Things You'll Need:
- Plastisol reducer
- Mineral spirits
- Palette knife
- Squeegees
- Silk screen
- T-shirts or similar garments
- Test squares, known as pellons
- T-shirt printing press
- T-shirt spot dryer
- Conveyor dryer
- Rags
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Step 1
Clamp your screen into the T-shirt printing press. If printing a multicolor job, clamp all your screens into the press and line up to the register marks on one of the film positives used to burn the screens. Place a test square, also known as a pellon, onto the shirt board on the T-shirt press. For multicolor jobs, spray the shirt board on the press with a modest amount of spray glue to hold the test square in place between colors.
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Step 2
Bring the screen down to rest on the shirt and shirt board. Using an ink knife or palette knife, place some ink along the far edge of the screen opposite yourself. This will be the ink reservoir. Place the sharp edge of a medium squeegee into the ink reservoir at a 45-degree angle to the screen, angling the squeegee toward you. Apply enough pressure to bend the squeegee blade slightly, and pull the ink toward you, forcing ink through the image area of the screen.
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Step 3
Lift up the screen a couple inches while still holding the squeegee in one hand. Look at the image area of the screen. Is any ink left in the image area? If so, use more pressure while printing for better ink coverage. Think of the squeegee as the sharp edge of a knife as you pull the next print. When the print is done to your satisfaction, lift the squeegee toward you over any remaining ink, and push remaining ink back toward the ink reservoir at the far end of the screen. This is called the flood stroke, flooding the image area of the screen for the next print. If there is no ink left after each print, you can pull a flood stroke down form the ink reservoir at the far end of the screen, or you may elect to use no flood stroke.
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Step 4
If your are printing a multicolor job on a rotary T-shirt press, bring each screen in the design down over the shirt board and repeat Steps 1 to 3, until each color in the print is done. When all the colors in the design have been printed, carefully remove the shirt from the press and place on the conveyor dryer. For many multicolor jobs, screen printers use a portable flash dryer to dry ink between applications of color to avoid smearing.
After a successful print is made on a test square, printing may begin on T-shirts. -
Step 5
To screen print with plastisol on dark or black shirts, you may use a spot dryer. Even when printing only one color of ink on a dark shirt, often the first color is printed, then cured with the spot dryer for about 15 seconds. The same color is printed a second time, printing over the first layer to achieve an opaque and dynamic-looking print.
For multicolor printing on dark and black shirt, often a white base layer is printed and cured with the spot dryer. The other colors can then overprint the white, with additional spot cures as needed to insure opacity of colors and avoid blurring. -
Step 6
When done printing, remove excess ink from the screens and put it back in ink cans. Plastisol can be cleaned up with mineral spirits. Keep an ample supply of rags on hand for cleanup.
