How to Coat a Screen for Screen Printing.

In this video tutorial I show you how to coat a screen for silk screen printing by Cam Earven for Monument Limited.

While the screen is drying let's talk scoop coaters.

The edge should be clean and have no chips, show a close up of the good scoop coater.
yea our coater should look exactly nothing like this (show chip on the old coater) See that chip.

These kind of chips will create a dense line we we coat that will be hard to expose.
You can try to use a high grit sand paper to buff the chip out. If that doesn't work the coater should be scrapped.

If you are getting a light colored line when you coat it is because we have dry emulsion on the edge of the blade.
Bringing up the second point thoroughly clean your coater after each use. If you find some emulsion has stuck to the edge and normal water won't take it off use some emulsion remover let it soak and hit it with a scrub pad. In our case I just dunk the coater in our dip tank for a few min then scrub and spray.

Time to coat the screen.

Start by filling the coater about halfway with emulsion. (show close up of filling coater with emulsion.)

start coating on the flat side of the screen.
hold the screen almost vertical like this, and
place the coater on the mesh an inch or so up from the bottom edge.
tip it up slowly and the emulsion will start to move toward the mesh when the emulsion just touches the screen.
apply a firm pressure and pull the edge smoothly up the mesh (Go pro this part.)
As we approach the top tip the the coater back and let the bead of emulsion fall away from the mesh.
when the bead is clear.
pull up another inch and then pull the coater away.
Spin the screen and repeat.

When we are done coating I use my finger to scrap the unused emulsion back into the container. All if these chemicals are expensive so save what you can.

Now we can place the screen in the rack flat side down.
We let it dry this way so that the bulk of emulsion moves to the flat side of the screen.
A thicker stencil on the face of the screen will lay more ink onto the substrate.

Let the emulsion dry in a dust free dark environment.
Most manufactures recommend 24 hours but in the blistering arizona heat 4 hours is just fine.
If you're in a colder or humid climate you may want to stick 24 hour dry times.

Thats a wrap on coating a screen.
In our next video I will show you how to burn and expose a screen.

like, subscribe, and ding the bell so you're notified when I upload. And if you really like the video share it on your social media.
That's it for me. Take care print fam peace out….throw camera up and catch by the lense.

Tags
how to coat a silk screen for t shirt printing

Cam Earven:

It's awesome that you take some time out of your day to watch the videos and vlogs that I upload to The Print Life. I truly appreciate the love. Please subscribe, like, and turn on notifications so that you are notified when I upload. in return I will keep uploading.

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[jennifermiles]

I cannot wait to start getting equipment. I've been doing vinyl decals for 2.5 years now but I'm getting excited like a kid in a candy store over the idea of screen printing. These videos are a huge motivation and filled with great knowledge I need.

[tyronemaxwell]

EXCELLENT JOB explaining the process. Simple, detailed and straight to the point! We everyone on YouTube explained things as well as you.

[CatopiaCatSanctuary]

I work for a company that sales ink, coasters, screens ect etc. So, I am now a subscriber!👍😁

[wendykernell]

LOL That intro almost made me drop my laptop! Thanks for not being boring at 6 am! :)

[pamelavassallo]

I've watched several of your vids trying to troubleshoot emulsion issues. Yours are the best. I like your delivery and sense of humor (one must have humor if you're going to try this at home kids.) Hoping my 3rd try is the charm:))

[danielmcilvenny]

Thank you brother so much, your vids, tips, and general cheeriness are guiding me through this process. Love!

[christinacarpenter]

Another super helpful video. Going to share with my students. Thanks!

[fergusryan]

you're a legend these videos are insane man

[Renthesecond]

Liquid dnb goes really well with this vid lool I accidentally discovered this. Also thank you, I had some questions but this vid covered em all.

[SabcatPrinting]

Great vid - only thing i'd say is some peoples air compressors may have oil in the air, as the pistons are lubricated.

[ReverendGuyWallis]

great video. just subscribed. starting my shop and this helped!

[jasonbrandi]

By chance, do you have a list of products that you recommend as far as degreasers, emulsion, screens, and equipment

We have a few suppliers now, but I’m always interested in the products that I see in the tutorials and videos, I’m always down to try new products out to see if they compete or are far better than the ones I have now

[travisrenuad]

so there are many different sizes for the emulsion coaters. i see you use a coater everytime thats pretty much the width of the screen. is this to make life easier or your prefrence. also does the coater ever damage the screens edges when coating with the metal to screen contact.

[jacquesbouchard]

That intro made me laugh so hard !! :-D Thanks for this video, very good advice !

[islandmade]

Loving these videos man, keep them up

[cherylbrown]

Thanks!! Great video easy to follow...

[O-studios]

What’s a typical drying time, in say, a room with 40% humidity? Is a fan a good idea? Thanks!

[CesarCityPalacios]

I'm the 500th "like" lol. Thanks for the tips. Definitely taking these actions my routine.

[destroy_television]

I've seen other videos where they coat both sides, and then go back on the flat side and do one more pass where it seems like they're taking off some that pushed through from the coating on the inside. This is what I've followed in my attempts, but when spray off the emulsion after exposing, I'm running into an issue of my exposed emulsion basically deteriorating from my image. Essentially, the image is starting to come through as I spray it off, but once I get down to the final pieces needed to come off for some of the details, bigger chunks than I want are coming apart.
I don't know if I have junk emulsion? I'm using ULANO QTX since I saw online it was a good "Beginners Emulsion"... After about 20 failed attempts, I'm beginning to question two things, if the emulsion itself is bad or if the 3rd pass (2nd pass on the flat side of the screen) is what's screwing me up. Any insight? Does water temperature have anything to do with this? I feel like I heard one video say use cold water, but in Los Angeles, my garden hose water does not seem to get that cold in these hot summers. :(

PS. I purchased that exposure calculator to help me get my expose time correct, and so far, I think my expose time is about right.

[rachelMAVERICK]

I’ve been having issues of the emulsion dripping after I’m done applying to the screen. Been told that I’m not applying hard enough, any tricks to knowing how much pressure to use to get it to apply correctly?