How to Silk Screen Skateboards
- 1). Lay out a layer of newspaper in a well ventilated area and don a respirator. Cover the wheels and axels of your skateboard with newspaper, taping it down with masking tape. Place your skateboard on the layer of newspaper.
- 2). Cover the area you want to silkscreen with transparent primer so that the ink will stick. This also allows the background color of your board to show through.
- 3). Insert a length of silkscreening nylon into your printing frame. Frames come in two varieties. One kind has two rectangles held together with a hinge. To insert the nylon with this kind of frame, simply unhinge the rectangles and insert the nylon between them. The other kind of frame is a single wood rectangle with a groove along the edge and a length of cord. To insert the nylon into this, remove the cord and lay the nylon over the frame. Insert the cord into the groove, pinching the nylon between it and the frame. Using a hammer, pound the cord firmly into place. Whatever kind of frame you have, the nylon must be tightly stretched when you are finished.
- 4). Lay out a layer of newspaper in a dark room, with only a nightlight for illumination. Bathrooms work well for this. Set the screen down on the newspaper and don a pair of gloves and goggles.
- 5). Open your jar of green photo emulsion and pour it into your scoop coater. Photo emulsion is light sensitive, so make sure the door is closed. Your scoop coater comes as a plastic or metal trough. Tilt it back and forth to evenly distribute the emulsion across the bottom of the trough. Then press the edge of it to the bottom edge of your screen. Make sure that this is the side of the screen without the frame showing.
- 6). Hold the scoop coater at a 45 degree angle and wait for the emulsion to dribble down to the screen. When it does, sweep the scoop coater over the screen in one fluid motion. As the scoop coater moves, it will distribute an even layer of emulsion in its wake. Rinse the scoop coater in a sink, ridding it of any spare emulsion, and let the screen dry overnight in the dark room. Be sure to turn the nightlight off when you aren't in the room.
- 7). Place a transparency with your design printed in black on top of the emulsion coated screen. Weigh it down with a sheet of glass or, for safety, acrylic. Hang an overhead light with a 150 W bulb one foot above the screen. Turn on the light and wait 45 minutes.
- 8). Turn the light off. Remove the glass and the design. Throw a black cloth over your screen and run it to a sink. If there is a window nearby, draw the shades. Put the screen in the sink and turn on the tap. Make sure the stream is very gentle. Hold the screen under the water and lightly rub the surface. Any emulsion that was covered by your design will wash away. To check your progress, hold the screen up to a weak light source. You should see a transparent version of your design. Allow the screen to dry for a day. Keep the emulsion side facing up or it will stick to the floor.
- 9). Place your dry screen on your skateboard, with the emulsion pointing down. Dribble printing ink evenly across the bottom of the screen. Press a squeegee firmly into it at a 45 degree angle and push it up, across the screen. Do this several times, applying moderate pressure.
- 10
Remove the screen and quickly run it to a sink. Wash the ink off of it. By the time you are done, the ink on your board should be dry. Use a brush to paint over it with wood sealant and let it dry for a day.
