Screen Printing with a Laser Cutter? // xTool S1 40 Watt Laser Cutter + Screen Printer Kit

[@make.anything]

Thanks for watching, and excuse my voice..I was going through a cold for most of this o.O! I had a ton of fun with the xTool S1 and Screen Printer Kit, and just wanted to mention some points of feedback I got from xTool: - They believe the uneven prints may have been a result of me lowering the screen by pushing the frame down, rather than pushing down from that knob that locks the frame. I'll have to see what difference that makes the next time around! - A concern I initially had but took out was that the special screens could go out of stock or somehow become unavailable, but xTool let me know that the screens actually use standard screen printing emulsion. That means that their screens can be reused with a standard emulsion remover, and with the appropriate metal mesh, you can make your own laserable screens. Sounds cool! As always let me know if any questions come up while watching! :) Devin

[@withered_dragon_head]

Blink twice if you need help.

[@nadmeldev]

Kudos Devin for not giving up on the silk screening. I love this machine, and the price is really great for such a nice piece of equipment.

[@awildyoutuberappeared9325]

Damn, I remember running across a video of yours years ago. Glad to see you're still around and that you're doing amazing and starting a new life in Sweden. You made me get into 3d printing and for that I thank you.

[@mr_vvs]

Amazing video and review! I'm very impressed by the materials it was able to engrave and cut through! Especially the acrylic. I plan to take a screen printing class and want to use a laser cutter to engrave my designs, so seeing your workflow and considerations was very informative.

[@rosserobertolli]

Nice! I have made a screen print once before with a lasercutter but without the special screens. I more or less cut sticker foil on an aluminium foil backing (which won't be cut) to make a stencil that I stuck on the screen. Then I spray-painted the screen with undercoat for cars and removed the stencil. Quite a hassle but it did work and was quite cheap compared to other methods!

[@eianoodle]

I’ve been screen printing for several years now, and I actually initially saw this product advertised to me on social media. Great video overview! I think this concept is very interesting, and actually mimics technology thats already being used in the commercial screen-printing industry. I could see where this could be a great option for hobbyists or for small projects, since it eliminates the steps of coating, burning, and washing out your screens. That being said, I think the usefulness really ends there. The press itself doesn’t seem to work with you to get the best print possible. The garment really should be dressed onto a stationary platform that has an adhesive applied to prevent movement of the fabric. The press head should be able to hold the screen stationary in a position a couple millimeters above the substrate, so that the printer can have both hands on the squeegee in order to apply proper pressure. I don’t like that you cannot reuse the mesh, as you cannot reclaim and coat it with new stencil fluid, as well as it seems fairly easy to damage it with the laser itself. Overall, it’s an interesting proof of concept but I think the system has a long way to go before it could really be considered a game changer.

[@make.anything]

Thanks for your advice. I actually think all those things you mentioned are possible, I just didn't use proper technique. The adhesive isn't provided but can be used on the platform, the screen can be locked at any height, I just thought it had to be flat against the material... And apparently the screens can be reused in the same manner as traditional ones

[@baschz]

@@make.anything For textile printing you don’t really need the space between the screen and the substrate though, it can lay directly on it. That’s more important of a thing for printing on paper.

[@eianoodle]

@@baschz I don't find that to be entirely true. I get cleaner & crisper prints more consistently when the press has the correct amount of off-contact for both garments and paper, especially when the screen is flooded. The substrate will draw the ink through the mesh if they are touching, causing too much ink to be deposited which can result in either bleeding, fuzzy edges, and/or thick prints that may not cure properly. That being said, I do see a lot of people getting away with no off-contact on social media and it blows my mind that they are getting clean prints! It's never worked out well for me.

[@baschz]

@@eianoodle Not saying it’s bad, just less important and one less thing to think about when you’re starying. Holding and using the squeegee the right way for instance is more important I think.

[@15uzu]

Having worked for a commercial garment decorator for 20 years, the screenprinting equipment shown is at best a "toy". In all honesty I would recommend someone interested in doing this sort of work invest in either a DTG printer or spend the extra coin and get proper equipment from a reputable manufacturer from this industry (such as M&R). It would be interesting to know whether there are any choke settings in the software which does the separations for you, and whether there is any halftone feature. That would be interesting to see. The laser on the other hand is definitely a good machine looking at it, though I'm surprised it doesn't have a jog feature to move the head. Normally moving a powered stepper motor by hand whilst powered is a no-no. I noticed there was a scale ruler on one the Y-axis - is there a corresponding one on the X-axis? If so you really should et into the habit of butting your work pieces into the corner of these and using the origin point for alignment. You will find it much easier to align products and get the images centred especially when you have multiples to do.

