Favorite DC white?

[alan802]

I just printed a few hundred blue tees with the Rutland DC white and I gotta say I think it's better than the CCI.  I will have to take a few sample home and wash them but so far they look a couple shades whiter than my washed CCI samples.  One stroke through a 156/64 with a White Knight squeegee blade yielded a nice white.

[TCT]

I just printed a few hundred blue tees with the Rutland DC white and I gotta say I think it's better than the CCI.  I will have to take a few sample home and wash them but so far they look a couple shades whiter than my washed CCI samples.  One stroke through a 156/64 with a White Knight squeegee blade yielded a nice white.

I agree, although CCI is back on my radar after I cleared up my error. The Rutland almost looks like it has a slight neon or blue hue to the ink when mixing, you can't tell once it is printed, but it does leave a very nice white.  As soon as I have a chance I am going to order up some Magna and compare.
Anyone heard of Minerva I am supposed to be getting some samples of it in and I guess I don't know much about it...

[Prof_Yaffel]

I agree, although CCI is back on my radar after I cleared up my error. The Rutland almost looks like it has a slight neon or blue hue to the ink when mixing

I've mixed and printed the CCi and Rutland side by side and the Rutland definitely seems to have some blue added to it which can give the appearance of being whiter. Its a trick often used in white inks but I think it makes the white look a bit grey when printed on dark shirts ( I used black )

[ZooCity]

I always liked QCMs 159 plastisol for that extra blueing agent.  I'll have to check out the Rutland at some point- does it have that damn dry pigment chunk issue like the rest of their wb inks?  It's the main reason I've avoid them after running half a gallon of it and having to stop to get pigment chunks out half a dozen times I felt that was enough.  The issue could trash a lot of shirts in a hurry on the auto. 

Alan wth is a "white knight" blade?

[alan802]

Alan wth is a "white knight" blade?

It's a secret weapon I've been using for a few months.  Joe has lot's of different variations of the smiling jack, different duros, depths of the articulation, the bevel on the same side as the "smile", etc.  The white knight is a softer duro and it prints on low mesh like a dream.  It doesn't do high mesh very well though.  I think Joe is contemplating releasing a few different variations but doesn't know how or if they would become popular.  Most of his blades would work well in shops like the one's who come to this forum, but in the wrong hands and very little knowledge on how to use them, the blades could get a bad rap really quickly.  I like the four versions we use way more than any standard blade or triple duro.  I use the Mannys and Dr. J's on the auto all the time, but the Smiling Jack is still the most versatile of the group.  Flooding with a Dr. J and printing at 20"/sec with a White Knight through a 123/55 mesh can get you a one hit white with just about any size image.

[ZooCity]

Cool.  I have a jack here to try on the auto but have been breaking myself in with triple duros - 70/90/70 plastisol, 60/90/60 wb - since I know how they behave.  The manny's were alright on the manual for higher detail wb/dc, specifically they do best on a 225/40 with white DC.  I would prefer a softer edged blade however.

I see what you mean on the care needed in marketing blades like that, kind of like the newman constant force stuff.  Most printers probably think it's junk b/c they aren't aware of how it's intended to be used.

[ericheartsu]

we;ve been printing with the smiling jack all week on a huge discharge/wb order we've been doing, and man is it awesome. I just overnighted two from ryonet for tommorrow.

That'll be 4 for us now, and they print wb/discharge in one stroke on our Xpress and Gauntlet. 160 or 230s tried so far.

They make printing white a BREEZE.

[Gilligan]

I see what you mean on the care needed in marketing blades like that, kind of like the newman constant force stuff.  Most printers probably think it's junk b/c they aren't aware of how it's intended to be used.

That was my thoughts till I took one with me (and then left it behind) to Alan's shop... once we printed with the Constant Force squeegees on M3's even my printer that hated them was sold on them.

[ZooCity]

Well the jack is probably a much easier adaptation than constant force.  With the jack/manny all you really need to do is change the angle on your holders and have good understanding of using "just enough" pressure as well as stroke speed and fill...ok I guess none of it's easy but using the constant force stuff, which I've done and yes it's amazing when it all comes together, takes a big systemic commitment that goes beyond simply having a press in parallel and reasonable tension.  With the constant force you need high tension to really take full advantage which means very low o.c. and there are machine calibration limitations on many presses that will cock block you on that.  A lot of newman stuff outpaced the machines on the market when they created it, probably less true with the newer presses today I would hope.

One stroke DC on the gauntlet would be great.  We are one stroking some fabrics but others need the double to get the penetration I want to see...getting there though.  I need to load that jack up into a holder and see what's up, we're already running the blades nearly upright anyways so it would be easy to adjust to. 

[chubsetc]

I tried the Magna Super White ZFS for the first time today and it was great on press.  The humidity was high today but printed a couple hundred prints at 50dpi through 200s mesh on the auto with no drying issues.  No water just ink with 6% ZFS, my CCI white was climbing the squeegee enough I had to base it down and add a bit of water so I wanted to try something different.  Still have to do some wash testing but so far it gets a big thumbs up.

[dirkdiggler]

its the best one IMO and I have tried ALL of them except Rutland. 

[Inkworks]

my CCI white was climbing the squeegee enough I had to base it down and add a bit of water

I found the same thing. We're 1/2 way through a 5gal. of the Image Technologies White, and it's a dream on the press, very runny, no squeegee climbing, no additives needed and very forgiving for dry-in. they seem to be a bit of a dark horse in the WB/DC world, but I'm going to try the bases and high strength pigments next.

[noortrd]

Magna have two version normal abaw and super white.  In super white may be thay add more titanium white.