We're diving in to WB/DC this year. So far I've been charging jobs out at par to plastisol explaining to customers the difference and that there would normally be an upcharge, and there will be a slight price increase in the future. For now it nets us a bunch of WB/DC jobs to cut our teeth on. We ran an 800pc. run today and it went very smoothly.
So far we've been using Autotype Plus emulsion, it didn't do all that well on larger runs without fixer, but seems pretty much bulletproof with the fixer. I'd love to find something that was a little faster exposing and maybe more durable without fixer, but we aren't pumping screens 24/7 so it's not a big deal right now, and it has the exact same exposure times as our regular emulsion so that was a bit of a bonus. We'll see how it reclaims and go from there, if it isn't too bad it'll be a player for now.
I've got the QCM WB/DC kit, which is actually a Jantex kit, and QCM has discontinued it now that they've been sold. So far the white it came with was less than stellar as it got really cottage cheesy after being on screen for a while, but I've got a gallon of CCI white and activator on the way as it seems to be the bomb from everything I've read. My local supplier has one of the QCM/Jantex kits left in stock and he said since it was discontinued he'd let me have it for $120, which seems like a great deal since it comes with a gallon of discharge base, a gallon of regular WB base, 15 pigments (500mls each). and activator, retarder, fixer, binder, softener and some pretty slick software for all the pantone colours including boosted and super boosted colours. The kits seem a little fiddly with all the additives, but I'm getting them figured out. I might have to bug TonyPep and pick his brain as he seems to use a lot of the Jantex stuff and see if all the additives are really needed. We ran 800 grams of ink today and used a whopping 4.6 grams of pigment so between the two starter kits they should last through a lot of jobs. I wonder how the Jantex pigments would work with CCI bases......? I know it isn't recommended,,, but.....
Surprisingly my dryer seems to be easily up to the task, I was worried as it's a really old Hix with a 24" belt and no air. But because it has a 10' tunnel/heat we haven't had any problem running at 35-45doz. an hour and getting 2 - 2.5 minutes of tunnel time. The unloader just has to be careful to keep the shirts folded to just a bit bigger than image size. Wash tests have all been good so far (touch wood) and I have a 1648 Gas oven on the wish list and will talk to Winston to see if I can find a good deal on a used one when the time comes. The nice thing about the Hix is it has very good ventilation built in and we keep the shop almost 100% smell free even when running hard all day.
Here\s to less and less underbase/flash/topcolours with nasty plastisol feel, blah blah blah
