The day I realized I was prepping my screens wrong for years

I've been doing custom screen printing out of my garage in Omaha for about 4 years now. Last month I was cleaning a stubborn 110 mesh screen and noticed it just wasn't letting ink through right. I'd always degreased my screens with just dish soap and a scrub pad, then rinse and dry. Turns out I was leaving residue that messed up my stencil adhesion every single time. A buddy from a shop in Lincoln saw me working and asked if I used a proper degreaser. I'd never even heard of the stuff. He handed me a bottle of CCI 400, and within one test print the difference was night and day. The detail on my last run of band t-shirts came out cleaner than anything I'd done before. Has anyone else been stuck in a habit like this for way too long before someone called them out?

2 comments

2 Comments

hayden_rodriguez7d ago

OH COME ON. I hear you, but I actually think dish soap works fine if you do it right. I've been using Dawn for like 7 years now and my stencils hold up great. The trick is scrubbing with a degreaser brush and rinsing with HOT water until the water sheets off perfectly. Maybe your soap was leaving a film because you weren't rinsing long enough.

lee.cole7d ago

My buddy Mike tried the hot water trick last year after complaining about residue on his car stencils. He switched to a degreaser brush and said the water sheeting test changed everything for him. So yeah, you might be right that most people just don't rinse long enough with the right temp.