Basic Presses

• The basic homemade screen printing press consists of a wooden platform with hinges to attach the printing screen. This type of press is perfect for single-color posters, fabrics, wearable goods and other flat items. The hinges should be commercially available screen printing hinges, which include clamps for which to change screens without removing the hinges. This type of press may be used for multi-color work on paper and other rigid and non-stretching goods, but is not capable of quality multi-color prints on fabrics and stretchable goods.
  
  Multi-color screen printing involves a multiple print process, where each color is printed, the ink dried, and subsequent colors printed and dried in the same fashion. With non-stretchable goods, the items can be easily re-registerd on the press for additional color prints. Fabrics and other stretchable goods are not capable of being re-registered on the press, and require special multi-head presses. Multi-head presses allow the stretchable good to remain on the press, while additional color screens are rotated and printed one after the other. while it is possible to make your own wooden multi-color presses by purchasing plans, they are not structurally rigid or precise enough to produce quality commercial work for hire. Many inexpensive entry-level multi-color presses are available, and should be strongly considered.
  
  

Exposure Lights

• Printing screens are made by a photographic process. The design is placed onto the screen, coated with photosensitive emulsion. The emulsion is time-exposed (burned) with an intense photo-grade ultraviolet light, designed to emit certain light frequencies. The key to proper screen exposure, is proper contact of the design against the screen, along with accurately timed emission of UV light waves of a particular frequency. Because commercial exposure units with vacuum frames, light integrator/timers, and UV light sources are quite expensive, home screen printers have come up with all kinds of ways to avoid the expense. Plate-glass is often used to sandwich the design against the screen, and halogen work lights or photo-floods are substituted. Although the printer can get satisfactory results, the lack of proper UV frequencies, along with the less than ideal plate-glass pressure, will lessen screen life and produce less than professional grade quality.
  
  

Ink Dryers

• T-shirt ink requires timed infrared heat in order to cure. Commercial conveyor dryers are large and expensive, and therefore beyond the reach of most entry-level printers. Many t-shirt printers attempt to use space heaters as a substitute, but will not provide the infrared heat frequencies and temperatures required for thorough ink curing. Home printers can take their chances, but are best off using a commercial flash dryer, which can be purchased new or used for several hundred dollars. Flash dryers are used in professional t-shirt shops to "flash cure" t-shirt ink between printing of multi-color deigns. The dryers can be used to fully cure t-shirts in the home shop, but require careful and precise timing and experimentation. As an alternative, hobbyist-grade water based inks can be used for t-shirt printing. The inks dry by air, and cure fully by placing the shirt in a clothes dryer.