[Music] today i'm going to be showing you guys how to screen print your own t-shirt and show you the entire screen printing process from beginning to end so the first thing you'll need is a screen a lot of people will tell you you can build one you probably could but i highly encourage you guys just to purchase one they're anywhere between 20 to 25 and you can either buy the wooden frame ones or the aluminum now when you buy these screens they'll usually have numbers imprinted on them in the beginning stick with 110 or 156 they're very safe there are mesh counts that go to 200 230 300 but those are for more detailed artwork later on but in the beginning stick with 110 or 156. next you will be degreasing your screen in other words cleaning it you just want to remove any dust particles or dirt particles off the screen so that you're working with a clean screen i have a washout booth but you don't need one i started off in my shower tub and then i moved out to my patio in a bucket but you can use your standard garden hose rub brush or a sponge just make sure that brush is only designated to degrease the screen and not for anything else first you're going to wet the screen spray some of the degreaser on then you're going to scrub down the screen and the back side then you're going to rinse out the entire spring make sure you hit the edges of the frame the front and the back side as well afterwards you're going to dry your screen you can either just let it air dry or you can put a fan on and let it dry a little quicker now once the screen is dry we're going to add emulsion on in order to apply emulsion onto the screen you will need a scoop coater when it comes to the emulsion brand there are a ton of different types of emulsions and a lot of different brands of emulsion the one that i like to use is this brand right over here over the years of trying different types of emulsion i found that this one to be the easiest to use most forgivable and easiest to clean as well emulsion is light sensitive so you want to keep it out of light as much as possible now when people first get started they think that they need to be in a light safe environment with a yellow bulb zero uv light and just complete darkness but being exposed to a little bit of like a room light or your garage light is completely fine as long as it's not out in direct sunlight like the brand that i use is a lot more forgiving than others i don't have a dark room i coat all my screens in the light and i've had zero problems over the years now when you pour the emulsion into the scoop coder you make sure that you don't fill up more than half the amount you can fill into the scoop coder first you're gonna cut the outside of your screen you're gonna tilt your screen 45 degree backwards and then you're gonna use the thin side of the scoop coater and press it against the mesh and let the emulsion slowly drip until it makes contact with the screen once it makes contact you're going to still push against the screen with your scoop cutter and pull it up till you reach the top then you're going to tilt the entire screen with the scoop coat of 45 degrees other way so that the emulsion is slowly going back into the scoop cutter so i'm going to show you guys one more time screen tilted back let the emulsion drop once it makes contact you're gonna pull up then let the emulsion drip back down and scrape it off right there that's nice and that's satisfying every time you pull up two you should hear a very satisfying zip then you're going to flip the screen around and do the print side or the back side of the screen tilt the screen 45 scoop cutter against the screen once it makes contact pull up and 45 degrees the other way till the emulsion gets back in scrape and done and then you have a coated screen normally you would do a one to one ratio so you would do one outside then one inside in this case i've done two on the outside and one on the inside for demonstration that means that the stencil will be a little bit thicker because i added three coats in total next you want the screen to dry not standing sideways but facing downwards i'm using two containers to prop up my screen so that there's airflow on the bottom and top if you have more than one screen i recommend you trying to coat as many screens as possible during that session of coding screens here in this video i'm coding about 20 plus screens and i like to do everything in one session and that way i can store everything together at once also make sure that when you're drying your screen it's in a darker place so the restroom is a great place your closet can be another place or someone's bedroom when no one is there now the drying time really depends on where you live if you live in a colder more humid place it'll take longer if you live in a warmer drier place it'll dry a lot quicker how you know if it's dried is just by touching both sides of the screen and if it's completely dried and there's no emulsion stickiness then you're good next scrape off all the emulsion you didn't use into your emulsion container to save as much emulsion as possible then you're going to rinse off your scoop coat make sure you do this right away and don't let it dry because the moment it dries it sticks and it stays there and you don't want that to happen so next is going to be the artwork i'm going to try to keep this as simple as possible because this itself can be a whole separate video which i'll do later on in the future but you'll need a special coated transparency paper and you'll need a inkjet printer that can print black for this demonstration i'm going to go to shutterstock.com and choose a free royalty-free image stella and i we love birds and we also really love owls so i'm gonna look at some owl photos let's see owl and i really like this one cute owl cartoon yeah let's go with this one i love owls i love what looks like coffee it's download for free so we're gonna go ahead and download that now if you don't have a inkjet printer or transparency paper you can go to a local print shop and ask them to print your design file onto a transparency paper just make sure when you look at your transparency image on a light source that the black is opaque and that a lot of light is not going through if you notice that it's really transparent then print two transparency and then overlap them together so that you have a more opaque black transparency if you don't have an inkjet printer you can also just get a sharpie and either write or draw out your design on it and the sharpie will be enough to block out the light next you're going to attach your transparency to your coated screen i'm going to add two pieces of tape onto the transparency facing upwards so that way when i bring the screen down the tape sticks onto the screen normally a design sits about three to four fingers from where the collar is and that's where i like to set it from the top of the pallet i recommend getting a t-squared ruler so that you can make sure that your image is properly aligned and straight next you're going to expose your screen three ways you can do it one is out in the sun two is by having a light source on top that hits the top of your screen and three is by facing your image downwards and having the light hit from the bottom the one that i use is a light box with a timer installed into it now when you put your screen on top of the light box there might be some gap between the glass and the screen so in order to make sure that it's making complete contact you want to put some sort of flat weight on top in this case i'm going to be using my high school yearbook and just a gallon bucket of water just to have some extra weight i'm going to let the screen