Soft top rubber

[Doug S]

Has anyone tried the soft top rubber for printing over seams, buttons etc?  I was looking at on Action Engineerings site.  It says it's 1/4 inch thick which would cause me to use my lowest off-contact.  Is it able to be temporarily mounted to the pallet or is it a permanent mount?

[Screened Gear]

Has anyone tried the soft top rubber for printing over seams, buttons etc?  I was looking at on Action Engineerings site.  It says it's 1/4 inch thick which would cause me to use my lowest off-contact.  Is it able to be temporarily mounted to the pallet or is it a permanent mount?

The rubber they sell is the standard rubber for pallets. Its too hard to work well for over seams. You want a softer foam for over seams. 1/4 is also way to thick for a soft rubber for over seams printing. I use a cheap foam that is 1/16 and it is enough for most stuff I have printed.

[Flash Ink]

All the things that i have read are that soft top rubber is too hard to aid in printing seams and zippers. The solution that I like the best is using neoprene on your pallet. Buy some bulk neoprene, cut the same size as your pallet, spray tack it down and print. We have not tried it ourselves.

[Doug S]

Thanks for the info.  I don't get a call often but there is that occasional person that wants a pocket print on polos.

[Underbase37]

Has anyone tried the soft top rubber for printing over seams, buttons etc?  I was looking at on Action Engineerings site.  It says it's 1/4 inch thick which would cause me to use my lowest off-contact.  Is it able to be temporarily mounted to the pallet or is it a permanent mount?

The rubber they sell is the standard rubber for pallets. Its too hard to work well for over seams. You want a softer foam for over seams. 1/4 is also way to thick for a soft rubber for over seams printing. I use a cheap foam that is 1/16 and it is enough for most stuff I have printed.

I can understand if you don't want put this info out, but what is the 1/16 material you use?, how does it react to the heat?, & pallet adhesives. I have tried some things with not a lot of luck.

Murphy37

[Action1]

Our standard pallet rubber is not suitable for going over seems directly. Although, I am aware of printers using cut pieces of this material to make buildups & zipper easements.

As I’m sure you’re aware, we make pallets specifically designed for printing on these. It has been a popular choice by top companies for many years. There are numerous advantages to using a special purpose pallet over the neoprene method. For one example – the neoprene is not a flash friendly material. For another example – the print accuracy when using the pallet is almost perfect. I could go on further.

We do stock neoprene rubber. It’s a ¼” thick and is preferred by a number of experienced printers. If you’re in need of doing these just once in a while – the neoprene will work for a while. It has one side laminated with nylon and is black. It's identical to a standard mouse pad material.

As for the material being too thick – I invite you to push down on your mouse pad and get a sense for how compressive it is. Your mouse pad is neoprene rubber. Now put your fingers around the thickness of a zipper and hem assembly. I think the ¼" material is right. I’m sure there are others who are using perhaps thinner – and they have probably dialed into it by adjusting other variables such as ink viscosity and pressure.

[Screened Gear]

Has anyone tried the soft top rubber for printing over seams, buttons etc?  I was looking at on Action Engineerings site.  It says it's 1/4 inch thick which would cause me to use my lowest off-contact.  Is it able to be temporarily mounted to the pallet or is it a permanent mount?

The rubber they sell is the standard rubber for pallets. Its too hard to work well for over seams. You want a softer foam for over seams. 1/4 is also way to thick for a soft rubber for over seams printing. I use a cheap foam that is 1/16 and it is enough for most stuff I have printed.

I can understand if you don't want put this info out, but what is the 1/16 material you use?, how does it react to the heat?, & pallet adhesives. I have tried some things with not a lot of luck.

Murphy37

It's no secret. The foam that I have used in the past is called foamies from joans fabric store. Real cheap. I have only used them on my manual. You can flash with them but if flashed too long they will shrink or melt. I just put them on the pallet and then covered with pallet tape. Wrap under your pallet to help jeep them down. It sounds funny but they work. There is alot of options out there. This one is the cheapest and you just throw it away when your done. For zippers I have used these also. You just cut out a channel for the zipper the lay in. I don't do a lot of zippers or over seams but when I have to this works. if you do a lot of over scenes and zippers there are better options if you want to spend some serious $$$

[Get Shirts]

We have Action's zipper pallets and they are incredibly helpful.  We're not running a ton of over the zipper prints, so the initial purchase was hard to make, but it makes the job so much easier that I couldn't imagine not having them.  Keep I mind that they would be useful not only for printing over the zipper but a left/right chest and anything with buttons. 

[Underbase37]

Thanks for the great replies, this is a why I love site, you can get answers from industry manufacturers & printers with their in-house production experience. I will always be intrigued to try all kinds of different products, the trouble- shooting & problem solving are a big part of what keeps this job exciting for me( also my love of art). We do have some ( like 20 ) of the Action pallets & use them on a lot of things. I will say I like the idea of the foam being only 1/16 thick. I was looking for a good thin rubber for doing those over the zipper over the pocket hoodie jobs.

Thanks again, if there is any more who want to chime in on this I would love to hear more.

Murphy37

[Screened Gear]

The foam maybe 1/8. They come in two thicknesses it's the thicker one. I haven't used it in over a year.

[blue moon]

reach out to Rick Roth at mirror image. he is a member here (rickrothmi) and you can PM him for the info. For $100 he'll get you all the info you need to print over the seams and he even sent me a couple of samples of the material. It is foam, but nothing like anything being discussed here.

It cna be done with neoprene and other foams, but this stuff works great and we've printed many things over zippers and hoodie pocket seams without any ink build up!

For anybody thinking this is too much money to pay, look at this way. Rick spent a better part of the week testing materials and procedures to come with the solution. How much is your time worth?

pierre

[Orion]

Subscribe to the ink kitchen, for a hint to foam top pallets.

http://www.theinkkitchen.com

[Frog]

That stuff ain't cheap! (At least not from the heat seal people)

[Screened Gear]

Subscribe to the ink kitchen, for a hint to foam top pallets.

http://www.theinkkitchen.com

That's funny they posted that article. I have been working on a new option for a foam to use on some over sized pallets. I was narrowed down to a silicone-based foam. My thinking was its the same stuff used on heat presses so it should last a long time. It is also High temp up to something like 500 degrees. So it would be a good permanent option.

[blue moon]

huh, interesting. 'different from what we are using, will have to call Rick and get a low down if it works better.

pierre