Using cut vinyl for screen stencil

[dayofthedoodles]

Hi all!
I just finished watching a boatload of CSP vidos on youtube about preparing emulsions, burning screens, paper stencils, etc. I am very new to screenprinting, and I've been going about it a completely different way and thought I'd share. I run a small sign shop and I use a 24" plotter to cut vinyl sheeting for some sign lettering. I had a 20" x 24" 200-something mesh screen and some ink and thought "well now what?". I used my potter to cut a negative of a simple design, weeded out the stencil and masked the sheeting with a low-tack tape. Then I applied the vinyl directly to the screen, burnished it like crazy, and made a couple dozen shirts. It was a lot of fun, required zero chemicals, and clean-up was a snap. I just peeled the vinyl off of the screen, scrubbed out what was left of the ink and was done.
I had another sign-guy friend tell me he tried using vinyl on screens and it didn't work for him at all - but I think he was using the low-end stuff. The higher grade the vinyl is, the thinner it is, and the more adhesion you're going to get overall. A little bit of heat to help the adhesion along certainly doesn't hurt.
I've used this method twice now, once with a really simple silhouette and again with a more complicated design, and got pretty fabulous results both times.

I'd be really interested to know if anyone else has ever tried this method, and what their results were.
-Erin

[dayofthedoodles]

Derp. Just saw there's already a large thread on this topic - my bad.

[Catspit Productions]

No problem. Thanks for joining the forum. Maybe you could share more details about what you do.

What kind of plotter do you use and what software?

Is it easy to use?

How do your prints come out? Care to share a photo?

Thanks for watching my videos!

[dayofthedoodles]

I'm running an older-than-dirt Ioline Classic 24" plotter, with Flexi SignPro v8.1. I adore it. I think it's incredibly easy to use, but I've been using incarnations of Flexi for 10 years and other than a brief stint with Scanvec Inspire around 2003, it's the only software I've really gotten into.

I'm by no means experienced, but I'm really happy with the crispness of my prints thus far. I'm also not a photographer by any stretch, but this is one of the better ones so far: https://ny-image1.etsy.com/007/0/619365 ... 7_1nvr.jpg I have some photos of paper prints of a different design that turned out SO GOOD - but I'm not sure the content would be allowed. The joke of the design seems really tame to me, but I'm not trying to offend anyone my first post in.

From the videos that I've seen in the other vinyl screen threads (I think the woman's name is Sandy? Crafty something or other), the technique is for sure out there and being used by a great many people. I'm on an insanely tight budget and using only the very bare bones of materials, so using vinyl for screens is certainly a plus for me. I have screens, water based inks, and a plotter. That's about it. No emulsions, no lamps, not even a decent sink really. I have a hose out back.

There are a couple of things that I do differently and they work fine for me.
1. I don't lay down the application tape by hand. Ever. I hook the end of the roll onto the side of my work table, stretch out the roll, and squeegee from top to bottom, left to right the paper tape onto the weeded vinyl. You can float it by hand, sure, but if you screw it up and get a big wrinkle in it, you just have to start over. Why risk it? This is also how I'd mask something 8' wide
2. I lay my vinyl onto the inside of the screen, not the underside. Yes, if your vinyl is on top of the screen and you're dragging a squeegee over it, you could lose pieces. But if you use top shelf vinyl, that's not really a problem. The higher grade vinyl is thinner and has a stronger adhesive - it's more likely to stretch than tear. So once it's laid down and burnished really well (and a quick blast from a heat gun won't hurt) it's really not going anywhere. When I've put the vinyl on the underside of the screen, it tends to unstick itself from the screen after only 6 or so pulls. You're pressing wet stuff onto a sticky thing, so it's not going to stay sticky for long. Just one girl's opinion, but there ya go. I'm thinking not much of this is going to lend itself well to text, maybe I ought to try my hand at a video sometime.

[Catspit Productions]

That’s an awesome write up, thank you very much!

Yes, I have seen many people do this before as well including craftysansan on YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/user/craftysansan

Your print looks great; it seems to be crisp and clear. This is a great way to use stencils on screens for sure. I knew a guy back in New York that had a sign shop who did this often. He would print his own 1 color jobs like this and then sub out the multi colored work to us. But you could probably do some 2 color designs with this if you design the artwork specifically for the process of using vinyl stencils.

Thanks again for sharing this detailed information

I love it.