If you want to print onto fabric you should build a print table that is specifically made to print fabric. Luckily, you can also use it to print t-shirts, paper, posters, or tote-bags. I built a print surface with table feet on the bottom for two reasons, 1. I can it take to different places if I need to (like friends houses who want to print) and 2.I don’t have to worry about where I put it; the feet will make sure it’s always level for printing. It’s entirely possible to use this DIY to make a permanent table, like on a table top.
I used this same procedure to build my twelve foot long table that I used to print fabric yardage.
The supplies that you will need:
- a wood surface that is smooth and perfectly flat (use a level to check this) and large enough to print the biggest of your print projects. I made mine 34″x24″. (3/4″ plywood)
- 1 piece industrial wool felt (two pieces of craft wool felt or thick melton cloth could do instead) with the same dimensions as your print surface
- 2 pieces of medium weight unbleached canvas (washed and dried) as large as your print surface plus extra, long enough to cover the sides of your print surface and two inches.
- 4 adjustable feet for the bottom of your print surface (you can skip this step if you build a permanent surface)
- a staple gun
Step 1:
Mark the spot where you want your table to have the foot on each corner. Make sure you have it inset at least one and a half inches from the edge.
Step 2:
Install the nut and foot.
First, drill the hole for the nut that holds your table foot.
Here’s the table foot and nut that you will need.
Hammer in the nut.
Then screw in the foot so that it is just snug.
The industrial wool felt ideally should be 1/2 inch thick. I bought mine from a supplier that sells felt for manufacturing, Brand Felt, in Ontario Canada. You can look in your telephone book or on the internet to see if there is an industrial wool felt dealer near you. This is what professional print tables are built with- it can last for more than twenty years. Alternatively, you can buy two layers of thick melton cloth (melton cloth is a heavyweight, dense, compacted, and tightly woven wool or wool blend fabric used mainly for coats) or .75″ thick high density foam (it should be ridged not spongy at all).
Step 3: Cut the wool felt to size. It should be the exact measurements as your print surface.
Step 5: Lay your first layer of canvas on the floor. Then lay your felt on top of that and then your print surface (if you are making a print surface on a permanent surface like a table top then lay your felt on the table top and then the canvas).
I used an electric staple gun but a manual could work too, it would depend if your print surface is really hard, if it is then an electric gun will make the job easier. You want to staple the canvas just as you would apply mesh to a silk screen frame. Start at one end of the underside of the print surface, put in one staple, put the next staple directly accross from it, pulling the fabic so it’s tight. Here’s the step by step guide on how to staple mesh to a frame.
Mitre the corners so that they are tight and smooth. Once you finish all the stapling trim the excess fabric close to the staples so it doesn’t get in the way underneath.
Here you have your portable print surface with feet- ready to go!
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hi there i really like your article and is a good idea but how do you secure your screen to the table to be able to print with it?i guess you can only make single layer prints as registration would be hard?also to fix the material onto the table to print on do you just pin it?is this enough to hold it so that the material doesn’t move while printing?thanks!
simon
Hi,
When you are printing fabric on a table like this you don’t secure your frame in place with anything more than your hands and the pressure you use when printing. The screen really won’t move- there is a certain amount of tension that forms between the screen and the ink that keeps it in place. But if you register your screens properly for fabric printing then you you can print as many colours as you need to. So yes, multi-layered prints are very possible. Here is a blog post on how to register your screens for fabric printing. It’s a three part series and you might want to read all of them to understand fuly registration for paper and for fabric. And here is one that details what you use to pin or to adhere your fabric.
awesome thank you so much for all your help,i am very keen to try this out!
This is excellent, thank you – just what I need!
I’m about to make one for myself, but I have a question for you: what’s the second piece of canvas for? In the list of supplies, it says “2 pieces of medium weight unbleached canvas… “, but I can only see one being used. Have I missed something??
Thanks,
kate
Hi- You haven’t missed anything. The second piece is applied right over the first. It gives it a bit more tension and it keeps the expensive felt from getting ink and pigment on it.
Good luck.
Brilliant, thanks!
This is a great how-to! We used to use several layers of army-surplus wool blankets to make smaller print surfaces, worked really well.
Once you have the table made what do you use to coat the surface of the canvas so the dye/ink doesn’t transfer each time you do a new print. I use fabric dyes and the surface of my old table was waxed with a sticky spreadable coating which not only kept the fabric in place but was water proof and could be wiped after each printing to keep clean. Unfortunately that wax is no longer available or at least I can’t find any. Any suggestions?
You can get an adhesive plaster paper from a sign making store- it come in a huge roll. Or you can do like i do and use the plastic table coverings they sell at fabric stores by the meter.
