TIM- How to burn a screen on the light box.

How to burn a screen on the light box.

You will need your screen you have left in a dark room, the light box, and a positive film that you put under your screen.

Before anything else, the first thing you should do is turn the light box on, like an energy saving light bulb, the longer it’s on before you use it, the more powerful it is, so turn it on at least an hour before you want to use it so it has plenty of light energy.

Get your screen out of the dark room, and make sure that it is ok to use, looking to see if there are any drips and if so, remember to avoid them when using the positive film. Make sure the vacuum switch is not turned on as for health and safety reasons it would be dangerous if you tried to open the lid and the vacuum is on, as it could shatter the glass which could get in your skin and/or eyes. Also make sure the UV light isn’t on, as if you lifted the lid up and it is on it could blind you if you look into it. If both of these things are not turned on, open up the lid, and place your positive film onto the glass. Place your screen on top of the positive film in the place you want it to be, avoid putting it on any drips.

Make sure it is lined up exactly how you want it to be, and shut the lid of the light box down onto the screen. Once it has shut properly, lock the lid with the two clips on the side of the light box, and turn the vacuum on, it will suck the rubber on the lid down to the glass, and hold your screen and positive film in place, so when it “bakes” it doesn’t move the screen and you have a wonky stencil, like when tracing.

Once the vacuum is turned on and into place, you can then turn the UV light on, to do this you press green “start” and hold down  the "starter" on the far left for 5 seconds, it counts down in light not in time. During this time you just have to wait for it to “bake”. You can tell when the UV light is on, as the bottom of the light box has a blue light coming off of it. Once the light timer has gone down turn the vacuum off and press cancel just to make sure the UV light is definately off, and you can open up the light box and get your now baked stencil ready to use for printing.