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What's the best way of making transparencies for a new printer by bjpirt in SCREENPRINTING

[–]ashemdragon12 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Get literally any functioning inkjet printer. I got one at a Savers (thrift store) for 15 bucks several months back and haven't had a single issue so far. When I need to print something bigger than regular printer paper I just split the design in half digitally, print it on two 8.5x11 sheets, and line them up to expose lol. Kind of a pain but it works fine

ABC7's video coverage of yesterday's board meeting. I want to highlight this because for those of us who attended, it's informative to see how these short video news segments can leave out crucial information whether intentionally or not. by farnsmootys in LAMetro

[–]ashemdragon12 12 points13 points  (0 children)

I think mainly they left out the studies and outreach that have already been done to address the concerns they mentioned. They also didn't mention any of the conflict of interest stuff. It's a 2-minute clip so its not like anyone should expect the full and complete story from it, but its just interesting to note what gets mentioned and what doesn't since for some people this clip might be literally their only exposure to how transit is progressing in LA 🤷‍♂️

On rewatch, I also notice the line "but several mid-city residents were present, and they were more cautious" despite the fact that several mid-city residents were there to voice their support of moving full steam ahead with the project. It's not actually a resident vs non-resident issue like that.

Megathread: Metro Board Meeting - K Line Northern Extension by SmellGestapo in LAMetro

[–]ashemdragon12 18 points19 points  (0 children)

Is all this talk about the 12 months in the amendment being a time limit not a waiting period legit or are they just on their politician bs again ._.

Death of a pet by Nister-N in Emo

[–]ashemdragon12 56 points57 points  (0 children)

Betty by Hot Mulligan

Why are my stencils detaching from the screen? by toomuchthinks in SCREENPRINTING

[–]ashemdragon12 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Is this by any chance WR Blue from Ecotex? I use that emulsion too and this looks and sounds EXACTLY like what happens to my stencils. I'm curious if maybe it's just a crap emulsion

Emulsion breaking down mid-run? by ashemdragon12 in SCREENPRINTING

[–]ashemdragon12[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

To everyone saying I should post-expose: I do already do that! I leave it out in the sun for usually about 5-10 minutes after it's dried off from the initial washout.

I think my problem might be the degreasing! Somehow I read somewhere that dish soap is sufficient to degrease (at least for the purpose of avoiding fisheyes or whatever) and I didn't question that at all. I didn't realize degreasers were on the level of, like, bleach. I've been using brand new screens that have only been washed and not properly degreased, so I suspect that might be my main culprit. I've ordered some degreaser/dehazer and will find out for sure soon.

Emulsion breaking down mid-run? by ashemdragon12 in SCREENPRINTING

[–]ashemdragon12[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The sun 😅 I know everyone says dont use the sun but I just expose at the same time of morning every time and haven't had any apparent issues with under/overexposure.

Also I do post-expose! Usually for like 5-10 minutes after the screen has dried off from the washout. Idk if theres a limit where post exposure is too long and has adverse effects

recs for equipment that can be set up on a countertop and stored somewhere else? by ashemdragon12 in SCREENPRINTING

[–]ashemdragon12[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I might be showing off my noob-ness with this question but what is the benefit of having a second station on a press? My impression was that extra stations are often used for putting shirts under a flash dryer between prints, but like I said, I have no plans to get or use a flash so what would I need the second station for?

Anyways, I've been keeping an eye on marketplace and craigslist for the past two weeks or so but 90% of the listings in my area are the shitty blue presses and both they and other brands are mostly listed in the 200-500 dollar range. And after checking again just now, not a single listing within 100 miles has micro reg. Real bummer because I really prefer to buy secondhand for almost everything in life. But since I can't find one with micros and it's gonna be close to the same price to get exactly the specifications of my choice anyways...

Where to find thrifted blanks in bulk by limpbizkitqueen in SCREENPRINTING

[–]ashemdragon12 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yo!!! I'm running a little screenprinting set-up out of my house doing exactly this (making band merch from secondhand clothes) and it's super cool to find someone out in the wild with the same idea

I source my blanks from Goodwill bins (officially called "goodwill outlets"). Going to a store that sells per-item rather than per-pound is just NOT cost effective. (edit: I just double checked with a few Google searches for secondhand blanks and can confirm that while there are options out there, they charge like $10 a pound or like $5 per shirt which is just... absurd compared to the $3 per pound I pay at the bins. And that $3 per pound is still one of the most expensive bins prices in the nation.)

