Silkscreen Printing Machine

Students

Daniel Arris

Project Description

The idea of this project is to use recycled items in order to create a screen print machine that will house a screen-print. Plywood was used primarily for the project, this was found in the wood shop room and was left over from a project in the past. Additionally, some found screws were also used in addition to a few store-bought ones. The strip hinge was also purchased for the project at a very low cost. The entire cost of the project was around $15, which makes the design fairly universal along with its fairly simple design. The accessibility of this design and this project is certainly a huge part of it, with only 5 pieces of wood, 14 small screws, 2 large screws, 2 wing-nuts, and 2 1ft long strip hinges, the design implements very few parts, but again is focused on being precise in order to maintain a consistent and efficient screen-printing process.
The t-shirt is a very commonly worn item of clothing for many reasons. Although the fabrication of the actual shirt is an important component of the final product, the image that is printed on it often determines the market that it is created for or vice versa. Because of this, the screen print machine has a very important role in personalizing the t-shirt, and with this machine, garments, specifically t-shirts can be printed on for whatever association, group or artwork that in intended to be displayed at a very low cost.

Technical Background

The screen print machine is an essential component to producing printed garments in a both efficient and accurate manner. In other words, the machine ensures that many shirts can be printed in an efficient manner while still maintaining a quality print. The design starts with the shit board, which is the part where the shirt is placed. Through the fabrication process, it was imperative that this piece was positioned symmetrically and even so that the shirt would be lined up correctly when it is placed for a print. The shirt board is drilled to the base; this piece is what is clamped down to a table when one is printing. The major components of this project are made of plywood, accompanied with various sized screws, wingnuts and a pair of strip hinges. In terms of technology, the design is very simply and focused on being sustainable and made of founds parts more or less. The next function of the project is to clamp down the screen-print, which is achieved by the two clamp board pieces that utilize a combination of screws and wingnuts to create an adjustable clamp that can fit various size of screens. A jigsaw was used to cut the scrap wood into the correct dimensions, followed by the sanding machine, used to smooth the edges. Once these were completed, a hand drill was used to fasten the pieces together with screws. And lastly, the drill machine was utilized to cut identical holes in both of the clamp pieces that were slightly larger than the two screws that in combination with the wingnuts, form the clamp.

Guy, RJ The Bike, director. How To Build A Cheap T Shirt Screen Printing Press. YouTube, YouTube, 22 Oct. 2013, www.youtube.com/watch?v=PeBrk7hjSHk.

Design Drawings

Fabrication Process

The fabrication process obviously begins with the design. This design was initially created by a YouTuber named “RJ the Bike Guy” who created his screen printing machine out of scrap wood. The fabrication process began with the cutting of the pieces, which was executed by free handing with a jigsaw. Although I began cutting with a guide that was clamped to the work table I was using, it proved inefficient when the blade began to steer in one direction; therefore, I chose to freehand it instead. This choice proved to be a beneficial one, as the pieces came out fairly straight and exact. After this, the sanding machine was used to smooth the rough edges of the plywood. For the clamp pieces especially, it was important that I made the edges smooth, but identical, in order to ensure its function to hold the screen print. Next, the drill machine was used to cut the holes that would house the longer screws that makeup the clamp. It was also very necessary that this step was precise because the holes had to be lined up perfectly so that they could fit through both pieces, but more importantly so that the screws could move freely through the holes to adjust the clamp, but not too much to where it would be too loose. Lastly, a hand drill was used to screw down the strip hinge, which connects the clamp and the clamp base. Since this design had already been tested and proved to be effective, there were not many alterations to the design that needed to be made. With this being said, the two changes that I did make were with the strip hinge and the length of the base piece of wood. With the strip hinge, I used two 12 inch hinges instead of one that would have been slightly smaller, this was because it aided in the stability of the clamp part. Additionally, I cut down the size of the base piece a little in order to make the device more compact and portable so that it could be mobile more easily.

Students

Project Description

Technical Background

Design Drawings

Fabrication Process

Final Result