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Darkroom.........................

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Old January 18th, 2012, 12:46 AM   #1 (permalink)
Screen Printer Screen Printer is offline
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Default Darkroom.........................

Do you guys have a darkroom?

If so....what size is it?



or

Do you use a covered screen cart?
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Old January 18th, 2012, 12:55 AM   #2 (permalink)
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Default Re: Darkroom.........................

We have a 15x15 office converted into a dark room. We have sheets of rubylith covering the light as well as HVAC and dehumidifers.
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Old January 18th, 2012, 12:57 AM   #3 (permalink)
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Default Re: Darkroom.........................

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Originally Posted by Icon_714 View Post
We have a 15x15 office converted into a dark room. We have sheets of rubylith covering the light as well as HVAC and dehumidifers.
nice!!!!!!!
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Old January 18th, 2012, 06:28 AM   #4 (permalink)
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Default Re: Darkroom.........................

Mines 7x8, way to small, i have a heater and dehumidifyer and keep it around 80 degrees in there. I also have a home made dry box that has blower and heater, holds 12 screen, keep that at 100 degrees. This is used to dry the screens quickly.

I will be moving to a new location soon and decided to give it a try without the dark room. I will be building a few more of my dry boxes to store the screens. If it becomes a challenge I'll just build another darkroom.
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Old January 18th, 2012, 06:48 AM   #5 (permalink)
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Default Re: Darkroom.........................

No dark room here, I have a 24 screen and 10 screen drying cabinets we use. (Vastex brands). Love them. Speeds up the process of drying/coating/drying screens a lot. We use it for storage when not drying them.
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Old January 18th, 2012, 10:26 AM   #6 (permalink)
RobertWBarnes RobertWBarnes is offline
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Default Re: Darkroom.........................

Ted ... I would suggest that you do something where you end up with chambers ... the room that the screens are coated should be far removed from any of the water processes (spray out / wash out / reclaim / etc.)

The emulsions are light sensitive therefore ALL coating, drying, shelving, and exposing should be done in rooms that are yellow light ... drying cabinets are good if maintained properly (clean them often including the fans -and- heating elements) ... think of this as a laboratory environment ... ALL dust particles should be cleaned from the walls, ceiling, floors, doors, etc. ... moisture is your enemy as it inhibits the cross linking of the emulsion ... as discussed keep the emulsion itself contaminate free as well ... don't use your finger to paddle the emulsion back into the bucket <--- the salts, oils, etc. = contamination

Fans in a screen room are your enemy ... they are dust Slingers -and- the static they produce make it even worse ... remember it is called SCREEN printing because it starts with the SCREEN ... Look you have one of the nicest textile screen printing machines in the world and your Mustang deserves to be fed a healthy diet of fantastic SCREENs :-o

Note: a good clean water dip tank with agitator for post exposure would go a long way as well ... once water is reintroduced to the screen it will quickly block the post exposure issues -and- soften the emulsion for a later rinse out <--- but keep this far away from your screen storage as to not reintroduce moisture in your process

Warning YOU are in Louisiana where the humidity levels are ridiculous ... so ... You need to pay particular attention as to exterior walls, windows, doors, etc. otherwise you are fighting an up hill battle for no reason !!!

BTW ... a common misnomer is that people are always adding more heat and raising the temperature of the coated screen ... where they really should be more focussed on getting the moisture levels down

Hope this helps :-p
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Old January 18th, 2012, 11:19 AM   #7 (permalink)
srimonogramming srimonogramming is offline
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Default Re: Darkroom.........................

Just to clarify on something Robert posted, you don't have to coat your screens under a safe light, but everything else is correct. You can coat all your screens wherever you want but they need to be in a safe light environment fairly quickly after you coat them.
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Old January 18th, 2012, 11:40 AM   #8 (permalink)
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Default Re: Darkroom.........................

We coat all the time in open light, just move em fairly quick to a dark area..... doesn't effect anything.
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Old January 18th, 2012, 11:56 AM   #9 (permalink)
RobertWBarnes RobertWBarnes is offline
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Default Re: Darkroom.........................

Quote:
Originally Posted by srimonogramming View Post
Just to clarify on something Robert posted, you don't have to coat your screens under a safe light, but everything else is correct. You can coat all your screens wherever you want but they need to be in a safe light environment fairly quickly after you coat them.
Alan ... Your statement will confuse people ... as an example if they are coating their screens in ambient light then putting them into a screen drying cabinet that is also in ambient light -then- when the later remove the screen to expose it -then- it is in ambient light which will effect the exposure of that screen

Sure there are people out there that will say " I do it like this -or- do it like that" -but- those kind of people probably don't fully understand the exposure process ... I come from the days of a stat camera -and- working in a red light darkroom where exposure to light was exposure to light (period)

Just because the yellow light room emulsions we use have a slower reaction then the red light room emulsions of photographic film still doesn't mean that the exposure is magically not an exposure if you move quickly ... Laughable
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Old January 18th, 2012, 12:04 PM   #10 (permalink)
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Default Re: Darkroom.........................

If my post confused them then they don't have much hope in this industry, or life in general. I told them to put the screen in safe light quickly after coating, so what's the problem with my statement?
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