Thursday, 4 December 2025

Laser Cutting -- into Metal Silk Screen

The key is the STAINLESS STEEL METAL MESH! The CO2 laser cutter will not cut metal.

The test print on fabric


We laser cut an image into a metal silk screen coated with emulsion, at Quelab on December 3, 2025:


The laser cut image was very clean
into metal silk screen

Adric brought in a roll of stainless steel screen (200 mesh hole 74um, 50x50cm), and we stretched and adhered the screen to a wooden stretcher bar frame with a staple gun.  Then we coated it with ecotex TEX BLUE screen printing emulsion using a plastic bondo spreader:

Metal Silk Screen on wooden stretcher bars,
coated with ecotex TEX BLUE screen printing emulsion


We uploaded the image to LightBurn for the laser cutter.  Then when the emulsion dried, we used a CO2 laser to cut away the emulsion in the screen.  We used 80 speed and 30 power, and it took 40 minutes to cut.  However I think we could have used a higher speed and power, to cut faster:

Laser cutting the emulsion off the metal silk screen --
80 speed, 30 power

Note that we laser cut away the photo emulsion.  We did not "harden" the photo emulsion with the laser cutter. Therefore we probably could have just coated with screen filler.  Someone actually just used GUCAMOLE to coat and laser cut his screen.

The final cut


Very detailed cut screen


I choose an AI generated image of a Rhino with Wings as a test image:

More "Street Taco-sized" Prints

Black and White AI image
generated in Midjourney

Street Taco Sized -- AI Linocuts
Maybe the roadrunner would have been
a more appropriate image to laser cut and silk screen


Naturally I took the laser cut silk screen over to the UNM Printmaking Department, to show it off during their student print sale on December 4, 2025:

Student Print Sale at UNM


The next issue is going to be how to RECLAIM and reuse the screen. Perhaps we can just coat it with emulsion again, covering the holes in the open space.  Or we should be able to just use the recommended emulsion remover -- Ecotex® Screen Printing Emulsion Remover.  We used to use Clorox to take the emulsion off the screens.


PREVIOUS

We did a semi-successfully test run on November 26, 2025. There were a lot of pinholes in the emulsion when it dried (but perhaps that was because we used a heat gun to accelerate the drying process). The lowest power (10%) did not burn off the emulsion, but 30% power did a fine job:

Experiment -- Laser Cutting into Silk Screen
An encouraging previous test run

Earlier in October,  all this was just a fantasy when I first blogged about the possibility:

Laser Cutting an image into Silk Screen for printing
FAKE AI animation
illustrated our fantasy of laser cutting into silk screen


FUTURE FORGE

We got the idea from Future Forge Makerspace when we were in Silver City doing a print workshop at the Southwest Print Fiesta last October.  They were interested in the X-Tool system.  They sell a kit with precoated screens for the laser cutter.

NEWSPRINT

I had been interested for years in combining silk screen with a laser cutter.  Back in 2014 we laser cut images into newsprint -- laid the newsprint on a t-shirt, then a silk screen over that and pulled ink over it. The newsprint served as a mask, keeping the ink off the empty parts of the design on the shirt:

Show at the Mothership with Print Exchange
Laser cut newsprint
used for silk screening a t-shirt


DIODE LASERS

Apparently we can also use a diode laser to cut away the emulsion from a metal silk screen. So perhaps I can go on location and laser cut images with my Laserpecker 2 into metal silk screens:

Laserpecker 2 Prints
Laser cutting linoleum
with the Laserpecker 2 laser cutter


OTHER LINKS


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