the lab is up! and almost perfect. i spent most of the night spraying out emulsion cause like an idiot i emulsed and burned all 3 screens without making sure it worked. apparently the plexiglass, being held in place by nothing but the four walls of the light box, so it bows down. simple physics dictates that a flat object, represented in this case by our screens, on a concave or warped object, our glass, the result will typically be a shit of a screen with diffuse blurry images.
the good news, my screen cleaner works. should get kinks out tomorrow...