Wet on wet/what mesh count is best.

[ZooCity]

Yep.  If you got tight art, that's built with the gear in mind, you can make a beautiful print with damn near any kind of ink or press setup. 

[blue moon]

Yep.  If you got tight art, that's built with the gear in mind, you can make a beautiful print with damn near any kind of ink or press setup.

yes, just look at us! If a clueless hack like me can do well with his seps, I would imagine almost anybody can. I think was not printing for six months when Dan did our first seps, and the prints came better than most shops in town can do. And I did not have a clue 1!

As far as the inks, Union's maxo and mixo are not WOW friendly. They do make an additive that helps. From experience, I can als say that high opacity QCM is not WOW friendly either. Both of those companies make inks designed for WOW and in Union's case, they even have a simulated process line.

pierre

[Rockers]

How about the Wilflex Epic inks. I`m talking pigment concentrates with an epic base. Which base would be suitable for wow printing?

[ZooCity]

How about the Wilflex Epic inks. I`m talking pigment concentrates with an epic base. Which base would be suitable for wow printing?

We run the regular Epic Base for WOW, works great.  We use PCs too and if you go maximum pigment in an ink you'll hurt it's WOW characteristics but that goes without saying.   

I'm hoping to have something worthy to try out the halftone mixing base soon and see if that improves the WOW characteristics at all. 

[jasonl]

We use wilflex epic inks exclusively for WOW with EXCELLENT results.

[Rockers]

We use wilflex epic inks exclusively for WOW with EXCELLENT results.

You are using the ready mixed inks or PC with base? If so which base do you use for wow?

[ScreenPrinter123]

We predominately use the Union Plus line for top WOW colors.  Has anyone used Union's Plus line in addition to another brand/line that was found to be significantly superior for WOW (i.e., worth changing to from the Union Plus Series)?

[JBLUE]

We use wilflex epic Pc and have started Testing Ruflands C3. Wilflex Epic has some issues with breakdown and color shifts on the auto. That's what git us to look at C3. I can tell you that the c3 has not done any of that so far. It holds up with a lot less breakdown over longer runs.

[Rockers]

How about the Wilflex Epic inks. I`m talking pigment concentrates with an epic base. Which base would be suitable for wow printing?

We run the regular Epic Base for WOW, works great.  We use PCs too and if you go maximum pigment in an ink you'll hurt it's WOW characteristics but that goes without saying.   

I'm hoping to have something worthy to try out the halftone mixing base soon and see if that improves the WOW characteristics at all.

Well the halftone base is very transparent, as it is for CMYK process colors. Dont`think the result will be very good. That`s what the guys at Wilflex told me today. They recommend for light garments  Epic mixing base + PC and reducing the mix down with 10% softhand clear + 10% curable reducer. If you are talking black or darks on white base, then stick with Epic mixing base 100% +PC.

[ZooCity]

Bad advice regarding mixing in Soft Hand Clear and adding Curable Reducer. 

• You really never need curable reducer for anything. Seriously, just move on from the stuff.
• I did almost the exact same thing as a gut feeling for mixing WOW with Epic, adding a % of Soft Hand Clear as part of the base in the mix.  Don't extend if you are using the PC system, make the base the way you want it and tint that.  Extending is more for those cases where you have an ink on the shelf already and can get a little more mileage out of it on lights. Anyways, Soft Hand Clear is a lot like QCM's Softee and I think, like all those soft bases, it just plain sucks for wow printing.  You wind up with smearing and those little stand up peaks and glossiness.  I won't say never do this, it's not bad when printing on white and can soften the not-so-soft wilflex inks up a little, but avoid doing this

Just mix your inks with the regular base and go to town.  Way less frustration. 

So the halftone base should be called CMYK base then basically?  I was hoping it had some characteristics like QCM's WOW Clear.   Heck, I wonder if QCM WOW clear is tintable with WFX PCs?   That would be my ultimate WOW ink there.

[Sbrem]

150/48 and sometime up for the ub.

180/48, 225/40, 310/30, 330/30 for top colors, depending on what needs to get done up top.

Yes, select high quality WOW inks (any good brand is probably fine) and don't modify them at all.  Warm, stir well and print. 

If tension, off contact, parallel is good and blades are sharp and properly set you'll get along great with WOW.   

One more piece of this puzzle are the seps- some seps (like Mr. Dan's here and I'm sure other separator's work) are made with ink deposit in mind and some (like maybe our in-house ones), not so much.  This can result in a bunch of mud in one area of the print and inadequate coverage in another area.  There's nothing you can do, no matter how pro you are at WOW printing, to fix a situation that began in the art.  I think this is a really common issue/error with sim process.

You are so correct, I would rather have GREAT seps and a sh!tty press, then the other way around.  Seps are the MOST important IMO!

I kinda get that concept, but a shitty press makes the good seps look shitty... I guess I'd rather have both.

Steve

[jasonl]

150/48 and sometime up for the ub.

180/48, 225/40, 310/30, 330/30 for top colors, depending on what needs to get done up top.

Yes, select high quality WOW inks (any good brand is probably fine) and don't modify them at all.  Warm, stir well and print. 

If tension, off contact, parallel is good and blades are sharp and properly set you'll get along great with WOW.   

One more piece of this puzzle are the seps- some seps (like Mr. Dan's here and I'm sure other separator's work) are made with ink deposit in mind and some (like maybe our in-house ones), not so much.  This can result in a bunch of mud in one area of the print and inadequate coverage in another area.  There's nothing you can do, no matter how pro you are at WOW printing, to fix a situation that began in the art.  I think this is a really common issue/error with sim process.

You are so correct, I would rather have GREAT seps and a sh!tty press, then the other way around.  Seps are the MOST important IMO!

I kinda get that concept, but a shitty press makes the good seps look shitty... I guess I'd rather have both.

Steve

Ha! no doubt both are better, thankfully I have both.  But you know what I am saying.