Ultra High Build 3-D Printing Anyone?? I want to play with this.

[Itsa Little CrOoked]

We've all seen these kind of "Special Effects" prints at workshops. I've never been the least bit interested in learning a skill I'll never use. But situations change, and I wish I'd have paid more attention. It seems like I remember a "secret sauce" but I didn't care.

I'm not entirely sure I can even expose a 250 micron stencil, but suddenly I've got this NEED to play. Having an auto that can "do the work" while I do something more important is partly what has piqued my interest. Making this Olde Pharte do the lugubrious round and round and round on a manual to achieve a 3-D just AIN'T gonna happen. But I've got a design idea that I THINK will sell for way too much money. (We have a retail store In front.    Why, I don't know...)

I want to try this with my normal WR-25 emulsion FIRST, before I'd resort to buying any capillary film. 

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Xv7qRwqft7c#

Do any of you have this nonsense down pat?

[Screen Dan]

Once, a very long time ago, I had a defective shirt on press.  It had an elaborate revolver program that involved a clear gel base, a white base, all the colors and then a top gel white over everything...it was a little heavier than your average print but nothing crazy.  Since it was a defect I decided "screw it, let's leave it on and see what happens."...no thick stencils at all in this setup.

Well, after an 8 hours shift it looked really freakin' cool.  It was probably about 2000 microns...but this thing had gone around hundreds of times on a revolver program with essentially 3 base plates (all on 110s) and it only resulted in a buildup of roughly 2000 microns.

Phat films are a bit on the pricey side and also a tremendous pain the the butt.  We switched over to high solids content emulsion for those jobs.  With a buildup board we can get anywhere from 500 to 1000 microns easily.  200-500 you can do just with an exaggerated version of the glisten method.

...and depending on how high you're looking to stack you might need additional screens with a thicker stencil, or the same stencil thickness and more off contact (for just that screen)...or both.

I've only played with this stuff before at these crazy thicknesses.  But without Phat Films or a heavy buildup of high solids emulsion you won't be able to do this in a reasonable amount of time.

Unless anyone else has any other tricks I'm not aware of.  In that case I'm all ears.

[3Deep]

Never did it and I don't think we ever will, I don't see a regular customer coming in asking for that type printing maybe some puff ink, plus I think that was a fade that has pass by I could be wrong though.

darryl

[Doug B]

  I played with it about 10 years ago when it was a fad. I agree that if you want to try,
use phat cap or a high solids. Might be cool to give for Christmas presents but we
never sold an actual job with a print like that.

[Itsa Little CrOoked]

I doubt it would ever move through our shop as a custom order. I just can't see it.

But the job I want to print will be something to hang in our showroom for a specific brand of walk-in customer.  FULL retail $$$.

So.  I'll coat up some screens and see if I can fully expose them. If I can't I'll stop right there. I've got a micron gauge and some 10X loupes.

I wonder if you can you just mix HD Clear (like Wilflex) and plastisol for this? Or do you have to use tints?

[Screen Dan]

HD Clear doesn't hold very well above 250 microns or so...but you could stack that.  If you were to dilute that with regular plastisol it would probably fall apart at much lower heights.  This is only based on my experience with HD Clear, mixing with it and screwing around with various screens from 200-700 microns.

I wish I could play around with this stuff.  I had tons of fun with it back when we used to R&D everything under the sun. 

It was definitely a fad and it's definitely over, but, at SGIA shows my favorite part has always been the super-impractical prints in the competitions...though there is still likely a tiny market for stuff like this.  Think Ecco, but more boutique.  That market still exists, it's just tiny compared to what it used to be...but that would probably make a new original print of that nature worth that much more given how unlikely you are to come across one.

[KevWilso]

I have been playing with a new low cure low bleed high density white ink this week.  We used a 500 and 700 Phat film from Chromaline.  Our prints were coming out great however we were running the press painfully slow.

Some things we did to make it print nice:
Big Floods with lots of pressure
Very slow print stroke, 2 strokes.
Off contact needs to hover too