I've never done this, so I was hoping somebody here might be helpful. Are those packaged rigs at art stores worth a shit, or is there a better/more cost effective DIY set-up you prefer?

Last time I did it was high school, ca. 1993, on a 4-arm press. Sorry.

I haven't done this for about 20 years. I'll be interested in what this thread turns up, if anything.

DIY. My friend does it fairly regularly and it seems pretty easy.

I got into doing tees with stencils and an airbrush for awhile, but it was too time consuming to mass-produce.

I'm sure you googled, but here's a video from Instructables

I've used the kits from the art store. They work. You will definitely wind up making your own screen frames, though (i.e you will ultimately find the ones provided in the kit too small) . So be prepared for that. It is also likely that you will run through the supplies they give you in the kit just getting the hang of it.

As long as you can easily buy refills of the supplies, you should be fine.

The most important thing I can tell you about doing this is WASH YOUR SCREEN THOROUGHLY so that the fabric paint doesn't dry in fine areas of your design - but NOT SO THOROUGHLY that you rub away some of the screen / mask part itself.

I used to silk screen all time time. One of my earlier jobs was working for a company screening shirts & real estate signage. i used to make stickers and shirts for any band or zine i wanted. damn i wish i still had some of them.

The kits are good, but if you hit up a local screen printing shop for screens, they will likely hook you up at a fair price. Just tell them what you want to do with it.

What ya looking to put together Fu?

I'm actually not doing anything at the moment, but a friend thought I might have some info. He's looking at doing some shirts.

It's on my list of things I've wanted to do, but never really put enough effort into doing.

Craigslist for equipment.

I paid for some t-shirts to be designed and screen printed for a concert about 10 years ago. However I ended up taking LSD and giving most of them away outside the venue. Share the love, brah!

I did watch Died Young Stayed Pretty last month. Only recommended if you really want to get to know concert poster designer's opinions and non-stop rambling (in Brian Chippendale's (drummer for Lightning Bolt) case.

Screenprinting and the design that goes with it has always been a love of mine even though I've only participated in the process once (see above).

Met him at the Small Press Expo last year near DC. Didn't get to hear any of his rambling though.

I would probably buy most of what Fu slapped together.

providing it wouldn't get me stabbed on the street.

there is a gallery/work shop near me that rents time and equipment, and have people on hand to offer assistance. You might want to see if there is a similar set up near you.

I was thinking the same thing. There are probably 10 or 15 screen-ready images here already, in the backlog pages.

Damn. In that case...

I've done little actual screen-type work, mostly a couple band t-shirts. I do sorta know a guy that runs his own label, so I've been meaning to hit him up this fall and see if I could let off some creative steam a la gigposters and such.

It's just really easy to convince yourself you are too busy with other shit.

@jewels: that never occurred to me. awesome.

@stu: that's definitely going on my to-watch list.

Fu: I used to do this in high school. My friends and I had a pretty ghetto setup. We didn't even have an actual "rig," just the frame and screens. We printed our designs on transparencies and burned them into the photosensitive emulsion with a 150-watt bulb. One thing you'll need access to is a relatively high-pressure cold water source, for getting the emulsion out of the design portion of the screen.

This is pretty much how you do it with the art store kit.

The high school rig burned the image on via a 150watt metal halide bulb, like in a parking lot fixture. Couldn't look anywhere NEAR that side of the room when it was on.