How do you get your ink to 90º?

[StuJohnston]

I read this in the article posted the other day about printing without additives, hope it's ok to start a topic that is specific to one part of the article. Exactly as the title states, I have a drying room that is possibly hot enough to get ink to that temperature, but when it's in a quart or gallon how long will it take? Do you have to stir it every 10 minutes or something?

[mimosatexas]

i know lots of people put the bucket on top of their dryers to heat it up.  I rarely worry about it here in Texas....

[StuJohnston]

The top of my dryer gets to a whopping 75 this time of year, so unless I direct the exhaust into a box that I put ink into, I don't think that will work. Speaking of, I don't really like the idea of putting them on top of a flash dryer either, too afraid of knocking them off. I guess The dry room idea is the winner for me. Seems like there would be some sort of purchasable solution like a recirculating hot water tub.

[mimosatexas]

there are probably a dozen ways you could do it, but they all would require building and testing stuff.  The dry room is a common solution I have seen people mention a lot.  You could put it on the ground below your flash as well, depending on the type of flash, and it would probably heat it up after a bit.

[Colin]

Put squeegee's, floodbar and ink in screens.

Flood the image area (just pull the print carriage forward letting the flood bar move the ink).

Warm up pallets.

The heat will radiate from the pallets into the screen/ink.

This will quickly warm up your ink.

[StuJohnston]

Put squeegee's, floodbar and ink in screens.

Flood the image area (just pull the print carriage forward letting the flood bar move the ink).

Warm up pallets.

The heat will radiate from the pallets into the screen/ink.

This will quickly warm up your ink.

This is what I do now, but the article also specifically mentioned heating up the ink, specifically to 90. So I thought it might be something that some people did, assuming this was some sort of common-ish method like the above. Just that I hadn't heard it before.

I guess I only sort of do this because my press does not have screens parallel to the platens at rest.

I'll have to shoot the floor and see what sort of temp it runs with the flash over it.

[Binkspot]

I keep our white and poly inks in the screen room this time of the year, 65-70 degrees a good starting point.

Like Colin said I'll put ink in the screens and dry cycle the press with the flash on. The heat in the pallets will warm the ink up quickly. Once printing it will stay warm in the screens.

John Sheridan (I think) posted some pictures some time ago of a plywood box with holes cut in the top to set buckets in. There was a light bulb for heat and a fan at one end to warm the ink up. Something I have wanted to make for quite some time now.

Greg, here on the boards keeps his white in a Turnabout Mixer. First thing in the morning his guys turn it on, by the time they are ready to print the ink is good.

Watch keeping the ink under the flash. If you forget about it the ink may cure in the bucket.

[jsheridan]

John Sheridan (I think) posted some pictures some time ago of a plywood box with holes cut in the top to set buckets in. There was a light bulb for heat and a fan at one end to warm the ink up. Something I have wanted to make for quite some time now.

That's funny.. I was just going to reply with that.

It's a simple box made from 2x4's and plywood on wheels. You cut holes in top, put in a row of 100 watt INCANDESCENT bulbs on the bottom and a 110 cabinet fan to move the heat around.

If you want to get really fancy you can wire in a thermostat so you can set it and forget it.
If you need want something bigger.. for your 5 gallons or you want to make a cart that holds all the ink for your 14 color press you can wire in a small baseboard heater to your 'ink box'

If you live in a cold area, your ink 'room'.. read room not open air shelves.. can be heated to 70 to during the cold months.

[whitewater]

we have a dark screen room, its sort of small, but we keep our inks in there..and in winter keep a small heater running all the time.

[Croft]

we leave our white in the mixer with a small space heater pointed at it , I usually turn it on 1/2 before we need it and it helps. I find my Wilflex  colors Ok .  Poly white and Dyno grey are kept near a spot dryer with the lids on and
if we need we remove the lids to let a little more heat in .
  As we did today if we can't finish a job from the previous day we have to scrape out the majority of the white and put in mixer. I also start with a smaller amount of ink on the press so that when the platens heat up they will keep the ink
flowing after about 15 min we can add more and then just keep it going.

personally the heated wooden box would keep me up at night. I'm sure it works and have thought of doing it.