Q. How does screen printing work?
A,The process is explained in this:

Printing white onto dark garments

Q. What do I need to print t-shirts?
A. For printing t-shirts you will need:

Screen printing machine
Screens
Inks (water or solvent based or plastisol)
Squeegee
Spray Adhesive
Heat Gun (or spot curer) Available from most DIY stores
Screen Degreaser/Cleaner

If you want to put your own artwork on to your screens, you will need:

UV sensitive emulsion
Emulsion dissolver (remover)
Exposure Lamp (for exposing the screen) Here
Emulsion Coating tray
Transparencies

Q. Can I print CMYK halftones with your kits?
A. Yes you can produce halftone screens with our equipment and print CMYK with our four colour machine.

Q. What kind of safe light do I need to work on my screens without exposing them?
A. A shaded low wattage energy saving bulb works without any problems.

Q. How can I start my own Screen printing business
A. Discussed in this Blog (takes a while to load)

Q. How should I fix my machine down?
A. On to a workbench or Workmate with adjustable height is a very good portable option

Q. Where can I find more information about screen printing? (How to print t-Shirts etc)
A. For information on screen printing there are many useful articles and tutorials on the following links:

squeegeeville.com

Screenprinting Articles

popculturetees.com

screenprintersopen.com

t-shirtforums.com

www.youtube.com search for screen printing

video.google.co.uk

UV sensitive Emulsions

Many Screen printing Tutorials here

Inks Waterbased V Plastisol

Exposure Units

Different types of Exposure Unit (Learn about the different types of lamps, how to use them)

Q. What kind of lamp should I use for exposing screens?
A. When exposing screens, depth of cure is important, you have to harden the stencil evenly all the way through. Metal Halide is the best light source for this. Quartz Halogen lamps produce a very poor light source they emmit very little of the UV that emulsions need.

back to Axit Exposure units

What squeegee?

Square edge
is the most commonly used profile for general graphics and textiles.
Can be used on a variety of substrates with a wide range of
inks. Provides medium adaptability and maximum force.
Pushes the smallest amount of ink through the screen.
Ideal for sharp line and half-tone dot production.
The less ink deposited the sharper the printed image.
Squeegee Blade Single Red (soft)
Generally used for medium squeegee pressure with large mesh opening
and low viscosity inks. They are ideal for irregular substrates.
They will deposit a high amount of ink with medium detail control.
In general, softer squeegees increase ink deposit.
Squeegee Blade Single Green (Medium)
For higher squeegee pressure with a wide range of mesh
count and inks. Will give good ink deposit and fine detail
control and are used for nearly all applications.
Squeegee Blade Triple Red and Green
50x9mm Triple Red/Green Soft/Medium polyurethane
The rigid center section resists deflection when printing high-viscosity plastisols,
while the softer edges provide a more substantial ink deposit than would be possible with a single-durometer hard blade.
Squeegee Size
Keep a few inches clearance between the frame and the squeegee
Full article

Back to equipment

Q. What other equipment will I need?

A. If you are printing onto fabric with water-based inks the last step once your print has dried is to heat cure the pigment inks so that they may be washed and dried without incident. Pigment inks will cure on their own in about a month. So if you wish to skip the heat curing just remember to mark the date when it should be fully cured.

Putting the fabric through a tunnel dryer or into a heat box is what most professionals do but you can use one of these three methods to cure your print at home:

A household iron. Initially, you must air dry your fabric. Then with your iron on a high setting and no steam, iron the reverse side of your fabric for 1-2 minutes.
With your oven. Again after air drying, fold piece, wrap in aluminum foil and bake at 150°C for five minutes.
Tumble dryer After a thourough air drying, place in tumble-dryer for say 15 minutes on hot and test.
A heat gun from any DIY store. Takes just a couple of minutes per shirt.

Free Graphics / Photo Editing

gimp
GIMP
Photo editing application that rivals Photoshop in features.
Download Page

Paint.NET
Graphics editor with a very nice interface.
Download Page

Inkscape
Vector graphics application.
Download Page