glossy tonal

[TheInkJedi]

Just gonna throw this out there to see if anyone has suggestions. We use Rutland's M3 mixing system in the shop. Have a customer who wants a tonal print (no problem) but wants it glossy as well. I've tried various gels such as Epic HD Clear, S.H.A.P.E., Super gel clear, Nova base, and currently waiting to hear back on the Viscosity Buster mix I just gave them, but everything we try is either darkening the tonal, or doesn't have the shine we're looking for. We even tried heat tapping it using a piece of Teflon, to no avail. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.   

Thanks for your time.

[Doug B]

  Are you mixing the gel/clear, etc. into the ink? If so, I would try just putting a clear top coat after flash.

[mimosatexas]

that would be my suggestion: straight on top, teflon if needed

[TheInkJedi]

No, the buster mix (which didn't work) is the only one we mixed into the ink. The gel coat has it's own screen that we keep cleaning out when we try something new. I joked and told the boss that I could get some cheese cloth and strain out the glitter from the Crystalina we have sitting about, and try that. He did not see the humor in this. LOL 

[BP]

Not sure what color of shirt your printing, but I would just print epic HD flash epic HD. On must colors of shirts it will look tonal.

[TheInkJedi]

 Dark gray shirt, with a black tonal ink (custom made). At this point the general opinion is that the customer is being a pain. The press op and I have basically wasted our day screwing around with this. (grumble) We are waiting for word back from them on our latest offering. Fingers crossed.

Thanks everyone for your input. I'll let you know what we finally do.   

[blue moon]

could you do foil?

pierre

[TheInkJedi]

We could have done foil, but due to the size of the order, it was just not realistic. In the end, due to a shot in the dark, the customer decided that they wanted more sparkle than gloss. We ran it with a Warm Gray tonal, flash, OneStroke Pearlescent cut with Primer Clear Coat, Flash, Teflon Heat-stamp. It looked... interesting, but the customer loved it, and signed off on the approval (finally).

Thanks again for everyone's input. Much appreciated.