screen printing shirts help

[brungus]

Hey, Ive seen some people on the forum who've made shirts, and have been spraypainting stencils for a bit. wondering about getting a basic screenprinting set up. anyone know how much i'd need to spend to get worth while? ive seen them range from 200$ to 6000$ for starting sets.

thanks

[poly800rock]

how many you planning on making? if you're a small set up, no way close to that much

[poshpol]

depends how fast and how many colors u wanna doooo

[phen3N]

ive always wanted to get into screen printing shirts as well, but i dont know what i need and how to do it. would it be easy/cheap if i just wanna make some tees for myself and friends?

[poly800rock]

short runs are pretty easy. just buy a kit and a strong light.

[PaperSt.]

Dick Blick Kit

If your doing a small run get something like this otherwise if you plan on doing a bigger run or a shitload of colors per shirt get it done professionally it's not as expensive as you think plus they will do it right the first time.

[barcelona]

I did screenprinting in school about a year ago, pretty basic stuff except they had a machine that burned the image into the screen. It was easy and turned out surprisingly well.

[culturalmulatto]

Easy to learn once seen face to face. Kind of hard to explain. That being said let me preface this reply with the fact that I have been printing for two years and working at various shops.

My first response is to hold your $350 and dont throw it down the tube buying that shitty DIY kit. Not only are the materials not that great, but the quality will come nothing close to what you expect to find at a store (afterall that is what we strive for). I would invest in a used four color or six color head manual (as opposed to automatic) machine with one station. This allows you to print four or six colors on one single shirt quickly and easily. If you were to use the Blick set, you would have to hand align each color only after letting the ink dry instead of aligning up all of the colors in the beginning on the machine and just switching which color head you want to print.

The next purchase you want to make is a flash machine. This is something that plugs into a high volt outlet and is intended to dry the ink on a shirt before you print the ink one more time to make it stand out (i.e. white ink on a black shirt). But it can also double as a dryer for when the shirt is finished until you have more money to buy an official dryer which will speed up your production time (think of a rotating belt that goes underneath high heat coils protected by a big metal box).

Seriously though, the above mentioned set up can run you as little as $500 used on craigslist or ebay. You just have to pick it up.

Screenprinting is just like many other hobbies. It takes time, patience and a significant upfront cost. If you are unsure about the purchase, ask a local shop if you can have a part time job or volunteer to get a better idea of what you are getting into.

In the end, learning on professional equipment is way more fun and the outcome is that much more gratifying. Do it yourself without the DIY look.

**Note: I used some industry jargon, please look these terms up before you fill up this thread with unnecessary questions. Feel free to ask more questions, though. BTW, the machine Barcelona is referring to is called an exposure unit.