from Saati’s ecommerce site using the Catspit promo code at checkout.

You may want to read this article to learn more about the different types of emulsions:

http://www.catspitproductionsllc.com/li ... sions.html

The emulsion I use is the SaatiChem Graphic PS2 Blue but it is a photopolymer which will require a very dense film positive to expose properly.

OR

you could line up your screens like this:



Let me know if you have any further questions or if you need help with any Saati products. Thanks for posting!