Speedball 4559 Diazo Photo Emulsion Kit for Screen Printing - High-Quality Photo Emulsion for DIY T-Shirt Printing, Posters & Fabric Arts (Perfect for Home Studios & Professional Print Shops)

I am a beginner and watched tons of tutorials online on how to screen print. I chose this product for the cost and quantity (I didn’t need a lot). It took a lot of trial and error but I figured out what works for me and my light source. I felt like coating one side and then pushing it back and forth through the screen, ending with pushing through the inside of the frame provided the best coating. Then I let it dry for at least 10 hours before burning the image on. The remover spray works super well! A little goes a long way.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.~If you do not mix all the little bottle properly, the emulsion will not set on the screen and it will wash off. You’ll be sorry and have to buy a new kit. The other reviews say that half the time the kit doesn’t work, because they didn’t mix the little bottle fully with water. Be patient and mix thoroughly. It will work every time and you will be a happy camper ??An easy to use emulsion. If you’re new to silk screening, buy their light, their screen, and their emulsion. Then find yourself a good scoop coater and a piece float glass (available at Home Depot) about the size of the screen. The scoop coater doesn’t have to be Speedball brand. Mix the diazo and shake it up really really well. I usually let it sit for 2 hours shaking occasionally throughout that time.Then add the diazo to the bottle, mix in the diazo and you should have a dramatic color change in the emulsion to green. Scoop coat and dry your screens.Then put your transparency on the screen (keeping the orientation in mind), put the glass on top so the transparency does not move and then expose with the light and their 200 watt photo bulb. With this configuration it’s usually 7-9 minutes.The first thing you want to do is check that nothing has broken, spilled, or dried. The emulsion with be thick like glue and blue in color. The remover will be thin and clear like medical alcohol or bleach. Both should have cardboard gasketed lids and foil caps on them. The sensatizer (tiny bottle) should be either dry and at the bottom, or thick and at the bottom. If any of the sensatizer is spilled out of the little bottle (along the threads or down the side) send the kit back for a new one immediately. The product is good if you get it undamaged, but Speedball uses incompetant monkey powered robots made from scrap pulled from the Robot Wars set to package everything so check your stuff.As for operation, when the sensatizer is added to the emulsion it turns a good medium (not quite emerald) green and will turn back to blue after it cooks out when you burn the stencil. Look for a light-medium blue hue and the uncooked parts under the negative image should have a yellow, jaundace like hue to them. When cleaning out the emmulsion make sure to wipe up messes immediately as the emulsion leaves yellow stains on nearly every surface known to man, including porcelin and the steel rim around my sink. Trial and error for new users will happen, just don't leave emulsion in a screen for a long period of time if you don't want a permenant stencil, and clean the screen completely before letting it dry if you don't want a permenant stencil (yes the emulsion remover may make the emulsion impossible to remove. Don't ask me how, I failed mad science 101).Great product!!! I love this simple and easy to use emulsion.I would suggest ordering it from anywhere else! Tracking number didn't work, NO communication from seller, and took a month, less 2 days to recieve.Love the product, but hate the service!!Update: ordered it again and this time it came in under 2 weeks. With Covid affecting the mail service, I'd say that's pretty good. Still cant say the service improved, as I had no need to contact anyone this time.Excellant product. Followed the directions as included in the package and success. They have lightbulb specs included,however i was not in the mood to go and purchase their exact specification. Some research on the web,and answers were provided with fantastic results. Highly recommend the product. Remember to store in fridge if you plan on using it now and then. Also.date the bottle so you know when its past the expiry date. Have fun burning.Sensitizer bottle completely empty when i looked in the box so kit is pretty much useless without it. Other bottles are at least not empty. However speedball glady replaced the item right away! So will get to use it just not as soon as I had hoped.was not hardenning....lost almost everything when wahsing. Not possible to do a proper screenprinttingThe diazo sensitizer in the package didn’t work. I had to buy another one at an art store and add it to the emulsion. Very disappointed.