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Had a facepalm moment with screen mesh tension yesterday
I've been doing custom shirt prints for like 3 years out of my garage in Portland, and I always wondered why my fine detail stuff came out blurry. Turns out I was pulling my screen mesh way too tight on the frame, like I was using 20 newtons of force on a 110 mesh when you're supposed to go way gentler. A guy at the local shop, Mike from Graphic Parts over on 12th street, literally just looked at my screen and said 'you're choking it, man' and showed me the difference in 2 minutes. Has anyone else spent years doing one tiny step totally backward without realizing it?
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the_sarah24d agoMost Upvoted
Mike over at Graphic Parts on 12th street actually showed me a tension meter reading once, and I could not believe the difference. @noah_palmer42 told me they were choking their screens for years, and I thought the same thing was happening with mine. I had my 110 mesh cranked up to 22 newtons when the spec sheet says around 12 to 15 for that count. The guy just tapped the screen with his finger and it sounded like a drum, he laughed and said "that's your problem, it's got no bounce.
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noah_palmer4225d ago
Man I bet half the people doing this at home are cranking down way too hard without even knowing it. It's like when you're so focused on getting one thing right you mess up the basics.
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