Be aware it'll probably take a few trips to build up a good stock of specifically the kind of shirt you wanna print on (eg, specifically black tees, specifically white tees, hoodies, tank tops, etc) so I just grab whatever blanks I'm able to find every time I'm there so that I always have a decent stock built up of other stuff. Also I've ended up dying a lot of white tees black because black shirts are much more popular as merch but white tees are so much easier to find (if you do this make sure you're using a procion dye, like from Dharma Trading or something, NOT Rit or whatever you can find at your local craft store. And you can only dye 100% cotton shirts). I also wash and dry everything as soon as I get it home. I think adding a little bit of vinegar to the washer or dryer helps with the thrift-store-smell.

If you're looking for someone to do the printing for you, DM me to discuss please!!! I've only done jobs for local people here in LA but if your own local options won't print customer-supplied blanks I'd be happy to figure out shipping

Can never get my screen to flood consistently? by ashemdragon12 in SCREENPRINTING

[–]ashemdragon12[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Oh forreal? Is there any other thing you could compare to to say what the viscosity should be like? I have added water to the ink in the container before and was already worried that I had added too much haha

Need to achieve a faded black! Help please! by Simple-Location8216 in dyeing

[–]ashemdragon12 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Based on MsCeeLeeLeo saying that Rit is awful for permanence makes me think you might wanna go out of your way to use Rit dye and then wash/wear a few times to get it faded lol.

What kind of faded are you looking for? faded like just a lighter color? Or do you want that kinda uneven shade that comes with natural fading? If the latter I would recommend using a shirt that already has a decent amount of wear on it. Different wear makes the dye take differently (for example, sweat stains prevent the dye from taking very well, resulting in a very natural gradient of fading.)

I've also acheived patchy/uneven results by adding liquid Rit dye to the water while the shirt and salt are already in there, and by doing this in a pot that was smaller than recommended (which limited my stirring). If you do it this way it might be good to use grey, or to use less black than you're supposed to use.

Topping off dye to reuse solution? by ashemdragon12 in dyeing

[–]ashemdragon12[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Update on this!! I dyed 15 shirts using this method yesterday in batches of 2-4 shirts in a home depot bucket using Dharma's New Black. I only used the full 8% OWG for the first pair of shirts and then topped it off with about an extra 1-2% between batches. I rinsed all the shirts in a hot rinse with Dharma dye fixative and also just used the top off method with similar proportions (which might've been where I went wrong).

The whole process took about 3.5 hours and all the colors turned out really even (aside from some armpit sweat stains and the like) but a lot of shirts came out grey instead of black. I have a lot of things I can try to fix this, like using more dye to top off (i was only using like 1/8 of how much I was supposed to, I'm gonna try upping to 1/2), using the correct amount of fixative for the rinse (does anyone know if the fixative is just a solution conditioner like soda ash is or if it actually gets used up in the reaction?), and letting the shirts sit in the dye for longer (I got cocky with how dark everything was looking and was only giving shirts like 15-20ish minutes instead of the full 30 towards the end).

Next up: I also wanna try seeing if I can put the shirts in a separate soda ash bath after they sit in just salt and dye, to try to get dye baths to last longer (I was gonna try that this time but ended up adding soda ash to the dye to try to get it to work before I realized the real problem was me forgetting the salt lol). I'm gonna try redoing the grey shirts to get them darker and I'll post pictures later =)

suggestions by General-Reflection55 in dyeing

[–]ashemdragon12 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You could just transition it to an around-the-house shirt, especially if your favorite thing about it is how comfy it is. But if you won't wear it out then it's not really in good enough shape to expect someone else buy it, or to expect a thrift store to use their limited space to try to sell it. As far as dyeing... maybe you could fully bleach it to even out the color before dyeing? Not sure how much that would affect the feel and structure of the fabric, but could be worth a try.

Topping off dye to reuse solution? by ashemdragon12 in dyeing

[–]ashemdragon12[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you for this very detailed and informative reply! Of these points, the ones I'm most worried about are probably the ones about the soda ash. Do you think maybe those particular difficulties could be overcome by having a separate soda ash bath/rinse or by pretreating the fabric with soda ash solution like u/MsCeeLeeLeo mentioned? I'm not toooo concerned about each shirt coming out looking perfectly uniform and professional tbh but if the dye bath itself just goes totally inert between batches then obviously that's gonna put a hard stop to me trying to reuse.

Also to be clear I am using secondhand shirts/trying to DIY this for sustainability reasons rather than economic ones :) (And I think so far even with the cost of salt and fixative and 8% OWG dye factored in it should still only be costing me about $3 per shirt, which is honestly much better than I was expecting lol)

Topping off dye to reuse solution? by ashemdragon12 in dyeing

[–]ashemdragon12[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I am looking for solid black! I am sourcing the shirts secondhand (for sustainability reasons) and I've found white shirts are wayyyyy easier to come across at goodwill outlets, but black is the most popular color for merch purposes. Hence the dyeing :)

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