john!

1 Color Screen Printing, What to buy and how to?

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Hey, i have been getting alot of calls for 1 color shirts over the past year and more lately. I'm ready to buy a 1 color screen printing setup but want to know what all do i need to buy exactly.

I know you can put vinyl in the screen and use that as the design but i'm not coming up with any tutorials on how that's done. I'm wondering if i need a dryer or will something else do fine to save money on the setup.

Thanks!

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I DO NOT recommend the yudu as strongly as possible.  It's a toy, not suitable for even small production runs.  You will learn very little about the actual screenprinting process and will be very limited in sizes and quantities, among other things.

As far as a 1-color setup goes, all the desktop 1/1 (1 color, 1 station) units are pretty close to the same.  I would advise you against buying a startup "kit", which will typically include crap you don't need at a higher cost than buying it all separately.  Keep in mind that you will more than likely outgrow a 1-color unit quickly once you begin printing shirts, so it may make sense to just buy a 4/1 right away.  There are other things to consider with multi-color, like registration of the different colors, which is difficult on a low-buck 4/1.

You might want to check out Youtees, it's the setup I use.  I made it, rather than buying it from Lee, because he disappeared for about a year.  Check out all his videos at http://www.youtube.com/user/YouTees, also his site at http://youtees.net/.  He sells the kits, but I have found that even if you bought one, you will not be able to follow his instructions word-for-word.  However, I highly recommend you watch his videos.  If you are a DIY type of guy, this is the way to go.

The tutorial on how to use vinyl to screenprint is somewhere around here in the instructional section.  Beardown made it.  It works ok for short runs, but it is difficult to do intricate designs, as you have to "kamikaze" the vinyl on the mesh, you can't use app tape.  This means you also need to hand place all the internal pieces.

As far as drying the shirts, it depends on the ink you use.  Plastisol inks (most common) require the ink to reach around 330F to cure.  You can use a flash dryer to do this.  I use an old electric oven set to broil.  You can use a heat gun, but you will get uneven curing more than likely, and it will take awhile to cure each shirt.

I started screenprinting about a year or so ago, and it's quite a learning curve.  I recommend you check out the http://www.t-shirtforums.com/screen-printing/ and read lots and lots of threads.

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Cutme had a good idea of using his heat press machine to flash dry and cure his prints. I tried it the other night, and it seemed to work, but I haven't washed the shirt yet...

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Yeah, you can use a heatpress with either waterbased or plastisol inks.  It will give a different look on plastisols depending on what type of cover sheet you use.  Teflon and wax-coated sheets make it shiny.

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hmmm sounds good!

Now you can cut out a design in vinyl (square/rectangle with designed weeded out), place it on the screen and masking tape the rest of the screen area and that will work right?

post-3907-12986536515414_thumb.jpg

post-3907-12986536529814_thumb.jpg

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Yep, I would use clear packing tape though, it's thinner.  Try to keep the ends away from your squeegeeing area, so you dont pull it up.

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is there a recommended frame to buy or is better to just go and make one if you only plan on doing this for practice ?

Thanks

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To my surprise... stretched frames are fairly cheap. I would think, unless you know what you are doing, buying premade frame/screens would be the way to go.

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Dont the wood frames warp out on you and get crappy?  Just looks like for $2.50 more that the aluminum would be worth the cost not only for the reduced weight, but if you were planning on storing them for anytime.

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John if you decide to do this would you be printing on coroplast... I have passed a few job that would be perfect for this..If so give me a shout when you get it figured out, might send some business your way :thumbsup:

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I have used some GMcompanies wood frames hundreds of times and they have never warped.  I have bought frames from other companies that warped after 4 uses.  Longevity depends heavily on the quality of mortise joint construction and lacquering.

Aluminum frames are definitely better, though.  However, the system I use requires screwing adjustment tuners to the bottom of frames, so I use wood. 

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I just did the vinyl method and I squeegeed application tape on the areas that werent screened, let it go onto the wood itself and they turned out great. From design time to shirt time was roughly 15 minutes. It was nice to whip out the old frame from college. Gonna have to order a few more, I will post pictures when I am done with them tomorrow.

best of luck!

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I am glad to see a comment on the Yudo. I have looked at it over and over again wondering if it is worth it. I'm glad I hesitated. It looks usable, but apparently for nothing more than a project toy.

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I am glad to see a comment on the Yudo. I have looked at it over and over again wondering if it is worth it. I'm glad I hesitated. It looks usable, but apparently for nothing more than a project toy.

I'd like to steer as many people as I could away from the Yudu, but I guess it works for some people.  They have their own forum here: http://www.yuduforums.com/

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When you use your heat press do you close all the way, if so what pres. Thank you.

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waterbase will work better in your heatpress than plastisol.plastisol you'll want a dryer.if you want a good image printing you are going to want to use emulsion because the vinyl is thicker allowing more ink to pass through screen.

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Whats there shipping costs per frame?

i just ordered 6 frames and shipping was just over 8 dollars.

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Whats there shipping costs per frame?

i just ordered 6 frames and shipping was just over 8 dollars.

I just received a package from them and now I have a giant smile on my face. They threw in a bag of Jelly Bellys, they're already gone though :thumbsup:

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Whats there shipping costs per frame?

i just ordered 6 frames and shipping was just over 8 dollars.

I just received a package from them and now I have a giant smile on my face. They threw in a bag of Jelly Bellys, they're already gone though :thumbsup:

Heh, that is a nice touch, my wife always gets to them before I do.  Good luck!

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