Speedball Art Products Diazo Photo Emulsion Kit for Screen Printing Frames

I power mixed the emulsion with a drill and got a lot of air bubbles - IDIOT.Next I had some trouble spreading the emulsion, but, that was due to my test screen not having near enough tension, and, it was just my first try. After my little mess with the test screen, I coated my production screen, A professionally built and screened aluminum frame.That came out pretty good. You need to be able to fully spread the emulsion and then screed off any excess quickly. I made a nice clear plastic spreading tray but ended up using a 3" plastic bondo spreader with a sharp point to finish spreading and then screeding off excess emulsion. I am making smaller screens though.Spread front of screen, then screed, spread back, then screed. Inspect your screen, spread more, then screed off excess from front side and back side. Press the screed into the screen pretty hard, if you are getting a proper thin coat, you wont get any lines from making multi spreading and screeding passes.I will tell you this, watching youtube videos with pros spreading emulsion with a single front and back pass is pure fantasy. You are probably NOT going to be able to do this with one perfect spreading pass in front and one perfect spreading/screeding pass in back, so don't even worry about it. Be ready to do multiple passes front and back, but be ready to get it done quickly.This process works 100 times better if you got a professionally done and screened frame with the screen stretched super tight. I stretched my first frame myself and found it tough to get high enough screen tension, then I bought a cheap but good aluminum frame with pre-streatched screen and OMG, it was so much more easy and better.Spread and screed off your emulsion quickly, as if you take too long the emulsion starts to thicken up and then it gets very hard to screed off the excess. Thankfully, I found this out on my first test screen so I got right to it and finished quickly on my money screen and it came out PERFECT. Nice even thin coating and when it fully dried it was exactly as needed, no more thickness then the screen itself, and, that is exactly what you want. If you get excess thickness on your coated screen you will have problems with excess paint loading when doing your screen printing.Excess thickness was the problem I had with my first screen, not made with emulsion, but with a sheet of sticky vinyl with letters cut out. It worked OK, but was hard to get a nice prefect thin layer of ink/paint on my products as the vinyl, seemed thin enough but in reality, it was thicker then it should have been and when the screen thickness was added, it was laying down to thick a layer of screen printing ink [paint].I'm so looking forward to using my screens made with this emulsion, screen printing should work so much better.~

I'm a hobbyist screenprinter, and basically just print once a year to make t-shirts for my family's annual reunion. I used to struggle with emulsifying and exposing correctly, but since I switched to this Diazo Kit last year I've been very happy and have had minimal problems. The kit comes with the photosensitive agent that must be mixed with water and added to the emulsion, which very easy to do and is not light sensitive during the prep, (which is a huge plus!) It says you can even coat the screen in regular light - although I haven't tried. Working under a yellow safe-light bulb, I've gotten good results and even coating with the Diazo.The emulsion itself is easy to work with: goes on very smoothly, dries quickly, and exposes evenly and pretty accurately to the included time guide. Also included in the kit is a large bottle of screen cleaner, which works exceptionally well to clean out screens that have been left emulsified even up to a year! I always run out of emulsion before screen cleaner - it seems like they could balance the proportions of the two components a little more evenly. My only complaint about this product is it's a little pricey compared to buying in bulk or purchasing the chemicals separately. I can get about 2-3 full screen coverages per emulsion bottle which is great for a hobbyist not printing often, but may use up quickly for someone printing more.Speedball Diazo Photo Emulsion Kit

Been using this Speedball Photo Emulsion kit since 2018, either at Amazon or in my local art supplier in Miami, and never had an issue. Last week i bought from my local supplier: the sensitizer was dry although since its hard to be sure, I filled ½ the bottle with cold water. It never mixed. It was dry.I went back to the store and they reimbursed me and gave me a new kit. At home, same issue, the sensitizer is dry and doesn't mix. I called the store and they had a look at all their supplies and it looks as they were all same: dry.I decided to call Speedball customer service to see how they could help and they recommended to order through Amazon. They told me that through Amazon, it's Speedball shipping and they make sure the product is good. So i ordered again, this time from Amazon.Upon receipt, I opened, had a look inside the tiny botle and to me it looked as dry but just in case, again, I filled ½ with cold water and "tried" to mix. Part of it did mix, and part not. I shaked and stirred on and on. The final product was a grainy mixture that would not expose properly. Not totally blue, but not green at all.I need this to prepare some screens to take to Africa, so I have ordered my last kit to see what happens and I am returning this last one through Amazon. I just got the order #4 and it is finally good!Speedball needs to take care of this issue and see all the customer reviews. If they look per date, they will be able to see that on the last months its mostly people having the same issue: the sensitizer is old, dry and doesn't work!

I had bought it for making custom t shirts and it worked amazing. It did end up dripping making the print turn out bad, but that could of been used error.

don't try to just mix a little bit, it wont work well. Mix the whole thing, just like the instructions say and this product will work great. Every little detail came through in my print. This stuff glides on easy and dries fast. Exposed with a fluorescent lamp for 45 min and then the stencil part washed off easy. Use only enough to cover your screen. the rest will store for several months. Happy printing!