Woohoo Screen Printing Ink & Supplies: What You're Actually Searching For

“Woohoo screen printing ink & supplies” is a search a lot of print shops type when they’re hunting for a one-shop source for plastisol ink, emulsion, screens, squeegees, and the consumables that keep a press running. The brand name shows up in scattered listings, but most printers landing on that query are really asking a bigger question: where do you buy production-grade screen printing supplies without bouncing between five different vendors? This article answers that directly, then walks through every supply category a working shop needs, with the temperatures, mesh counts, and durometers that actually matter.

We’re Total Ink Solutions. We manufacture our own plastisol line and stock the rest of the supply chain, so we’ll be honest about what’s worth your money and what isn’t.

What “woohoo screen printing ink & supplies” actually means

The phrase is a long-tail search variant, not an established industry term. Printers use it the same way they use “screen printing supplies near me” or “supplies needed for screen printing”: they want a working list of what they need and a place that stocks it. The intent behind the keyword is informational on the surface and transactional underneath. You want to know what to buy, then you want to buy it.

The real shopping list for any production screen printing shop breaks down into seven categories: ink, screens and mesh, emulsion, films, squeegees, tape and consumables, and reclaim chemicals. Miss any one of them and you can’t ship a job.

The full screen printing supply list

Every shop running a manual or automatic press needs the same core stack. Here’s what belongs on the inventory shelf.

Plastisol ink. The pigmented PVC paste that sits on top of the fabric and cures with heat at 320°F. This is the workhorse for cotton and cotton-blend printing.

Aluminum screens with mesh. Mesh counts from 110 (heavy underbase, athletic prints) up to 305 (fine halftones, simulated process work). 156 mesh is the most common all-purpose count.

Photo emulsion. A light-sensitive coating you apply to the mesh, expose through a film positive, and wash out to create your stencil. Dual-cure and pure-photopolymer emulsions cover most production needs.

Film positives. Either inkjet film or laser film. Your design prints in opaque black, blocks UV light during exposure, and creates the open areas that ink passes through.

Squeegees. Wood or aluminum handle, polyurethane blade, measured in durometer (60 to 90 typical). The blade hardness affects how much ink you lay down.

Tape, pellon, spray adhesive, cleanup chemicals. The consumable layer. You burn through this faster than anything else.

Ink remover and emulsion remover. Reclaim is half the job. If you can’t get a screen back to clean mesh, you can’t reuse it.

Skip ahead to the section that matches what you need, or read straight through if you’re setting up from scratch.

Plastisol ink for screen printing

Plastisol is the default ink for cotton T-shirt printing in North America. It cures (not dries) at 320°F, which means the PVC particles fuse into a flexible film when they hit that temperature throughout the print, not just on the surface. Under-cure it and the ink cracks off in the wash. Over-cure it and you scorch the shirt.

A few specs that matter for any plastisol you buy:

• Cure temp: 320°F standard. Low-cure formulas drop to 270°F for poly-sensitive fabrics.
• Squeegee speed and angle: medium speed, 75–80° angle for most colors. White underbase prints slower and with more pressure.
• Mesh: 110–156 for solid colors, 230–305 for halftones and fine detail.
• Flash temp: 220–240°F for a few seconds between layers, not a full cure.

We mix our Total Ink and AmeriFLEX plastisol lines in-house, including the 40000 Series Gloss Vinyl Screen Printing Ink for projects that need a high-gloss finish on rigid or flexible vinyl substrates. For matte work on the same substrates, the 43000 Series Matte Finish Vinyl Base is an air-dry formula that handles signage, banners, and vinyl decals without needing a heat tunnel. The 43000 Series Matte Finish Vinyl Screen Printing Ink is the pre-pigmented version of the same chemistry if you want ready-to-print colors instead of mixing from base.

For garment printing specifically, our standard plastisol line covers low-bleed white, athletic gold, process colors, and Pantone matching. We mix to your spec.

Plastisol vs water-based ink

This comparison comes up constantly, and the answer depends on what you’re printing and who’s buying it.

