Sticky Backed Vinyl

[cheryl]

Hi John, you sound like quite an expert on the screen printing front. My class project is very low tech. We have about 10 various sized screen printing frames in our art dept and we print onto paper using system 3 acrylic paint mixed with screen printing medium. We have to register second colours by eye and it is all a bit hit and miss! The kids usually enjoy it though and the results can be really great. I would be interested in finding out what the film is called that you used to use. It might be better than sticky backed vinyl or plastic. This is a method we have come up with through experimentation. It works well enough, but the vinyl needs to be quite sticky or when you wash the screen to try a different colour the stencil just washes off. We have in the past use a photo exposure system but this is no longer available to us so we are back to stencils.
Thanks
Cheryl

[John G]

Hi Cheryl,
For paper ink (not water based) you'll get away with using stenplex (probably called something different these days). Its a green paper type material that you cut with a scalpel, or maybe a plotter, then peel away the excess to leave a stencil. Lay this on your bench, screen directly ontop and with a damp cloth and an iron you apply it to the screen. Due to it being paper type based its not great for fine detail or long runs and if put up wrongly using too much water you'll get scumming.

There is another one which would be ideal for you but i cannot remember its name, something similar to the above stenplex but harder wearing and Ok for finer detail. Goes on the screen similar to above but without the iron - may be called amber, ruby or cappillery film but this may be the wrong names as its been 20 odd years since I used it.

Your best off contacting Sericol, Colenso or any of the major ink and stencil suppliers as they should give you free advise.

Cheers John

[GoldRapt]

- back in the day we used a film which could be cut and applied to the screen with water, cannot remember the name though!

Cheers John

I am just looking at screen printing for a little project I want to do. Would this stuff be the UV printable paper I am hearing about please John?

[John G]

UV printable paper

No, I think this is the stuff you'd need.

http://www.ulano.com/knifecut/ulanocut.htm

Directions are on the link - looks a lot easier than the stuff we used years ago - If you cannot get Ulona direct its normally available at Colenso

Cheers John

[GoldRapt]

Cheers John,
I wonder if that will gp through my plotter or if it is hand cut only, I will give them a ring.

[John G]

Cannot see why not - it'll feel very similar to t'shirt flex (vinyl) as the bottom layer will be hard poly and the top layer will be softer so your grip wheels should be OK with it.

I may get some myself to see how it works

Cheers John