[@C3DPropShop]

A note on the dragpoint to map out the part instead of a tipdown camera. It's not the sexy option, but it absolutely works. I used to program a couple of 5ftx10ft 6kwatt fiberlasers, and this is exactly how it would find the sheetmetal height and edges. They use the nozzle to run off the edge of the short side and 2 points on the long side to center and adjust for skew.

[@philoara5647]

❤ Thank you for this beautiful video! 🙂❤️Can we de-engrave the screen and reuse any emulsion?

[@tonycosta3302]

In college, I had to do that with water soluble fillm that gets exposed with UV light. This is so much easier. You should use more ink with a single slower two handed pull applying a fair amount of pressure to really get good contact.

[@spacenoodles5570]

I really hope that "private, do not scan" qr code is a joke. That blur seems pretty reversible, and qr codes usually have a bunch of error correction built in.

[@Literally_hatsune_miku_39]

That’s what I was thinking lol. Edit: later on in the video, it’s un-blurred. If you scan it, it sends you to a KZbin video

[@zach123101]

Yeah it's a joke lol

[@gerGoPrint3D]

"My life savings in bitcoin" that's when I knew it was a joke.

[@phizc]

I was surprised it wasn't the standard rick roll. 😅

[@SarahKchannel]

Yep was able to open too youtube link :)

[@jbrownson]

Love that flower design, great video thanks

[@rdyer8764]

Like you said, an artform takes practice. Nice T-Shirt. Like the tote, I think some "failure" shirts would be worth some investment in raw materials. Keep up the great work.

[@Zeldur]

I’ve been using xtool’s 10w laser for… maybe a month? Took me a while to get it set up because I needed a space for it and a laptop. I love it. The lines come out suuuper crisp and so far have only had 1 fail out of… I think 15-20 sessions so far? I still keep an ABC fire extinguisher nearby at all times just in case. I find it to be a great entry into laser cutting right now and now they actually sell it with the enclosure. For the screen printing, a trick I use is I have a super light line trace around the edge. This works best for text on wood so you don’t see the width of the laser. Not sure if it will work for screen printing due to the screen. Worth a shot though

[@make.anything]

Nice trick tracing the text, I'll have to remember that!

[@Corn_DOG]

Not interested in the screen printing but the machine itself... really really cool

[@Ticktok_of_Oz]

I've been wanting to incorporate laser cutters into screen printing for a decade. My original thought though was to use a sheet of kapton and laser out the image as a perforated mesh. That said, I love this design, and I imagine the community has already figured out how to resurface the screens. It's not photo emulsion, so maybe some kind of latex or something.

[@reddcube]

It's impressive how capable xTool machines have become.

[@tanialimacosta]

Loved the singing and ukulele!!! And the rest of the video too... ;)

[@diego_villena]

Your video installs the bracket on the right, but another shows the left. Is this a difference between the 40w and 20w?

[@jimbalz3017]

How does the artwork holdup to washing?

[@Pillit0]

15:27 at any case, if the ink is bleeding through the fabric of the totebag, wouldn't it be too high a stream of laser?, meaning the screen is messed up

[@modern_obsolete]

A couple of questions: how does the screen smell when burn with laser? Are purifiers or fumes extraction mandatory?

[@make.anything]

Not overly strong but I personally like to be on the safe side. I would ventilate outdoors using the built in exhaust at the very least.

[@baschz]

Very cool machine and nice video, as always. It looks like an awesome machine for cutting and engraving, but I was very interested (and pretty skeptic) about the screen printing option when I saw it on Instagram. For starters it looks way more sturdy and well made than I initially thought it would be, but I still think it's really more of a cool gimmick, that I am not sure of who it is for. The meshes are non-reusable consumables and a screen takes ages to make compared to the normal way. I like the fact that they thought about adjustment. I'm curious about the pricing, because I can't really judge who this would for. I do like the totally new approach and effort that went into the design of it all. If you're interested, some tips for your next prints: Flooding is fine. After that one pass with enough pressure should be enough. Especially with such thin ink and on a light coloured fabric. Just use both hands though (easier to apply good and even pressure) and only print in one direction, to prevent the screen from stretching in multiple directions which can make your print come out blurry. Also, it looks like you can slide your shirt onto the platen so, if you use the sticky mat (or apply some spray glue on the platen (after you put some tape or something on it that you can replace, so the platen itself stays nice and clean), you can put your shirt on it with the collar facing to you and print the design upside down. You can then leave your shirt to dry on the platen for the next colour(s). Also watch out with drying the shirt next to your screen. Waterbased ink dries super quickly and becomes a pain to wash out if you wait too long. Good luck! (even though that last print already came out quite nicely)