Spec	Plastisol	Water-based
Cure temp	320°F	300–320°F (varies)
Hand feel	Sits on top of fabric, thicker	Soaks in, soft hand
Opacity on dark shirts	High (with underbase)	Low without discharge
Shelf life	1–3 years sealed	6–12 months opened
Cleanup	Mineral spirits or ink degrader	Water
Best for	Bold colors, dark garments, athletic prints	Soft-hand prints, light garments, fashion lines
Wash durability	50+ cycles typical	30–50 cycles typical
Press friendliness	Stays open on screen indefinitely	Dries in screen, requires retarders

Most production shops run plastisol as their daily driver because it doesn’t dry in the screen during long runs. Water-based is the right call for soft-hand fashion prints and light-garment work where customers want the design to feel like part of the shirt.

If you do mostly dark garments and standard apparel orders, stay with plastisol. If you’re servicing boutique brands and triblends, keep a water-based setup alongside.

Emulsion for screen printing

Emulsion is the photosensitive coating that becomes your stencil. You apply it wet to both sides of a degreased screen with a scoop coater, dry it in the dark, expose it through a film positive, and wash out the unexposed areas with water.

Three emulsion types cover almost every production scenario:

Diazo emulsion. Slower exposure (1–3 minutes under fluorescent), longer shelf life once sensitized (3–4 weeks), great for shops without expensive exposure units. You add the diazo sensitizer yourself before first use.

Dual-cure emulsion. Combines photopolymer speed with diazo durability. Exposure times around 30–90 seconds with a metal halide unit. Holds up to plastisol, water-based, and discharge. This is the workhorse for production shops.

Pure photopolymer. Pre-sensitized, fastest exposure (10–45 seconds), shorter shelf life, less water resistant. Best for shops running plastisol only with a fast, automated workflow.

Exposure times depend on your light source, emulsion thickness, mesh count, and film density. A starting point with a 500W metal halide at 36 inches over a 156-mesh screen with 2 coats of dual-cure emulsion is roughly 60–80 seconds. Test with an exposure calculator strip before committing to a production batch.

For washout, use a soft spray at moderate pressure. Blast it with a power washer and you’ll erase fine detail.

Films and film positives

Your film positive is the master copy of your design. It needs to be dense enough to block UV light completely in the image areas. Patchy density equals patchy stencils and pinholes in the print.

We stock laser film in sizes that match common output:

• Mega Laser Film 8.5” x 11” for standard letter-size designs and small-format presses.
• Mega Laser Film 8.5” x 14” when you need extra length for vertical designs.
• Mega Laser Film 11” x 17” for tabloid-size graphics and most apparel-back prints.
• Mega Laser Film 13” x 19” for oversized fronts, back prints, and jumbo designs.

Laser film is a polyester base coated to accept toner densely. Run it through any monochrome laser printer set to “transparency” or “labels” media type, with toner density turned up. For deepest blacks, use an all-purpose toner darkener spray after printing. RIP software (Accurip, Filmmaker) helps drive halftones at the printer level.

If you’re printing inkjet film instead of laser, you need a dedicated CMYK or pigment-black printer with an all-black ink set installed. The density is higher on inkjet, but the upfront investment is steeper.

Squeegees and durometer

Squeegees move ink through the screen. The blade is polyurethane, and the durometer (hardness) determines how much it flexes under pressure.

• 60 durometer (soft): lays down a thicker ink deposit. Used for high-opacity whites and athletic prints.
• 70 durometer (medium): general-purpose, balanced ink deposit.
• 80 durometer (medium-firm): sharper print edges, thinner deposit, faster strokes. Our Wood Screen Printing Squeegee – 80 Durometer is the daily driver for most manual and automatic presses running standard plastisol.
• 90 durometer (firm): halftones, fine detail, simulated process. The Wood Screen Printing Squeegee – 90 Durometer gives you the crisp edges needed for tight halftone dot reproduction.

Triple-ply squeegees (60/90/60) combine a firm core with softer outer layers. They print sharp like a 90 but feel like a 70 on the press. Pick those if you want one squeegee that covers most jobs.

Sharpen squeegee blades every 80–100 hours of run time. A dull blade chews more ink and rounds your edges.

Tape, pellon, and shop consumables

The boring stuff that nobody photographs. You burn through it fast and you’ll notice immediately when you run out.

Blockout tape seals the gap between your stencil edge and the frame so ink doesn’t bleed into the off-image areas. Our 3” Blockout Tape – 36 Yards is the standard width for most production frames. Apply it to the print side of the screen after washout, smooth with a credit card, and trim flush with the stencil.

