"He who marches out of step hears another drum." ~ Ken Kesey
I feel the same way about EOM as you when it comes to underbasing, or especially all white designs on dark garments. I like to keep EOM ratios lower on spot color work and high on underbasing and white on dark. You just don't need 25% EOM on a red print going on top of an underbase white, it's a total waste of emulsion and ink.
Quote from: alan802 on May 30, 2012, 04:33:28 PMI feel the same way about EOM as you when it comes to underbasing, or especially all white designs on dark garments. I like to keep EOM ratios lower on spot color work and high on underbasing and white on dark. You just don't need 25% EOM on a red print going on top of an underbase white, it's a total waste of emulsion and ink.Could not agree more. I think that high EOM on top colors can be a major issue when printing wet on wet. That extra ink will get flattened out and expand then start mixing with touching colors after being smashed by a few screens. I still need some education on printing 5 to 6 colors wet on wet in a row. I am sure I will just get another flash before I get it down. I really don't have time for the frustrations.
I guess I am just trying to do something I shouldn't be trying to do. It wouldn't be the first time. Now I know what to get the business for its 4th year in business. A new flash.
I have a 10 color E-type with one flash. I have the multiprint program so I can send it around again if needed. I will be getting a flash with the stand so I can move it around where needed. Right now my flash is in head 3 and has not moved. I haven't had that many issues with one flash but I know another one will make everything easier.
The one thing that should be done to improve coating is flipping the screen instead of turning it. This allows the emulsion to be applied in opposite directions and will help with the basic function of bridging the mesh with emulsion.
Gilligan and Printficient,This was recently a discussion I had with someone at my office - about just flipping or turning the screen to the other side -- I kinda sided with Printficient because of a video I saw (maybe it's the one posted here recently on coating) -- but lately, we've just been going the path of least resistance, hoping Giligan is right and that it makes no difference. Has anyone tried both methods with the same amount of coats and noticed any difference in printing opacity?Secondly, is there a point at which I should just give up on trying to achieve halftones with coating many times? I'm going to give a go on 7/7 tomorrow on a 150 s mesh (w/chromablue) because quite frankly I thought a 4/2 -- which someone recommended and which I tried today -- didn't end up creating all that great of a thick stencil - perhaps I'm pursuing a lost cause at trying to get a popping white on a first hit? At any rate, a lot of the halftones shot out on the 4/2, but definitely not all. So I am wondering if it gets to a point that the thicker you go with the EOM, the less likely the halftones will shoot out? Assuming you have your exposure unit dialed in perfectly, I am wondering if the halftones would blow out by the time you were able to remove all the layers of emulsion on the stencil? With the 4/2 the halftones didn't "melt" out like with the thinner EOM -- I had to work at them and then it was either stop and let some of them remain closed or start blowing out the ones that were already shot out correctly if I continued on shooting out the screen. Anyone? Beuller?Thanks.
Sounds,like you need some one to spend a little time,with you. Coating 7/7 times wow! And trying to retain halftones at that thickness yikes. Seriously you hear a ton about oem it does not mean everything needs to be a rubber gasket thick. Stepping up to higher mesh counts is just as important as all the other factors when achieving good half tones etc. developing a screen when exposed properly does not require all that much effort even for the smallest dots the screen ca handle, if you have to really work at it your over exposed and yep at that point you will blow out all the low percentage dots. I have always been taught to flip a screen while coating but then I spent a couple years working with an auto coater that only rotated the screen as I was told just like gilligan said gravity etc does the job fine filling in the knuckles.