[6299] in APO Printshop
Re: tips on a job - muddy printing
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Leonard H Tower Jr.)
Wed Feb 16 22:34:42 2011
Date: Wed, 16 Feb 2011 22:34:39 -0500 (EST)
From: "Leonard H Tower Jr." <tower@alum.mit.edu>
To: Kristin Kuhn <kkuhn@mit.edu>
cc: apo-printshop <apo-printshop@mit.edu>, Mitchell E Berger <mitchb@mit.edu>
In-Reply-To: <Pine.GSO.4.64L.1102122219210.18779@byte-me.mit.edu>
Also glad Kristen got this sorted out.
* Some time the ink is thin enough, but there is too much of it on the
press. A way to get ink off the press, is to use paper. Regular
paper is better than newsprint for this. Manually insert it on the
ink table, letting it wrap around the roller, and then reverse the
press to unwrap it gently, and then gently pull if off the ink
table. Run the press until the ink is evenly distributed again.
Care needs to be taken to not shred the paper, i.e. not leave any
bits of paper on the press. They can get mashed onto the type, and
can be hard to clean off and out. They can also cause uneven ink
transfer to the type from the roller.
* It's possible that mixing inks caused some of the problem Kristen
had early on.
Most inks needs to be 'worked' some, to print properly (run the ink
on the press before inserting the chase and printing). To 'loosen'
the ink up. This is even more true when mixing inks.
BTW, mixing inks from different manufacturers can be hard. mixing
rubber-base and linseed-based inks can be even harder.
We have some linseed oil, which can be better than blanket wash in
thinning linseed-oil based inks.
* I looked at the textured paper Kristen used. Some high-end
specialty shops will lightly mist such paper with distilled water.
This is alleged to improve ink transfer. I've never tried it.
yiLFS -len
Date: Sat, 12 Feb 2011 22:24:17 -0500 (EST)
From: Mitchell E Berger <mitchb@MIT.EDU>
To: Kristin Kuhn <kkuhn@MIT.EDU>
Cc: apo-printshop <apo-printshop@MIT.EDU>
Subject: Re: tips on a job - muddy printing
Glad you got it sorted out. The things I thought of, which are
admittedly not related to the type of paper are these two:
If it was consistently the same specific instances of letters
causing issues, sometimes that letter's gotten damaged (wasn't
perfectly flush at type height last time it was used, and soft
lead was mushed making it look thicker or lower res). Or it
wasn't cleaned well enough last time. The first problem goes
away with switching letters out, of course, and the second
with applying blanket wash with a generous toothbrush scrubbing.
The other would be that maybe the ink was too thick. You might be
able to tweak that by applying a tiny bit of blanket wash to
the ink table (not nearly enough to begin cleaning the table,
of course) and letting it run for a little while as if you
were initially waiting for ink to spread evenly.
Mitch
On Sat, 12 Feb 2011, Kristin Kuhn wrote:
> okay! I'm a dummy. it was overinking after all!!
>
> though any more tips on printing on textured paper would be welcome. :)
>
> On Sat, Feb 12, 2011 at 6:20 PM, Kristin Kuhn <kkuhn@mit.edu> wrote:
>
> > So I'm printing on some pretty thick, soft, textured paper.
> > I am also printing with two tube inks mixed together. (Bond Black, and
> > Blue)
> >
> > the 18pt font looks fine.
> >
> > But the 12 point font has really low resolution! a's keep getting filled
> > in, and the letters in general are really thick.
> >
> > I've tried messing around with the bedding, but that doesn't yield
> > consistent results. It will be good for a while, and then bad, then good?
> > no, back to bad. etc.
> > Is it overinking? Possible. But when there isn't enough ink, the text is
> > too light! You can't hardly see it.
> >
> > I don't know what's going on!! if someone on this list has tips in the
> > next
> > few minutes, please send it on over! Should I mix the ink with something?
> >
> > I might try cleaning off the paten and re-inking.
> >
> > -Kristin
> >
>