Pellon test squares are non-woven fabric squares you run through the press before pulling your first shirt. They show you ink coverage, registration, and squeegee pressure without burning a real garment. The Screen Printing Pellon Squares come in pre-cut bundles. Use one per color check, then move to a real shirt once registration is locked.

Other consumables worth keeping stocked: spray tack for the platens, screen opener for ink that’s started to skin, mineral spirits for press cleanup, lint rollers, and shop rags.

Ink remover and screen reclaim

Reclaim is the second half of every screen’s life. Here’s the workflow:

1. Card off excess ink from the screen and put it back in the bucket.
2. Apply ink remover to both sides of the mesh, scrub with a soft brush, then rinse.
3. Apply emulsion remover (a different chemical), scrub, then pressure-wash the stencil out.
4. Apply haze remover if there’s a ghost image left in the mesh, then rinse.
5. Degrease before re-coating with emulsion.

For step 2, the Saati IR26 Universal Ink Remover handles plastisol, water-based, and discharge ink with one product. Saati is one of the authorized brands we stock for reclaim because we trust the chemistry and our customers have run it for years without issues.

Ventilation matters. Ink remover is solvent-based, and you should be running it in a screen reclaim area with exhaust, not your front office.

Screen printing equipment for sale

A working manual setup needs a press (4-color/1-station is the minimum useful size), a flash dryer, an exposure unit, a washout booth, and a conveyor dryer or heat press for curing. A reasonable startup budget for new manual equipment runs $8,000–$15,000. Used equipment can cut that in half if you know what to look for.

When you buy used equipment, check the following:

• Press registration: does each station lock tight, or does it wobble under squeegee pressure?
• Pallets: are they flat, or warped from years of flash heat?
• Flash dryer: does it reach 240°F across the full pallet, or only in the center?
• Exposure unit: what’s the bulb hour count? Metal halide bulbs lose intensity past 1,000 hours.
• Conveyor dryer: belt condition, heater coil function, and IR temp readings at three points across the belt.

We don’t sell used presses, but we stock the inks and supplies that fit every major press brand: M&R, Riley Hopkins, Workhorse, Anatol, Vastex, Brown.

Troubleshooting common screen printing problems

Ink won’t cure. Check your dryer belt speed and IR temp. Plastisol needs 320°F through the entire ink film, not just the surface. Use a donut probe or temp strip on the shirt itself to verify.

Pinholes in the stencil. Either dust on your film, contamination on your mesh, or under-exposure. Degrease screens before coating and inspect emulsion-coated screens under safelight before exposure.

Ink bleeding under the stencil. Off-contact distance is too low. Set off-contact at 1/16” to 1/8” depending on press size. Also check that your blockout tape is sealed.

Stencil washing out completely. Under-exposed. Bump your exposure time up by 20% and re-test with an exposure calculator.

Ghost image after reclaim. That’s stain, not emulsion. Use a dedicated haze remover after emulsion remover. Don’t try to scrub it out with more ink degrader.

White ink too thin on dark shirts. Drop to a lower mesh (110 or 86), use a softer squeegee (70 durometer), slow the stroke down, and flash between hits. A two-hit white with a flash between is standard practice on black garments.

Registration drifting during the run. Check your micros for tightness, verify the platen isn’t moving, and confirm your pallet tack is gripping the shirt. Pallet adhesive wears out faster than people expect.

Buying screen printing supplies: what to look for

Three things separate a supply house worth using from one that wastes your time.

Stock that’s actually in the warehouse. Plenty of catalogs list products they don’t have. Check ship dates before ordering on a tight deadline.

A real person who knows the products. If you call with a technical question about cure temps or mesh selection and the answer is “let me transfer you,” that’s not technical support. That’s a call center.

Honest product information. If a vendor only ever recommends the most expensive option, they’re selling, not advising. The right ink for a 12-shirt one-color job isn’t the same as the right ink for a 5,000-piece athletic contract.

We sell our own ink line because we wanted product we could stand behind. We sell authorized brands like Saati, Wilflex, and Siser because they earned the shelf space.

Frequently asked questions

Where can I buy screen printing supplies near me?

Most working print shops in the US can get next-day shipping from at least one regional supplier, so “near me” matters less than it used to. We ship from New Jersey and reach most of the East Coast and Midwest in 1–2 business days. Check your local screen printing supply houses for walk-in pickup if you need ink or screens same-day for an emergency.

