Thickening ink?

[Chadwick]

Kind of the opposite of what we usually want, right?

Wilflex MP black used to have the same consistency as the rest of it,
but now it behaves like GNS on a hot day. ( water )

Case in point, printing transfers today, the blurry one is MP formula.
Luckily ( sort of ) I have a bucket of MVP black which was sent to us by mistake several years ago.
It's behaving much better,  bottom pic.

Unfortunately, it smells someplace between licorice and raw sewage..not pleasant.

These sheets have powder glue applied already if you're wondering what that is.

Anyhow, any suggestions for thickening ink?
Thanks.

[ebscreen]

Believe it or not, Thickener.

If you have a brew supply place around you, I've been told it's just Cab-O-Sil.

Cool stuff, really comes in handy for a lot of things.

[Chadwick]

Thickener eh?
That's just too bloody obvious..lol.
I'll see if I can track some down.

[ebscreen]

Weighs nothing, flows like water, is damn near impossible to get to mix in plastisol, can make translucent
colors opaque enough to P/F/P small areas, etc.

[jsheridan]

there is a powder called cavosol or cabisil or something like that. it's used to thicken inks into High Density or just make them thicker.
I've been using it for year, just can't spell it 

Call your supplier and ask about it.

[Rob Coleman]

It is Cabosil.  Wilflex sells it as Thickener #2.  Certainly all the manufacturers do.  Just ask for powder thickener.  It is EXTREMELY light - 1/2% to 1% addition by weight probably.

[ZooCity]

yessir, cabosil.  I was unfortunately introduced to that at the tail end of our QCM days.   There's a limit to how much you can add of course, it won't bring an insanely running ink like a fashion base back to a regular body, it'll just make a bucket of gloppy goop. 

[Zelko-4-EVA]

we still have a 5 gallon bucket of Thickener #10 by Rutland...

as Rob Coleman says - it is EXTREMELY light.  add a gram (or less) at a time or the thickener will float out of the bucket while stirring.  its like stirring tiny down feathers into the ink.

[Colin]

Just to throw a touch of confusion in there   Cabosil is also called Fumed Silica.  Cabosil is the name of a company in Eastern Europe that manufactured it long ago and the name stuck like Xerox did in the old days.... at least that's what I was told some time ago

You can actually use Cabosil in a number of different products to thicken it up. 

DO NOT BREATH IT IN!  It is a desiccant and will severely dry out anything it touches!  If you are hand stirring it is possible for some of it to fly up into the air... be aware of this.  It sucks to have it go up your nose.... been there done that

[Chadwick]

Thanks all, got some on order.
( I guess I coulda found it myself, but it's always cool to hear experiences and opinions )
Cheers.
 

[alan802]

As I was playing with my 3 year old yesterday, we were making "snow" with corn starch and shaving cream and I began to wonder if you could use corn starch to thicken ink a little bit.  It reminds me a lot of ink thickener and it doesn't have anything in it that should react with the ink.  I doubt it's been tried before so maybe I'll try it this week and see what happens.  Can anyone think of any reason why it wouldn't work?

[ol man]

Alan,
   Had an employee once , who has work with belt printing, she said they used corn starch to thicken ---sounds sketchy at best to me, but thats what i was told

[mk162]

I've also heard of using talc.  I know of a company that used it on circuit boards when the ink was too thick.

[ScreenFoo]

As I was playing with my 3 year old yesterday, we were making "snow" with corn starch and shaving cream and I began to wonder if you could use corn starch to thicken ink a little bit.  It reminds me a lot of ink thickener and it doesn't have anything in it that should react with the ink.  I doubt it's been tried before so maybe I'll try it this week and see what happens.  Can anyone think of any reason why it wouldn't work?

Not sure it would work in an oil based mix, but I wouldn't be surprised if it does.  I'd think if you add anything that won't react to heat or oil as filler, it will work--to some extent, at least.  I'd suppose anything that isn't balanced resin/plasticiser will weaken the cured deposit at some percentage, no matter what it is, like overloading pigment will.

We have some PLUS 9114, and it works, but it does not seem to positively affect most of the inks properties--notably buildup, flash time, and after flash tack.

[mk162]

actually, corn starch will absorb oil as well...that is why it works in roux.  Although flour is easier and cheaper.

Also, you can use corn starch to remove oily stains on clothes as well.