Mixing System??

[Redeemed]

I'm looking at buying into one of these two system, any help on making a decision would be greatly appreciated!

Wilflex Epic Equalizer PC color mixing system

Wilflex Epic Rio Color Mixing System

[dirkdiggler]

I have both and equalizers win for me hands down, way more powerful of a tool.

[Colin]

Any Pigment type system (equalizers in this case) will be more flexible and have greater range than any ready for use mixing system.

I will always vote for pigments or equalizers into a range of bases.

[Redeemed]

I have both and equalizers win for me hands down, way more powerful of a tool.

Could you elaborate on that a little! Any difference in Opacity, Ease of Use ETC, thanks.

[Redeemed]

Any Pigment type system (equalizers in this case) will be more flexible and have greater range than any ready for use mixing system.

I will always vote for pigments or equalizers into a range of bases.

Yes that's what I was reading about the flexibility of the Equalizer but also in reading on the wilflex site its said that when blended according to formulations, resulting colors vary in opacity from translucent to semi-opaque.

The Rio is supposed to be the most opaque mixing system, Are you finding this to be true or is it really not that big of a factor? Thanks again for the help.

[1964GN]

While we haven't mix a ton of colors with the Rio system, what we have mixed has been very opaque and it's running great WOW with very little build up.

[Colin]

Any Pigment type system (equalizers in this case) will be more flexible and have greater range than any ready for use mixing system.

I will always vote for pigments or equalizers into a range of bases.

Yes that's what I was reading about the flexibility of the Equalizer but also in reading on the wilflex site its said that when blended according to formulations, resulting colors vary in opacity from translucent to semi-opaque.

The Rio is supposed to be the most opaque mixing system, Are you finding this to be true or is it really not that big of a factor? Thanks again for the help.

Well, what kind of prints are you doing? 

Are you doing straight vector designs and flashing every color? (either system will work)
Are you doing lots of sim-process or halftone blending? (pigment systems are better suited to this for opacity/blending flexibility, but both work)
Are you doing lots of super soft prints or special effects? (pigment systems allllll day long)

Knowing what you want to print will help you decide which system to get.

[Prince Art]

We're considering a pigment system too; but one of the concerns I've read about in the past is the difficulty of accurately mixing small batches. What do you experienced users think about this, specifically in a shop with smaller runs? (50-150 pieces is average, over 300 is occasional.) We want the flexibility of pigments, but not sure if ease of use of ink-to-ink might outweigh the benefits of pigments for us.

[AntonySharples]

We're considering a pigment system too; but one of the concerns I've read about in the past is the difficulty of accurately mixing small batches. What do you experienced users think about this, specifically in a shop with smaller runs? (50-150 pieces is average, over 300 is occasional.) We want the flexibility of pigments, but not sure if ease of use of ink-to-ink might outweigh the benefits of pigments for us.

We use the Epic Equalizer system with Synergy base.  Way easier to control, especially for what you are looking at it for.

[screenprintguy]

We're considering a pigment system too; but one of the concerns I've read about in the past is the difficulty of accurately mixing small batches. What do you experienced users think about this, specifically in a shop with smaller runs? (50-150 pieces is average, over 300 is occasional.) We want the flexibility of pigments, but not sure if ease of use of ink-to-ink might outweigh the benefits of pigments for us.

We use the Epic Equalizer system with Synergy base.  Way easier to control, especially for what you are looking at it for.

Going this route too!!! SYnergy is the beezzzzzzneeeezzzzzzz!!!!

[Stinkhorn Press]

thirding, synergy base with epic (PC not EQ however) colors
we run stuff pretty similar to you, Prince (as you describe it there). BUT we were also pretty comfortable with mixing Matsui's discharge/WB line which is ridiculously complicated to do well which meant we weren't overly concerned with "easiest to do, hardest to screw up" as a deciding factor...

[Colin]

We're considering a pigment system too; but one of the concerns I've read about in the past is the difficulty of accurately mixing small batches. What do you experienced users think about this, specifically in a shop with smaller runs? (50-150 pieces is average, over 300 is occasional.) We want the flexibility of pigments, but not sure if ease of use of ink-to-ink might outweigh the benefits of pigments for us.

We typically mix 500 gram to 800 gram batches.  We use the Rutland C3 system and use a couple different bases.  In order to get the best mixes you want a scale that measures to 0.01 grams accurately. 

But yea, some of those 0.05 gram weights are a pain....

[Prince Art]

We use Rutland's M3 system for mixing. Sometimes we do mixes as low as 250-300 grams, but the lower side of 500-800 sounds about right. Our scale goes to hundreths, can't say how perfectly accurate it may or may not be. With most colors, I haven't noticed being off by a couple hundreths making a difference. I've just been concerned that with pigments or equalizers, we could run into trouble.

One of my other concerns is CPSIA compliance. From initial research, it appears that Wilflex provides the necessary documentation to issue certificates based on their component testing. (That's if their info is up to date.) The only other company I know that provides all full documentation is One Stroke. With that as a requirement, I don't know if Synergy base would be an option. Any input on that is welcome... unless I'm too far off the OP's question. 

[Redeemed]

We use Rutland's M3 system for mixing. Sometimes we do mixes as low as 250-300 grams, but the lower side of 500-800 sounds about right. Our scale goes to hundreths, can't say how perfectly accurate it may or may not be. With most colors, I haven't noticed being off by a couple hundreths making a difference. I've just been concerned that with pigments or equalizers, we could run into trouble.

One of my other concerns is CPSIA compliance. From initial research, it appears that Wilflex provides the necessary documentation to issue certificates based on their component testing. (That's if their info is up to date.) The only other company I know that provides all full documentation is One Stroke. With that as a requirement, I don't know if Synergy base would be an option. Any input on that is welcome... unless I'm too far off the OP's question. 

All Info is good so we can all learn something we might not have known before! The OP is wanting to know about Epic Rio VS Epic Equalizer, I know they are definitely different systems but was wanting to know about peoples experience with them Especially Epic Rio because it is newer!

Thanks to everyone that has been offering your experiences!

[farmboygraphics]

Sorry for the slight derail, but what are the advantages of using the Synergy base? I'm currently using the Amazing Base. When mixing do you match gram for gram?