Getting rid of old ink buckets...

[Northland]

I've always hated cleaning empty (almost empty) ink buckets for disposal.
I found a bench-top lab oven ($50)... problem solved.
170 degrees C, for ten minutes and everything hardens right up (the bucket melts pretty good too).
Right into the trash with the whole lot.

[Dottonedan]

Since I am not yet printing in my own shop, I fear I may be unaware of something. Are you saing that the ink buckets we will discard need to be free of any ink Resedue? As in, no liquid form?

That's a good idea you have if so. 

[Northland]

Yep... that's my understanding.
Hardened (cured) plastisol is not considered hazardous waste. Dumping uncured plastisol is a no-no.

[Gilligan]

So are you guys curing all your clean up cards and tape and such?

Are they quart and gallon pails?  I might take them off your hands... we are on the opposite end of the spectrum and could always use an empty container for a custom mix but we are bragging to ourselves to be done with our 2nd gallon of white ink. LOL

[Prosperi-Tees]

So are you guys curing all your clean up cards and tape and such?

Are they quart and gallon pails?  I might take them off your hands... we are on the opposite end of the spectrum and could always use an empty container for a custom mix but we are bragging to ourselves to be done with our 2nd gallon of white ink. LOL

Cleanup cards and tape and what not go thru the dryer before the trash.

[jesterapparel]

So are you guys curing all your clean up cards and tape and such?

Are they quart and gallon pails?  I might take them off your hands... we are on the opposite end of the spectrum and could always use an empty container for a custom mix but we are bragging to ourselves to be done with our 2nd gallon of white ink. LOL

Cleanup cards and tape and what not go thru the dryer before the trash.

Seriously?

[3Deep]

I take an old shirt and clean all the ink out my old ink buckets and run the shirt down the dryer, old emulsion buckets I let sit outside and just peel the dried emulsion right off.

Darryl

[Gilligan]

He's in California... they probably pay people to dig through people's trash to make sure it's all legit.

[Prosperi-Tees]

So are you guys curing all your clean up cards and tape and such?

Are they quart and gallon pails?  I might take them off your hands... we are on the opposite end of the spectrum and could always use an empty container for a custom mix but we are bragging to ourselves to be done with our 2nd gallon of white ink. LOL

Cleanup cards and tape and what not go thru the dryer before the trash.

Seriously?

Seriously

[brandon]

Yeah, all inks whether plastisol or water base or silicone or HSA or whatever must be cured/solid to throw in the trash. If it's a liquid or not a true solid it goes to the city/state or third party chemical disposal where they incinerate it. I love what you have going on. Is that thing vented out? I assume so. Need to get one!

[cvreeland]

Ink cards seem like such a waste. I have my clean-up people just use the same spatula from the can to put the ink back in the can, then as a last move after you've scraped the squeegee back into the can, wipe the edges of the spatula on the squeegee blade to get the last of it. We have to wipe a couple mililiters of ink off the spatula & squeegee at most. If I'm near a dryer, I'll toss the wipes on a belt, but the amount of ink we waste cleaning up after jobs is minuscule. Ink is expensive!

So are cans. Empties are 3 bucks From GSG. We usually use the ink degradant & a scrubby at the reclaim sink to get them clean enough for re-use.

[mk162]

ink cards have a use...emulsion.  they scrape out the scoop coater really well.  and the leftover dries on the card and can be tossed out.

[screenprintguy]

we have one of those jumbo black body flashes for our manual press. I crank it up, and then just push the empty bucket under it after it's up to temp. The heat radiating down turns the residual plastisol into rubber. Probably not as cheap but at least no additional chemicals like hardeners and stuff.

[Gilligan]

No one has an occasional bad batch of business cards?

We had a client prepay for 2500 and then he sold his business and didn't pick up the cards.  So that set us off well.  Then we ordered 1000 for a friend and we had a mistake so we ordered another 1k and then that friend betrayed us pretty bad so we never gave him the second set either.

From that alone we have plenty of "clean up cards" that work well for the most part.  We also have a pack of the ones that fold up to clean the scoop coaters.  I really don't know which my guy uses for that.  I just know we use junk business cards for on press clean up and spatula clean up or when making up a small trial custom color recipe.

Again, I'll pay shipping on some buckets of ink if you guys need to get rid of them and don't want the hassle of cleaning.

[mk162]

my ink supplier sells me buckets for around $3 with a lid, so I would rather order them clean...just a thought.