Finding a replacement for my Thermofax machine.

Sometime last year, my Thermofax machine went kaput. I bought my machine about a decade ago. This is an outdated piece of office equipment, originally used as a means to photocopy. As that technology advanced, Thermofax machines came to be used by tattoo artists to make transfers and also by textile artists, who ran Riso film through the machine, to create screen printing stencils. It worked wonderfully for years. Just prior to its demise, I bought a new roll of Riso film too. You can imagine my disappointment when this machine called it quits.

I was a bit more than half way through swatching a new color triangle, as described in Playful Fabric Printing. The triangle is 28 colors in a gradation of 4 values, for a total of 112 new colors. This triangle is interesting in that it utilizes Strong Orange, Grape and Deep Navy as primary colors. This means the triangle is skewed; Strong Orange replaces Yellow, Grape becomes Red and Deep Navy is Blue. This triangle will provide many browns, purples and deep dark blues. While swatching to create a new triangle is My goal, I want to use all the dye up! So I gave myself the task of printing single color prints.

At first I began researching a person who might be able to fix the Thermofax, only to find one guy, in the middle of the country, who let me know I would be paying as much as I originally bought the machine for, in order to ship, repair and return the machine. Ouch. So I researched a possible solution.

I am right now, testing out a new manner of burning screens. I have found a company called EZScreenPrint, who sells 8.5×11” sheets of 110 screen print mesh coated in photo emulsion. The emulsion can be ‘burned’ by placing it in direct sun on a day the UV is above 3. The film can be mounted in the plastic frames I used previously.

So far, I have burned two screens, one is an older chevron design that I truly love to use. The other, a new, fine line design, I recently put into repeat.

Here is what I have learned so far: The Riso film I am used to using is quite transparent, making it easier to print, as you can see through the screen itself, which assists in the repeat printing process. This new product, EZScreenPrint, is much more akin to commercial scoop coat methods found in local screen printing shops. The new film and the emulsion is opaque. I find it much easier to print designs like the chevron, which has thick lines.

My solution to this conundrum is to create a grid on my print board using painters tape, and then draw lines on the plastic frame, so that I can align the grid to the frame, in order to print.

I am not finished reporting my findings, so if you are interested, please stand by.