[@make.anything]

Thanks, exactly the experienced perspective I was hoping for 😊 fwiw, apparently the mesh can be reused with standard emulsion and remover... although, I guess not when you zap away some of the mesh like I did on my second pass

[@baschz]

@@make.anything that’s just part of the learning process 😊 you sometimes need to break things to not do it again, right? 🙂 using regular tools to reuse the screens kind of defies the purpose of getting this set up. I am trying hard to see who, other than the manufacturer of course, would benefit from this set-up. Definitely designed for people who wouldn’t use it very often, but then I’m guessing it’s quite expensive for that. Maybe I need to see it more in the light of what Bambu Lab is doing to 3D printing; make it more plug and play with on the one hand experienced users shouting at the screen: “of course you don’t let go of the filament end!” while on the other end bringing in loads of new people into it and making it more of the tool it was foreseen as, rather than a new hobby you have to invest a lot of time in. Looking forward to hear about it more in the future. If you’ll use it a lot or not. We probably won’t get it to replace regular screen making in the academy hete anytime soon, even though we are always on the lookout for interesting ways of doing things differently.

[@timgoodliffe]

@@make.anything what material is the mesh, id be worried about silk holding up to lasers for sure, probs the woven wire mesh?

[@98Zai]

Really love how the Uke turned out! I wonder if that screen printing technique could work on other surfaces too? Maybe the paint won't stick? Could be used to decorate 3D prints further, but might need a clear coat.

[@make.anything]

It can absolutely be used on all sorts of flat surfaces. There are different inks for various materials

[@jakesaari7652]

Very interesting technique. Screen printing is so cheap to outsource nowadays. It is also super cheap to buy screen printed transfers to press on yourself. I don't think it's a game changer, but maybe 10 - 15 years ago it would have been.

[@st0mper121]

that software looks really good. personally i already own a OnefinityCNC but have been thinking of getting the 44 watt laser Jtech. I love my Vcarve but for my laser its not really everything it needs.

[@pcc404]

try the infrared module it seems fun

[@truetech4158]

Welcome to aztec world. Nice setup all in one kit you scored. Custom guitar inlays and fretboards on demand. You can even engrave onto the stainless steel frets. My cutlery drawer now has iron maiden logos and such. I too just got a industrial laser rig as you can see over there about 5ft away from where this chair is,... Oh, my eyes!

[@Carrotious]

Maybe you could help me with the dimensions of the frame... on the website it only references 11.5x16in but I dont know if that is internal or external. My laser machine fits a max of 330mm wide. Would the frame fit? Thanks G

[@Sanctus_Judas]

Wow. Make a Make Anything wallet out of the leather foam.

[@robert_trirop]

QR codes are somewhat resistant to partial occlusion. Are you sure that your blur effect over the Bitcoin QR-code is big enough? The blur also shifts and moves around a bit. With some work, a bad actor could maybe reconstruct the code from the video. But I'm not totally sure about that. Great video anyway :)

[@Gulliolm]

I think thats part of the joke. The blur was very light.

[@AngloSaxon1]

Im always interested in seeing engraving on jewellery

[@cnc-maker]

The board that you placed the shirt on, has room under it, correct? Typically with screen printing, that board would go inside the shirt, so that the printing side can stick to the top of the board and not move at all. It also prevents the bleed-through that you were concerned about.

[@make.anything]

Yes.. I should have made the screen upside-down so I could slip the shirt onto the printer that way. Next time!

[@blackhawk2788]

Did you mean to make the “A” in the bottom left swirls? Kinda cool could stand for anything 😅

[@timgoodliffe]

is the screen metal mesh?

