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Review of Screen Technique’s Ergonomic Squeegees

Months ago, I was sitting by the front door of my shop killing time by reading Impressions Magazine, which you should subscribe to if you don’t already. Anyway, there was an ad for ergonomic squeegees called “EZ Squeegee” made by a company called Screen Technique. I was definitely interested, but always being on a tight budget, I never ordered any until recently. I bought a 9″, 12″, and 15″ model. They’re not cheap as it cost me about $100 including shipping for the three squeegees. I previously had only used wooden squeegees, having about ten in use, 4 10″ and 4 14″ as well as a couple of 15 or 16″ squeegees. They work well but after a while printing with them, the wood starts to feel rough. Using wooden squeegees for the six hour print job I did a few weeks ago wore a blister on my right hand between my thumb and index finger, which has turned into a big callus with continued printing.

Anyway, the ergo squeegees are pretty great. At first, I didn’t think they were that fantastic, but after doing a few hundred prints with them, I really like how they are designed and using them.

Positives:

• Ergonomically designed! It’s just easier and more comfortable to use them, and it reduces strain on your fingers and wrists in long print runs.
• They are magnetic and come with a metal clip to go on the end of your screen, which is awesome, for the most part. It allows you to do your one or two print strokes then do your flood stroke, pulling the squeegee towards you then you just lay the squeegee down and it clings to the metal clip with magnetic force, then you can let your screen up and pull off the shirt or spin to the next screen or whatever.
• Much thicker than normal wooden squeegees, so it feels like a more natural grip because your hands are not clenched so much.

Negatives:

• Cost. They are well designed and probably worth $30 each, but I can’t afford to get 4 of each size, at least not at this time. Wonderful for doing one or two colors since I have three, but what about when I do a 4 color print for hours and want four identical size blades? I’ll just have to budget for it, when I can afford to treat myself.
• There’s a ridge across the top of the squeegee where the two pieces of plastic met. Out of the three squeegees I got, the ridge is a little rough on two of them, which rubs against your skin, becoming unpleasant after a while of printing. It’s not a huge deal but I would prefer it not to be there and thought that they could have designed it to avoid that.
• It’s easy to flood and get ink onto the metal clip that goes on the top of the screen’s frame so that when you lay down/cling the squeegee to the clip, you get ink on the squeegee. I’ve been having this happen when I just have too much ink in the ink well area of the screen, so I’ve had to stop and clean off the clip and the squeegee at times. I like having a lot of ink on the screen to make flooding easiest (doing a flood stroke in just one stroke is best to avoid bleeding and can so be done with adequate ink on the screen), so I will just have to deal with it and work to avoid it.

So, overall, really nice squeegees. I’ll use them every time I can. When I get more, I will get a higher durometer, 80 instead of 70, just to have it more firm across the length of the entire blade.

I think this is going to be one of those things in screen printing that makes me look back and wonder how I ever got along without it.

(NOTE: I am no way endorsed or compensated by Screen Technique for doing this product review.)