How to Create a Stencil For a Screen Printing Machine?

It’s not fun to use a screen printing machine at home for printing; instead, it is profitable and adorable.

If you want to start your printing work traditionally, it would be complex, time spent, and a lot of equipment may need rapidly at home. This problem will solve if you can make a PhotoEZ stencil to screen print at home. You don’t need to use anything extra for this project except things you already have in your home. In the screen printing process, there are many things included. PhotoEZ is nothing but a sheet of screen print used in the screen printing machine.

To reduce the cost of screen printing, you can follow the steps below to make a stencil using PhotoEZ.

1. 1. Try to make transparent your screen printing design
   2. Over the PhotoEZ silk screen sheet, you have to use a transparency
   3. After that, in direct sunlight, you have to expose the screen.
   4. Then you need to keep the screen in water for about half an hour
   5. To remove the emulsion, wash the sheet correctly.
   6. The screen needs to give enough time to become fully dry.

Print image on transparency

First, you must take some transparency sheets of 11 inches by 8.5 inches. You can buy the sheets from any store for your automatic or manual screen printing machine. With this, give a layer on one side of the screen. Screen printers should print on the side coated, This will make the ink placement properly, and it will not allow smearing. You will find high-quality printing from your printer as PhotoEZ gives you a solid direction for printing. Printing with a standard setting will not be wise work as the PhotoEZ sheet needs a high-quality environment. Sometimes it creates gaps and lines, which are bad for exposure. If the design is complicated, eighty-eight bright papers are used in screen printing equipment. But transparency will be the best solution for screen printing.

 Place the transparency on the PhotoEZ screen sheet. 

The screen should be ‘plastic off’ from all shiny sides and needs to remove from sunlight. For exposing the sheet to the light, PhotoEZ helps with plastic and a rigid board. PhotoEZ also helps not to move the transparency. First, you need to put the PhotoEZ sheet over the shiny side, and then you have to put the transparency over it. While you start printing on your silk screen printing machine, you have to keep in mind to keep the shiny side down as the reverse image printed as an actual image. Then take plastic to cover and tighten them all. The sheet is needed to be covered with foam so that exposing can’t start before your starting time.

 Expose the screen directly to the sunlight

Screen exposure is an essential work in screen printing. In direct sunlight, expose the screen for about fifty minutes. Do not expose it during overcasting, early morning, or sunset time. When the sun gives heat severely, you shouldn’t keep the screen in direct sunlight for more than one minute. If you keep it for more than 1 minute, it will be overexposed, and you can’t wash your design. For your screen printing machine, you also can use fluorescent lighting (if you access it) instead of sunlight. Though it takes time (about 25 minutes), you can expose it at any time of the day. You are getting the opportunity to ‘expose’ the screen to sunlight for a short period.

 Time needs to soak the screen in water.

About 25 or 30 minutes need to soak the screen in water. A plastic tube also can be used to wash the sheet.

 Remove excess emulsion and rinse the stencil.

To remove excess emulsion, you can use a sink sprayer. Use a paintbrush to wash well, or you can rub it to remove the emulsion from screen printing equipment. If this doesn’t work, you keep the stencil back in direct sunlight. It will fully expose the stencil and make it durable.

Why do you need to dry the screen thoroughly?

Before using the screen, it’s urgent to make it completely dry. Use a hairbrush to do this process quickly. Once you dry up, your screen printing machine will print the design soon.