[@DennisDay58]

flood the screen then press with squeegee once, not once each direction

[@takoszilard]

Correct, i was like uhhhhh definitely not like that 😅

[@sketch_012]

Do you think it’d be possible to engrave on bisque fired ceramics before glaze? A colab with someone like Earth Nation Ceramics would be super cool to find that out 🤘🏻

[@make.anything]

That would be super cool to try out. The precise laser combined with organic pottery would be beautiful

[@cyprusmiraque]

You should do a sheikah slate logo on the leather

[@lemonyfreshmm]

saweeeeet I want a tshirt! I'm gonna give you one to print :D

[@sedati]

Aluminium screen printing?

[@questionablecommands9423]

KiwiCo ukulele song > ukulele apology song

[@k3nl4w]

Try the CMYK halftone art 😉

[@make.anything]

Yea, that'll be awesome!

[@dwoot12]

Now that you're in Sweden, ever thought about doing a colab with RCLifeOn??? Don't know how feasible this is but the idea seems interesting.

[@Imaginathor-1k0]

Can u engrave on Any silk screen?

[@make.anything]

no, it needs to be a steel mesh. It does use the standard emulsion, however, if you want to make your own

[@Imaginathor-1k0]

@@make.anything thnk u

[@TheLikeys]

In traditional screen printing, the exposed screens can be washed and reused for new prints. I didn't quite understand how this system worked and whether this feature of traditional screen printing would be available in this laser-based workflow. I'm not sure if I'm using the correct terminology for screen printing as I don't have that much expertise in the field. Although I have attended an introductory course at our school's workshop.

[@make.anything]

Apparently these screens can be reused in the same way

[@electronicsandewastescrapp7384]

@@make.anything so they include or have available product to apply to cleaned screen? Is the screen steel or silk mesh? I've seen laser used on painted steel mesh on hackaday.

[@make.anything]

@@electronicsandewastescrapp7384 It's steel mesh. Otherwise it uses the same chemicals as traditional silk screens so you can purchase emulsion/remover from third parties

[@pcc404]

why is cutting clear acrylic harder?

[@make.anything]

It's not necesarrily harder, but the specific wavelength of diode lasers passes right through the material, so it has no effect.

[@pcc404]

hmm ok

[@SianaGearz]

Keys are usually brass, nickel plated.

[@ChrisHennings11]

Really interesting projects! Just a heads up, the flower symbol of blue petals with yellow center is the symbol of Sweden Democrats (Sverigedemokraterna) which you may or may not want to be affiliated with!

[@SeraphimKnight]

For that faux letter piece you got, you can turn it into a moleskine cover 😁

[@make.anything]

Ooh I like that

[@xxxxxx-pb8up]

the outline of the print is not clear and jagged why?

[@thomasrohleder4281]

ITS COOL GUY!

[@twinklingwater]

WTF did I just watch?

[@JanHavel]

It looks nice but did you said those colors are water solutable? That does not sounds like good property for something that is supposed to go to washing mashine :D

[@make.anything]

It's speedball ink specifically for fabrics, so apparently you just need to heat set it and it will be fast

[@DennisDay58]

Do a patch for a hat with the foleather

[@FelixNielsen]

if that qr code actually give access to your wallet, then you're broke dude.

[@ksnax]

As interesting as this is, I think this would be a hassle for repeat jobs on multi-color prints, as aligning the silk on the frames precisely could be challenging if they are ever removed from them and reused. It's not that much of a switch to use more traditional methods, though this may be faster to quickly knock out limited run prints.

[@make.anything]

Yea, for removing and realigning screens ice seen suggestions of gluing little wooden blocks at each corner with cyanoacrylate so you can realign them... Sounds like that could be finicky though

[@ClassicGamer2996]

Having the ability to mark your object looks so simple compare to measuring fully on a computer

[@make.anything]

Right?? I was dubious but quickly became of fan. It's simple and it works!

[@RabbitsInBlack]

I think I would just use old school photo sensitive screen printing method instead like you learn in middle school. Much faster. Just seems like an excuse to use a laser where it really isn't needed.

[@TheMotoDude420]

The ad spot reminded me of a terrible apology video.

[@make.anything]

Haha yess, except... I'm not sorry!

[@TheMotoDude420]

@@make.anything No need to be, keep up the great videos. 💯

[@alonetrio]

cool guy !!!! ;) ;) you know it when you see it ;)

[@SarahKchannel]

You might wanna wash the screen anyway after the laser, instead of lasering twice.

