Clean the Screen:

If you are done printing you need to get a smooth metal or plastic spatula (careful of the corners) and scrape up the remaining ink and put it back in the can, bucket or bottle. Get as much up as you can. Then use a spray bottle with your solvent (or water with a water based ink) to clean the screen. Pay special attention to the image area. Your ink will likely stain the mesh, but make sure you leave no deposits in the image.  The more ink you clean out, the less chance you have of the next color you print becoming contaminated, although thin stains don’t reconstitute like fatter deposits can in a squeegee. Also, if you need to reclaim your screen for another design, it will be easier if it is free of ink?

Reclaim a Screen:

You’ll need some reclaimer, which is a chemical you dilute in water and then brush or spray onto both sides of the frame, let it sit for a while, and then wash out with water. If your screen was heavily used, full of ink, really loose, halfway exposed and allowed to dry without washing it completely out, old, stubborn, it happens to be on a day that ends in “y”, you might need a power sprayer to get it clean. Car washes have power sprayers, but I’m not sure they are equipped to handle your chemicals. You can also try a local screen shop for reclaiming and recoating. They might charge extra if you bring them a screen that you did a half assed job of cleaning out the ink.  After you reclaim a screen you typically use a degreaser or even a mild detergent to well, get rid of grease and oils on the fabric so that the emulsion will adhere. Make sure you get it rinsed well, and then stick it in your drying place, remembering to keep it clean again.

Multiple Color Graphics:

Once you’ve printed and screened the first color, and all the boards are dried, you set up the screen for the next color. And go through the process again, lining up the current film positive with the first color already printed on the deck. An image will generally print a little bit lower than it looks like when it’s lined up by the positive. By lower I mean towards the direction you are pulling the squeegee. Not a lot, just a hair. It’s easy to adjust for. Line it up, print a test, then start loading and pulling squeegees. Most flat art

Is done this way, while multiple color t-shirts are printed wet on wet, with the screens all staying in place while the shirt moves to locked positions under each screen. Sometimes they are flash dried in between colors by a sort of open sided, giant toaster suspended over an empty print station. To my knowledge, no such machine exists for skateboards. Probably because the soft  surface of a t-shirt will absorb the ink instead of having it smear all over and clog the other screens.  In any case, background colors are printed first, with the outline, if any, printed as the last color. More on how to separate colors later.

Tip to Tail  Graphics:

There are two kinds of printed graphics, truck to truck and tip to tail. Truck to truck is what you just read, the print area falls in between the two sets of truck mounting holes. Tip to Tail is the holy grail of skateboard printing. Everyone wants to know how to do it, but nobody want to tell you how. I do want to tell you, but  with great power comes responsibility. So you believe you ready for this knowledge grasshopper? Well here it is… I don’t know how to do it. That’s not entirely true. I know how it is done, I’ve seen it done in videos, but I’ve never done it personally, but I’m working on it. I’ve seen it done in two methods.

The first was with a homemade screen that was barely bigger than the skateboard and really, really loose.  The tip to tail part looked like it was only one color and was a design that lent itself to not showing mistakes. The other colors looked like they barely started to reach the nose and tail.  Any screen created with this method would probably be impossible to reclaim. Like I said, I’m going to try it and will post my results.

The second method involves using a curved screen that is the same profile of the board you print on, and will only work for boards made from the same mold. Where and how these are made, nobody will say

THE END:

That's it for now. i will continue to revise this article as I learn or remember more. I also paln to include some plans for light tables, rigs, and more info on full board printing and screen stretching. Don't forget to add your own two cents.

Next Page: Random screen printing photo gallery.

Here are a couple more resources.

http://www.diehippiedie.com/screwball/diyshirt.html
Includes instructions on how to make a "wiper" which I assume is a squeegee. Very low budget.

http://www.livejournal.com/community/craftgrrl/3674467.html
I know I said you shouldn't hand paint your own stencils, but this article is actually really good. Probably the cheapest way to get started on a small one color design.