expose in my case it takes about 30 to 40 seconds for it to expose if you do it out in the sun it might take about 10 to 15 minutes if you do it with a light source on top it could take up to eight to ten minutes once it's done you're gonna bring it over to your washout booth or your patio or your shower wherever you do your wash out now the moment you rinse it you will notice your design being visible just a little bit that's because you're breaking down the unexposed emulsion and you're gonna completely wash it out you're gonna rinse your screen down with your garden hose until all the emulsion is washed out later on if you get more serious you can also use something called a pressure washer which is very handy to have around but it's not mandatory if you're just starting off but really consider one later on after you're done rinsing just hold your screen up to a light source to make sure that you've washed out all the emulsion on your design because if you don't it's going to cause more headaches when it comes to print production then let your screen dry you can also use a fan to speed up the drying process next you're going to align the screen to the center of the palette until you're satisfied once you are lock it in next is the ink you can choose any ink color that you want and put it on the screen and print it for this demonstration i'm going to keep it simple and just use black ink there's two types of ink there's water base and there's plastisol ink for this video i'm going to focus just on plastisol plastisol ink is a lot easier to use it's very friendly to use but it requires a very specific drying method the ink has to reach anywhere between 275 to 350 degrees for 20 to 30 seconds it all depends on the ink brand so whichever brand you use read the instructions so that you are aware of the drying temperature you're gonna need a spatula or a spoon to get some of the ink and then you're gonna lay down onto the screen if you just load a shirt the shirt is going to have a lot of room to move so in order for the shirt to stick onto the palette you need to use some sort of adhesive you can either use a spray adhesive meant for screen printing don't get the ones at your craft store because those are very heavy or liquid adhesive or also known as liquid glue for this demonstration i'll use spray adhesive but i personally like using liquid glue and i prefer to stick only with that but if i'm printing like one to ten shirts i'll just use a spray adhesive because it's a lot quicker and it saves a lot more time now once i load the shirt in i'm going to pull it back until the collar reaches the edge of the palette and that's because i set the design three to four fingers down from the top of the palette so i'm going to load it and slowly pull back until the collar meets the edge of the palette that way the print is guaranteed to be printed three to four fingers down below from the collar squeegees a squeegee is what you'll use to push the ink through the screen onto the shirt there are wooden squeegees and there are aluminum squeegees if you're just starting off stick with the wooden ones but i love the aluminum squeegees they are a little bit more expensive but they're easier to clean they don't warp they don't stain they don't hurt your wrist as much and they're just a lot cleaner and easier to use there are two ways to print there is the push method and there is the pull method i'm going to show you the push method because it's a lot easier for most beginner printers and it has a lot less stress on your body when you're just starting off make sure that the squeegee is angled at a 45 degree angle make sure that you're not pushing too straight upwards or you're gonna have a lot of friction make sure it's not pushing too sideways or you're going to be depositing a lot more ink first you're going to lift up the screen just a little bit and then you're going to drag the ink from the bottom to the top of the screen this is also known as flooding what you're trying to do is you're trying to fill in all the gap in the stencil with ink so that you can push it through when you flood the screen you should still be able to see your image if you cannot so that means that you're not flooding hard enough then at a 45 degree angle you're gonna push the squeegee driving the ink through the screen and you should hear a nice and there you have it a successful first print [Music] next you're gonna pull the shirt out put it on top and then you're gonna dry the ink what i'm using is called a flash dryer a flash drive is just a giant heater that heats up to about 700 degrees it heats the shirt up to about 350 to 375 degrees so that it melts the ink and fuses the ink so that it can dry a temperature gun is a very important tool in the shop so make sure you have one so you can keep monitor of how hot things get another way to test if the ink is right or not is called the stretch test once the shirt has been cooled down you can try pulling on the ink and if the ink isn't breaking apart or it's not flaking that is a very good sign of it being fused and bonded if it starts cracking that means that the ink is not fully dried now the second method of drying your shirt is through a heat gun now heat gun is much more affordable than a flash dryer but it also takes a lot longer to dry i like to have the heat gun where i can control the temperature on the back and then you're gonna hover around the entire design back and forth with the heat gun if you focus on one area with the heat gun too long you're gonna end up burning the shirts so it's best to have a temperature gun on one hand and keep track of where you're drying to make sure that it's being fully cured and there you have it your first shirt is officially printed and done now a couple things i want to note you do not need all the equipments that i've shown in this video there are so many ways to start screen printing on a budget but i think the most important question you need to ask yourself is why you want to screen print once you understand your why the what and the how you'll able to persevere through you'll be okay learning you'll take all the hits but if you don't know why you're getting started then the investments that you make will feel like a waste of money and a waste of time that is why i'm putting a screen printing guide for beginners i'm currently working on it i'm more than halfway done and expected to be done by next month if that's something that you guys are interested in i'll leave the link down below for you guys to check it out my goal is to help those that want to get started have a bigger picture of what they're getting themselves into before they jump in you'll find so many people go into this business in this industry and then buy all these equipment invest and then quit after like a month or two months later because they realize that the amount of work that goes in or it's not what they expected not enough business or revenue flowing through i don't want people to waste money like that when i first got started i had a very specific reason why i was starting which is why i'm still doing it till today so i'm really excited to finish that up and share that with you guys lastly if you guys have any questions let me know in the comment section down below or if you guys would like me to cover a specific topic let me know and i will definitely consider that but if you would like to see more screen printing content like this give this video a big thumbs up subscribe hit that bell notification and i will see you guys in the next video over thank you guys so much for watching this hope this was a ton of value to you guys and i'll see you guys good night go morning adios