What supplies do I need to start screen printing?

Minimum kit: a press (manual 4/1 or 6/1), aluminum screens with 156 mesh, photo emulsion and sensitizer, a scoop coater, a film printer with film, an exposure unit, a washout booth, plastisol ink in your starting colors, squeegees in 70 and 80 durometer, blockout tape, spray tack, a flash dryer, and either a conveyor dryer or a heat press for curing.

How long does plastisol ink last on the shelf?

Sealed plastisol ink has a shelf life of 1–3 years stored at 65–75°F out of direct sunlight. Once opened, give it a stir before each use and keep the lid sealed between runs. Ink that’s been stored hot or frozen may separate, but it usually mixes back together with a good stir.

What’s the difference between plastisol and water-based ink?

Plastisol is a PVC-based ink that sits on top of the fabric and cures with heat at 320°F. Water-based ink soaks into the fabric fibers and dries, leaving a soft hand and a faded vintage look. Plastisol is more opaque on dark garments and easier to print. Water-based is softer to the touch and more eco-friendly.

What mesh count should I use for screen printing?

156 mesh is the most common all-purpose count for plastisol on cotton. Use 110 mesh for white underbase and athletic prints where you need a thicker ink deposit. Use 230–305 mesh for halftones, simulated process, and fine detail work. Use 80–86 mesh for puff ink and specialty inks that need a heavy lay-down.

How do I cure plastisol ink properly?

Plastisol cures at 320°F throughout the ink film. Set your conveyor dryer for 90–120 seconds at a belt temp that brings the ink to 320°F. Verify with a temp probe or donut probe placed under the shirt, not just an air-temp reading. Under-cured ink cracks and washes off; over-cured ink scorches the garment.

What is the best emulsion for screen printing?

Dual-cure emulsion is the best all-around choice for production shops. It exposes fast (30–90 seconds with a metal halide unit), holds up to plastisol and water-based inks, and reclaims cleanly. Pure photopolymer is faster but less water-resistant. Diazo is slower but more forgiving for shops without dedicated exposure equipment.

How do I remove plastisol ink from a screen?

Apply an ink remover like Saati IR26 to both sides of the screen, scrub with a soft brush, and rinse. Then apply emulsion remover, scrub, and pressure-wash the stencil out. Finish with a haze remover if there’s a ghost image, then degrease before re-coating. Always work in a ventilated area; ink remover is solvent-based.

Can I screen print at home without expensive equipment?

You can print at home with a single screen, a hinge clamp, a homemade exposure setup (a 500W halogen work light works in a pinch), and a household iron for curing small batches. The quality and consistency won’t match production equipment, but it’s enough to learn on. For paid work, invest in a real flash and conveyor dryer.

What squeegee durometer should I use?

70 durometer for general-purpose work and ink deposit balance. 60 durometer for thick whites and athletic prints where you want more ink down. 80 durometer for sharper edges and standard plastisol. 90 durometer for halftones and fine detail. Triple-ply 60/90/60 squeegees give you a versatile single option that prints sharp and feels balanced.

How much off-contact should I set for screen printing?

1/16” to 1/8” off-contact is standard for most garment printing. Larger platens (16” x 20” and up) need slightly more, around 1/8”. Too little off-contact and your stencil sticks to the shirt and smears. Too much and you lose registration and need higher squeegee pressure to push ink through.

What’s the best plastisol ink for screen printing T-shirts?

For cotton shirts, a low-bleed white plastisol like our Total Ink AmeriFLEX line covers underbase and direct-print needs without dye migration on most fabrics. For colors, a standard plastisol mixed to your Pantone covers 90% of garment work. For poly-blends and athletic wear, switch to a low-cure poly-specific plastisol that fully cures at 270–280°F to prevent ghosting.

Where to go from here

If you’re staring at this article because you’re stocking a new shop or replacing a tired vendor, the fastest path is to pick one ink line, one emulsion, one mesh count, and one squeegee durometer, and lock those in as your defaults. Variability in your supply chain is variability in your prints. Once your baseline is dialed, expand into specialty inks, finer mesh, and softer squeegees as the jobs demand them.

Stock up on consumables before you run out, not after. A shop that goes down for a day waiting on tape and pellon costs more in lost production than a year of standing inventory. Give us a shout if you want a recommendation on a starter stack for your specific press setup, and we’ll tell you what we’d put on our own shelf.