[@make.anything]

I did wash the screen first. The second laser pass was to clear the coating that didn't get lasered away on my first pass

[@chefgoyar_d]

👀👀

[@shmafoo]

I sure do hope that QR Code didn't actually include any sensitive data of your wallet or something related because just blurred qr-codes are actually quite easily decoded / unblurred. If it was, you shoudl do whatever you need to do now. Please just put a solid black bar on stuff like that or don't show it at all.

[@ThatBulgarian]

Which European country did you move to? :)

[@FilmStudio06]

the problem is it didn't work because you used the Technique wrong that why it gives bad results there are some good KZbinrs who show good techniques that give very good results and they start to do business with xtool screen pint. that xtool screen is awesome also with laser specially xtool p2 but the problem is that they are super expensive wish I could have one but soon maybe I will have one. and I love your videos they are amazing, especially the 3d print and the laser.

[@VitroArteDesign]

Cometes muchos errores al imprimir. Debes colocar el cardboard con pegamento por detrás de la tela para que no se mueva y quede sin arrugas. Al pasar el resero debes cuidar la inclinación . Mientras más lo inclines más tinta imprimirás sobre la tela.

[@Hobypyrocom]

$699USD for a box with filters and a fan? damn...

[@brianmi40]

Don't think I'd blow that residue off into the air to breathe, better to use a HEPA vacuum, or at a minimum, blow it off outdoors.

[@baschz]

He does blow it outdoors 3:02

[@frankb5728]

This needs a camera

[@dingdongdaddy589]

I mean, it’s all cool - but thinking someone can make “a living” off laser engraving is unrealistic at this point - as the market is saturated. I’ve been 3d printing/CNC’n as a hobby for years and the wife always says, you should make a business and sell that!! But, the reality is, there are 59,712 of you making the same crap…😅 Maybe one day I ‘ll get a laser engraver…to add to my hobbying. But MAN, we are so lucky to have such cool stuff to play with.

[@make.anything]

It is a saturated market, but I think there's opportunity if you're servicing your local area, or making your own designs that fulfill some less crowded niche

[@dtesta]

You probably meant "Lilla A" instead of "Små A".

[@make.anything]

Det är för småhuset... eller attefallshuset

[@dtesta]

@@make.anything Ah! Ok, then it makes more sense. However, I would still argue that it's more common to call it "lilla huset" than "småhuset" :) Regardless, awesome video!

[@blackhawk2788]

More “affordable”? Dude $2.3k is NOT affordable 😅

[@make.anything]

Maybe I should've said 'less expensive' :O

[@timgoodliffe]

they do have an option with laser and screen printing kit for like 600 single color

[@AllanScheSar]

Nice WiFi password

[@unclerichard6729]

Why does anyone support that company who overprice their lasers so badly????? It might work fine but it is ONLY A DIODE LASER. You can get a laser that works just as well for under a thousand dollars.

[@make.anything]

There are so many cheaper kits that are just a diode laser stuck on a bare gantry, but I appreciate the full enclosure and other safety features of xTool. Their design is refined and that makes the whole experience better. Also the complementary software can't be understated. But yes, there is often a hefty premium for that extra bit of refinement.

[@SMatthewsFilms]

@@make.anything Totally agree. I bought into the Xtool S1 ecosystem for the same reason I invested heavily in Formlabs for my 3D print solutions. they are pretty turn-key and refined. The safety features in the S1 are amazing. Love the built in fire suppressing system too (Not that it's kicked in thankfully). My screen printer arrived yesterday. The first thing I noticed was how the screen didn't sit flat against the honeycomb when using the bracket (So I ignored it and just placed it on the honeycomb as it was a 1 colour test). Good to see someone has addressed this. Given the consistency of manufacture and that no other video on this subject addresses this (that I've seen) looks like you are a man after my own heart! Seems an obvious tweak than needs to be done. My first screen also used the default settings. Mine too seemed to struggle on the finer details. I'll be experimenting further to fine tune. In terms of technique, I think screen printing is probably like most things in life... practice practice practice. I'll be doing a lot of that. As for the comment someone made about 'saturated market', well, I'm a photographer - there's a lot of us. I'd hazard a guess that more people take photos than Screen print... But it doesn't stop us doing it. People will buy into YOUR designs, not the process. That is the unique part. That's art. Keep up the great work - I'm subscribing. Cheers, Scott.