Having a hard time getting emulsion off screens

[Y’Apparel]

I have been using Ryonets WPB Emulsion Hybrid (under 3 months old), and sgreen Emulsion stripper in both diluted and concentrated forms, and followed the instructions in your videos and on the bottle. I seem to be using a whole lot more than seems necessary. I’m afraid to leave it on longer than 2 minutes, for fear it might destroy my screens if it were to dry on there. The problem is that it doesn’t seem to get to point in which it’s penetrating the emulsion as a whole. I will get spots where it comes off, and others where it seems fused on.

I’m on the hobby/side gig side of screen printing and have a four screen press in my basement. As much as I’d love to have a spray out station, I am relegated to cleaning the screens in my bathroom most days, because weather and inconvenience of spraying them with the pressure washer outside (pressure washer has a leak and probably isn’t giving me the power I need). The pressure washer does work, but I still seem to be working way to hard to reclaim the screens.

I need some advice, outside of investing in another pressure washer, or a good fix for those of us who have to use bathtubs to clean screens.

[Emma A]

A good pressure washer is a must for me. If mine isn't working properly I don't attempt to clean out screens. I also leave my sgreen emulsion stripper on for 10 minutes... I thought that was what the directions said to do, could be wrong. That definitely helps though.

[[email protected]]

I started with only a sprayer on a garden hose and had a lot of problems with removing emulsion and ink staining my screens. To the point of taking them to be rescreened. The guy was able to clean all but one of my screens using his cleaner and a pressure washer. I've since bought a pressure washer and it makes a huge difference.

Another issue, which Huggins has covered somewhere, is getting your emulsion fully cured. The remover doesn't work on uncured emulsion.

I only use water-based ink, typically Green Galaxy with Warp Drive, but also Permaset Supercover in a few colors. I was still having problems with ghost images. I have started using Aqua Wash on every screen when I wash the ink off and that seems to be making a difference in the staining. I have heard of "Pink Stuff" and am considering trying it on some of my worst screens, just to see if it's worth it.

For a wash station, I picked up a utility sink and hung a shower curtain from the ceiling that is held in place in the sink by a rack I made from PVC. I mounted an LED shoplight on the wall behind it. The pressure washer sits underneath and is fed by a garden hose from another room. There is no drain where my washout is, so I drain into 5 gal buckets and carry them to a drain. It is a pain, I'm going to build a filter tank system with a sump pump soon. My sink is 24x24, I want a larger one. I am considering a shower pan on 2x4s.