What angle do you use for the push stroke

kylerogers · September 26th, 2008, 01:20 AM

Hello. I took a 2 day class in screen printing from Lawson last month. For the past almost four weeks now, I've been practicing, but still can't get the ink to clear the mesh very good with one stroke.

I can make perfect prints on a piece of paper and near perfect on a pellon. However on actual shirts it's a different story. I get some of the mesh to clear, but in many places their will be squiggly lines of ink in mesh that match the t-shirts weave. Meaning that ink deposited on the highest points on the weave, but not the lowest. So parts of my mesh will look like a negative image of the shirts weave.

I use the push stroke. I can't do the pull stroke at all. I'm using a 60-70 degree angle with squeegee. I've seen all different figures listed in different books, article, youtube video, ect. Ranging from 45 to 80. What angle do the rest of you use when you do the push stroke?

SkyLinePrints · September 26th, 2008, 08:02 AM

generally, i try to stay at 45 degrees on the print stroke. The higher the angle, the more ink gets pushed into the screen.

Make sure you are doing a good flood stroke also. the print stroke should only be to sheer the ink not push the ink into the fabric. If you pull your shirt up and there is ink on your pallet, you are pushing to hard. the ink lays on the fabric not through it.

consistent even pressure all the way through the stroke is critical. just by human nature, most people who start off press harder on the screen that is near them then as they push forward, the stroke loses pressure. See if you can see a trend as to where the ink is staying in the screen. close to you, far away, one side or the other. this might point to changing pressure of your print stroke.

also, check your off contact and level of your screens.

just some thoughts. :-)

kylerogers · September 26th, 2008, 12:27 PM

Thanks for your reply. I get the most ink remaining in the mesh at the opposite end of the stencil. I've been working on that. I keep the off contact slightly higher than a quarter. For white I have to raise it or it sticks to the ink.

I have a simply logos table top press. The one with the magnets. It has a bolt to adjust off contact, but their is no tilt adjustment. So it's not 100% level on the front and the back, but it's close as long as I don't put it to high.