New silkscreen method..has anybody tried this?(Pics inside!)

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I got my photoez kit yesterday. I gotta go get some transparencies (it says to use them for hi res)

We'll see what happens...I'm going to try to silkscreen it today, but I have to develop the image which looks to be a trial and error type process.
 
Got my hirez kit last week as well... it arrived right away. Took a bit longer for me to acquire the acrylics (Liquitex Heavy Body), but now I have those too.

With some luck, I'll have a test pattern printed on transparency for a test run tomorrow evening. I'm not going to use sunlight, but rather something more repeatable... like a halogen lamp with UV filter removed. :!: :green:
 
I finally got around to finishing mine up. It was kind of a pain. First I used a test piece and it didn't expose very well---the text wasn't dark enough (even though I was using transparencies) Here's a hint--if you're using transparencies set your printer on normal paper anyway. My laser printer printed tranparencies lighter on the transp. setting then simply running it through on the paper setting.

Anyway then I went to run the 2 panels. I exposed it and soaked it for the 15 minutes like it said you should. At the end of that I took the screens out of the water and ALL of the coating washed away. (that's bad)
I think I might have put the screen upside down.

The next few days were semi-cloudy and I didn't want to risk is since I had already wasted 1 sheet.

Today I decided to go for it and I realized I needed to change the font on everything because the newer test patch didn't work any better. I changed it then I also copied and duplicated the image slightly off center to make it more bold. It seemed to help a lot.

I exposed it and everything seemed to work reasonably well, I figured I was getting somewhere. I used liquitex paints and taped the screen to the panel. It said to use a brush for hi-res..The first time I tried to paint it I didn't it lightly, and when I went to peel off the corner, parts weren't coming through. Then I slowly taped it back down and gradually repainted it. No matter what I did some parts came up without having paint travel through the screen, others smeared and got unclear.

The panel looks ok--I'll post some pictures in a little while, but all in all it was a big headache, somewhat expensive and not very impressive looking. I'm going to give it another shot but unless you have big bold text, even with the hi-res stuff it's not that easy to do.
 
Engraving is nice if you've got someone whos good at it, But here's a V72a project I just completed with silk screening. It's only a single unit
but I still have the screen for doing more of them. Total cost was $45.00 to have the screen made. 1/2 hour setup to screen and a 1/2hr cleanup.
The next one I do, I'll screen maybe 5 of them and keep them in stock.
The screen is good for 1000's of prints.

V72aFront.jpg
 
[quote author="rlaury"]...Total cost was $45.00 to have the screen made.[/quote]
Looks great! Who did you have make the screen?
 
Here are a few more pix of the inside:


V72a2.jpg

V72a1.jpg

V72a8.jpg


This shows how the XLR relay switchers are used for the -20dB pad and injecting phantom. The XLR output switches the phaze. All the audio is kept at the rear panel. Don't mean to turn this into a V72 Thread. Sorry

RonL
 
[quote author="Flatpicker"][quote author="rlaury"]...Total cost was $45.00 to have the screen made.[/quote]
Looks great! Who did you have make the screen?[/quote]

Just about any screen shop will make them if you carry in you on art work.
 
I finally got around trying the photoez myself.

You can see the results here:

http://www.mikkimusic.com/LAB/Screenprint_01.jpg
http://www.mikkimusic.com/LAB/Screenprint_02.jpg
http://www.mikkimusic.com/LAB/Screenprint_03.jpg
http://www.mikkimusic.com/LAB/Scream_01.jpg

The three first pictures are before the finshing clear paint. Fourth pic is the final unit.
Yes, it's a Tube Screamer clone and the logo is inspired not only by the original name but also by my 5 months old doughter who was doing a lot of screaming during that time...... :green:

The print is not perfect but it's good enough for me. I have done one frontpanel with Lazertran which gave sharper image. Tried it on one guitar pedal too, but since the box was painted I couldn't use alcohol to rub off the film arounf the text. The edges of the Lazertran-film didn't look too cool.

I think the screen was pretty easy to do. I have a self made exposure box for making PCBs and it worked great on this too. I did some test pieces first and noticed that if I exposed too little, the whole mask comes off when rinsing.
One has to be very careful when rinsing so that everything that is supposed to come off really comes off.
The printing part was very easy. I just used some tape to attach the screen on the box and squeezed through the paint. I didn't use a brush.

Next time I'm going to use it on a 19" frontpanel!

Cheers,
Miska
 

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