Ski Builders Forum

someone i tried to get bases from did this, by feeding crown duraclear thru a printer and printing direct to the material. Not sure what inks, but the stock ultrachrome that comes with 4XXX's really rings a bell from past conversations. Unfortunately I wasnt in the DIY mode i'm in now so i didn't write that bit of info down
I'd imagine if you ran epoxy screen inks thru you'd just jam up the printer heads and lines etc.

would I need a continuous system to print with a 4000 or 4880? After getting a cheaper printer and the continuous system, might as well just get the better printer. Can be had for 1000 or less on ebay.

well, the cartridges of the 1900 are only filled with 18ml while the ones for the larger models take either 110ml or 220ml.
refilling every couple of boards can get pretty annoying, so a CIS with a 100ml ink tank for each color is a nice thing to have. especially if it costs about 40 USD.
i guess you'd be fine with a r1900 combined with a CIS.

i don't think the stock ultrachrome inks would stick to uhmpe or any other plastic topsheet for that matter since they're waterbased inks. but i'll try it on a test piece...

i have my doubts about the ink too, no clue what was used, but i've built boards with them and they're absolutely fine. Much higher resolution and cleaner lines than subbing, just doesnt equate to vivid colors... since the color is on the inside surface and not actually inside the material like sub.

I just read a lot of negative stuff about the R1900 and stuff breaking down, mostly related to their proprietary ink cartridge detection system which i think a continuous system would override... anyway back to that sub transfer press...

The first successful test in the new dye sub press, finally hit the magic combo. This is about 2" x 7" though...still scared to do the full sheet sacrifice whooooooo! Crappy iPhone pic, but you get it

http://s1213.photobucket.com/albums/cc4 ... 96copy.jpg

So...I finally sacked up and did a full topsheet in it. It works pretty well.

http://s1213.photobucket.com/albums/cc4 ... 75copy.jpg

Very nice!

Ccool. Share with us some details. Pressure and heat time and temp cycle when you have time ehh?

great results!
we are just beginning to battle the dyesub process, i am encouraged by what i see!

I have found someone in the UK who has suggested that they are able to sub base material, but they have advised that the base will be affected - some curly of the base material.

They have not had cause to try this before, but they are following the guidelines set by ink suppliers.

Anyone any thoughts?

If I can get this sorted, there may be options for the future. Will need to drill into costs.

Thanks in advance.

Yeah, the Crown "Galleria" base can be used. Be aware that the graphic will be "blurry" because you're printing behind 1.2mm of kinda/sorta clear material. If you don't print the entire sheet in a color, you'll need to use a flood coat (actually, you should use one anyway), if so give yourself a couple of days of dry time and, third...expect an 8 to 10% shrinkage of material, timing is critical with this stuff if you actually want to use it on a board haha. Hope this helps.

In the UK, so not using Crown - using ISO Sport (sintered). So the issue is the quality of the material?

Rich, I'm not exactly sure what you're asking here...the material is thicker so it holds more heat, it's susceptible to deformation and warping (like a potato chip) if it's heated to long and not cooled properly, and lastly it will actually turn brittle if held at heat too long.

That's it, warping ... it seems that they have experienced some warping in the past.

So it might be over heating and not allowing it to cool. Can you advise on cooling rate - back to room temp?

I wish I could, I've set it aside for the time being opting instead for die-cutting base graphics. I'll post it when/if I nail it...but, the best test I had was 325f, 10 minutes @ 25 psi and letting it cool between the aluminum sheets out of the press (about 15 minutes).

Thanks - will post once worked things out.