Make Your Own Face Mask Platen

[slarson10]

Face masks are booming right now. To cater to the current market, printers are offering face masks, giving the option to personalize them. While fulfilling face mask orders does help sustain a business, it won't completely replace the revenue other print jobs had brought in. If your business is printing on masks, but doesn't have the funds for a fancy face mask platen, Adam Funderburg of Brainless Tees created a DIY face mask platen and explains how to build the platen in their video.

Watch Video: https://www.screenprinting.com/blogs...ce-mask-platen

[[email protected]]

This is the platen I built, using Adam's as inspiration.


The base is from a small scrap of plywood that was laying around. I was able to get four pieces.

The raised printing surface is from a piece of MDF shelving that was left over. I cut it to size and sanded over the edges. I applied pallet tape to protect it.


The hold down is cut from some hardboard. Mine is perforated because that is what the hardware store had in stock. I paid $5 for a 12" x 48 piece.

I made a cutout in the hardboard, 1/8-1/4" larger than the printing block, then glued strips of leather to the back side in order to create a friction fit.
I got the leather from a local leather worker, it cost $5


I could have screwed the smaller block to the plywood, but glued it instead. It worked great.
Water based adhesive is amazing stuff. I have found that it works well for more than holding down shirts, I've even used it to glue boxes shut when we've run out of packing tape.


I moved the brackets from our shirt platens

With my wife loading and I print/flash/print, we were able to do 4 masks in under 1 minute. Our first order was 1000 pcs

[slarson10]

Super cool. Thank you for sharing!

[Phobosunderground]

This is a great low tech mask platen, I'm gonna make one. Thanks for posting this!