Transparent flood print.

[smescarzaga]

Howdy all,

I've been a long time lurker and finally decided to do it right and go premium!

At any rate, I've been running t-shirt printing for a few years now which is what keeps the lights on. Just recently I've begun doing poster printing which has always been a goal of mine just from frequenting this site for so long. I'm having registration issues with my current project. Based on the advice on many on here I tried the sealing method so my paper wont warp during my run. I didn't think much of the pre-rack method as it's not very humid here ( El Paso, TX ). I used speedball acrylic extender base to do a full poster flood. Then I went ahead and printed on the opposite side of the flood. It worked a bit better than without the seal but was still substantially off reg. Will acrylic extender base do? Is it optimal to print on the same side as the flood?

Im using 100 pound french.

Any help would be much appreciated!
thanks

[crosshair]

Should have pre-racked it!
Also, should have printed over the flood, not on the flip side.
Can't comment on the Speedball because I don't use it.

Fact: all respect to Jerry French but his paper is far more susceptible to distortion than Cougar.

[smescarzaga]

so pre-rack and flood or just pre-rack 'ill do? you buy cougar straight from the mill?

[smescarzaga]

also what do you do use to seal em'?

[epicproblems]

Pre-racking, using registration guides (printer's e's from Lawson, best thing short of a vacuum table) and tightening the hell out of my clamps are the three things that fixed my registration hell ride problems. Never sealed my paper and almost exclusively use Cougar 100lb cover.

[alexfugazi]

Humidity is murder in Texas. I'm in Austin, btw.
Pre-rack, and get an AC unit if you don't have one already, it'll help suck the moisture out of the air, and make your space more livable. And, if that ain't cutting it, pick up a de-humidifier.

I only use Cougar 100lb (french sometimes if we need colored stock) and have had huge issues w/ paper walking around on me when we worked in an un-air-conditioned space. As soon as we moved to a cooled spot- problems went away entirely.

I"ve never tried sealing my paper, but I also trap the shit out of my prints when needed. I will say if your first color is a full flood (or near about) that can really blow you out of the water, registration-wise. But from that point on, the paper kinda settles down.

I don't think the problem is with the speedball, regarding sealing- any transparent base should take care of it for you- just make sure it dries the hell out before you start throwing down on it again.

Hope that helps!

[Andymac]

:no comment until we see some pictures.

1. table, clamp setup.
2. registration guides.
3. your film
4. the register issue on the paper - fits in one area, out in the other? or moving around.

the paper should be stabilized with a clearcoat/drying cycle. Prerack is always a good idea, even with A/C or whatever, your humidity is not the mill humidity, and the paper will expand or contract once it is out of the package, and move once you put ink on it.

But I think a lot of register problems can be traced to a bunch of other stuff. if your posis are on shitty paper, or your screen moves, or your paper is not going precisely in hard guides, or your mesh tension isn't matched, and the paper being held there by vacuum, then coating paper is like brain tumour surgery for a headache

[smescarzaga]

Thanks a lot guys! I'll post some pics up when I get outta class today. As far as AC goes its central and I don't control it...
As far as film goes Im pretty sure its solid, water proof film out of a never epson blackmax system. and yea for the most part it was out of reg on the lower portion of the paper. It would get worse, then better, then worse again. I was using an older screen for one of the colors but not super old.

[smescarzaga]

oh and alex! i bought a reservoir dogs print from y'all at flatstock this past year. I love it!

[farleypig]

i use mostly trans - like 5 out of a 6 color run will be trans. Sold off a lot of old nice posters super cheap in seattle because I had not yet learned about the suckiness of French and trans. maybe their 140lb would be ok, but otherwise, it looks like a crinkle french fry. cougar, pre-rack, speedball is fine (use mostly trans base, NOT trans extender base) best of your first color is a huge area and then back up from there.