Screen printing war stories

[Shamax]

I know I'm not the only one to have these (having only been printing occasionally for a handful of months so far), but what are some stories you guys and gals have that you just shake your head in amazement at when looking back at them? You know the type: maybe you had it all mapped out and one tiny little thing was off that made the job turn out to be a disastrous, hard-learned lesson. Or maybe everything that could possibly go wrong was happening, you messed up at each and every point, and STILL managed to pull it off. Let's hear em!

[Catspit Productions]

I remember one time printing sweat shirts for some firefighters with my oldest brother in NY which is what we were printing on the sleeve. “Firefighter” down one of the sleeves. We were printing them just beyond the counter where customers would be to order shirts and such.

Well one customer came in and was placing an order and saw us printing the sweatshirts. Suddenly she asked us what a “firefigter” is.

Yes Fire-fig-ter. My brother had forgotten the “H” in a spelling error. It was very embarrassing and the customer who saw this was a pretty big client. Fortunately she had a sense of humor and knew well the hazards of printing.

What that goes to show you is that the printer rarely reads what he or she is printing. They are looking at the print quality and you cannot count on the printer as a proofer. I used to print so many jobs in one day working at another shop that I would forget what I had printed that morning by the afternoon.

Always double check your art before you go to screen.

[Shamax]

Mine from a week ago is more of a "how in the world did this end up going right?" kind of story:

I was preparing to burn a screen for a run of shirts a friend's music label is wanting printed - my first image with a lot of halftones. So I acquired a 20x24" 305 mesh screen. However, I don't have a box large enough to stash it overnight to let it dry, so I was going to try something new. Since I'm working out of my apartment, I setup in our bathroom late one evening. I degreased & abraded the screen and dried it with a hair dryer (as usual). I then coated the screen with a new 16" scoop I'd bought and problem #1 came up: I noticed a small "run" in the emulsion on one side. I didn't want to wash it out and go through the process again, so I just went over it again on the substrate side of the screen. It looked alright enough, so I continued.

I then laid the screen horizontally across the tub and began drying the emulsion with the low temp setting of the hair dryer. Surprisingly, it only took about 4 minutes or so before the main part of the emulsion was dry and ready to expose. The thicker deposits on the edges were still a little wet, but I proceeded (problem #2: should have let them dry more). I turned to wash my hands in the sink and then dry them on a towel hanging from the shower and wound-up dripping water on one corner of the screen

Thankfully, my image wasn't going to take up the whole screen, so I decided to keep going. I got my screen & positive lined-up and taped, though in the process I got wet emulsion on my fingers and smear some onto the positive! Thankfully, it wasn't too much, so I was able to wipe it down with a paper towel. All's good, so I set-up my halogen light, started the timer, and waited. With about 45 seconds to go, I realized... I forgot to put my sheet of positive contact glass on top of the screen

That was the point in which I said "if this actually turns out, it will be in SPITE of everything I've done."

The timer stopped, So I shut down the light and washed-out, and to my amazement I had a pretty darn good stencil - dots and all! I let it dry, did a couple of test prints, and everything somehow came out great! I guess some days the "powers that be" smile upon the hapless

[Catspit Productions]

"It looked alright enough, so I continued."

I love that as you said it twice. Like at each turn you knew something wasn't altogether right but what the hell?

How often we do that. And yes things often work out. I think it’s what you least expect that gives the most trouble.