Thanks. I haven’t had a proper printing table since I left school 8 years ago and am feeling the need for one again. This is pretty much how I imagined doing it, but needed the confidence of another opinion to move forward. Am eager to watch the tutorial on registration for printing yardage because my table won’t be set up like they were in the studio at art school, leaving me a bit lost!
I am currently establishing a 16′ fabric printing table in my studio so that I can print yardage for my one of a kind wearable art pieces. Unfortunately this new studio is not as wide as my old studio so I need to develop a removable registration system. Have you ever built a removable registration system for a fabric printing table. The closest is probably the wooden T-bar system, which I am now considering trying, but my screens are larger than those shown in the photograph (blog post above) and I don’t have an assistant. With nothing to butt up against I am afraid the screen will move when I am printing. Any and all suggestions are welcome! Thanks.
Sure, My screens were 47″ tall and 37″ wide and my print table was 48″ wide and 12′ long which allowed me to print 42″-45″ fabric widths. I never used a rail for registration, only a t-bar and a tape line on the table to mark registration points. I also never needed an assistant. Screens that size are heavy and almost never move once you get the feeling for them and I’m only 5’4″ so I’m sure you can do it too. Good luck.
What grade felt do you recommend?
Im not sure what grades are used for felt but I used industrial 1/2″ wool felt, you should at least buy 1’4″ wool felt- synthetic would be my last option.
Great info. I am desperate to make my own table. I have sourced the felt already. The print studio I hire time at has another layer of rubber between the felt and calico. Have you had experience of this type of table and if so can you tell much of a difference between them? Good to know I don’t necessarily need the rubber surface as I am having trouble finding out exactly what it is.
No, I have never heard of this but perhaps they do it just to protect the felt from the moisture? I’m quite sure you don’t need it- so skip it if you can’t find it.
So, if I want to print fabric yardage, is a table longer than the yardage being printed essential? Is it feasable, without pulling your hair out, to print an all-over tiled pattern on 10 yards of fabric using a four foot long table, for instance?
It will be extremely inefficient if not impossible. You’ll need a table as long as the fabric so that you can print every second repeat, wait for those to dry and then fill in the spots that you skipped.
So you wouldn’t recommend printing in sections if the yardage is longer than your surface? What if someone wants, like 20 yards?
Also, if you are printing a pattern that needs to line up flush to itself on every repeat, do you subtract a sixteenth or some small amount from the repeat marks no ensure no gaps, or just build some overage into the art?
Thanks so much! I love this site.
Ya’, I definitely wouldn’t recommend it. Definitely! Whether you are using adhesive or pinning your fabric when you unpin or lift your fabric your cloth is going to shift and make color registration impossible.
I’m not exactly sure what you are talking about in the second part of your question. Do you mean two different colours in the pattern? Are you wondering if you need a bit of overage so there is no white space between colours? Then, if yes, you should make the lighter of the two colours 1/16th larger so that it can fill any unwanted gaps.
This is a great tutorial, but I am just getting into screenprinting and am wondering if something like this is overkill for small, single color prints on napkins or teatowels. I have only printed on paper so far, so I am not fully understanding the need for the felt – except that it serves as a place to pin the fabric? I am trying to come up with a cheaper option since I’m new to this, and am thinking of covering several thick, flat layers of cardboard with the canvas, then I could still pin the fabric in. Do you think this would work?
Also, do you have a cheap alternative to an emulsion coater, or is that really the best tool to not make a mess or waste your emulsion?
The felt give a bit of firmness but also a bit of give. Unlike paper the ink passes into the fiber not just onto it. That’s why fabric is printed on contact. I don’t think card board is going to do the trick.
But a scoop coater- it’s a good investment.
Hi again,
So, I will try to stop with all of my questions as I’m sure you have things to do…
Most people want more than four feet of fabric at a time, but I can only build a four-foot-long table given my space. Now, since you have printed for people I’m wondering – would I be able to print people’s yardage on a table that small? Do you think they would mind only being able to print a yard and a third at a time?
This is why I was wondering about printing four feet, then moving the fabric. I know this would really mess up multicolor designs but how do you feel this would work for simple one-color stuff? I should just build it already and have at it, I know. Tar on my heels.
Hi,
I’d say go ahead and try it. It’s a pain in the butt to have to work with yardage that comes in 4 foot lengths- there would be a lot of waste that way. If you want to try to move the fabric then give it a shot. But remember time is money and this is going to be time consuming for you- it’s just not an efficient way to work.
Good luck,
Michelle
Instead of wool felt for your padded printing table surface, polyester fleece fabric can be used (purchase at any fabric outlet). Also fiber board 1/2 to 3/4 inch thick, laid between the table top (plywood) and padding (felt), can act as a soft surface to easily pin into. Registration threads (silk-extra fine) can be spaced by pinning into the edge of the table surface (fiber board edge) w/ T-pins aiding in over-all pattern registration… used a a grid.
Thanks Dave,
I’m sure my readers will appreciate your info.