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Squeegees: A Few Thoughts on One of the Most Essential Things in Your Shop

A few thoughts on Squeegees:

  • Without good squeegee blades you cannot print well. They are absolutely essential.IMG_4429
  • Don’t let them soak in anything, clean them you lazy…  If you soak them they swell up and are not the same durometer any longer.
  • Change them often. We turn them around then chuck them. I now believe after visiting Andy Anderson’s shop that you can sharpen them, but not much. It better be a good sharpener and not too many times. The whirring kind tends to heat the blade and change the consistency (i.e. bad.) The slicing kind better do it straight and you can’t do it too many times as a 2 inch high squeegee is not the same at all when has been sharpened down to 1.5 inches high.
  • Saving money on substandard blades is about the dumbest thing you can do. Go ahead and pay $100,000 for a press and then save $100 on your crappy squeegees. Brilliant.
  • Triple durometer are almost always the squeegee of choice, with rare exceptions. They have a stiff core and softer sides. You can hold angle but still push ink.
  • Round the corners
  • If they are nicked then fix them or get rid of them immediately
  • We buy ours from Saati, they sell good stuff. We use mostly 60/90/60 or 70/90/70
  • Don’t assume that the squeegees that come with your brand new press are any good. I have seen terrible ones come with folks’s presses.IMG_4433

Comments

  1. Important thought.
    Screen-printing cannot underestimate any of the tools involved in each segment of the process. Despite the squeegee is not felt as a sensible subject, it is decisive to get results under control.
    The only note is for the water-base printing who need to consider also other “single” durometers like 60, 70 and 85 shores.
    Thanks for opportunity
    Regards

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