How to get rid of dust on my prints ???

[Printer101]

Please help me out guys .
For some reasons I been unlucky and got bunch of orders witch black solid color .
I can not print it clean, it drives me nuts.
There is always dust on the print. Some pieces are pretty big. I don't know where is it coming from .
I have tinsel at the back of my printer. ( did I do it right ?) I have air purifier. I mop the floor before printing. I wipe the vinyl clean before printing

And there is still this freaking dust . What to do ?

 

[Black Star]

Please help me out guys .
For some reasons I been unlucky and got bunch of orders witch black solid color .
I can not print it clean, it drives me nuts.
There is always dust on the print. Some pieces are pretty big. I don't know where is it coming from .
I have tinsel at the back of my printer. ( did I do it right ?) I have air purifier. I mop the floor before printing. I wipe the vinyl clean before printing View attachment 165424
And there is still this freaking dust . What to do ?

Is the vinyl contaminated? I just had a 30" roll of Orajet 3951 that was completely contaminated. I was in a bind so I just had to deal with it and hated every second of it. I have about 10 yards left and I'm tossing it. I didn't have time to get a replacement otherwise I would've had it replaced.

 

[Gino]

What.... besides your printer, cutter and laminator are in the room where that all takes place ??

 

[Printer101]

Is the vinyl contaminated? I just had a 30" roll of Orajet 3951 that was completely contaminated. I was in a bind so I just had to deal with it and hated every second of it. I have about 10 yards left and I'm tossing it. I didn't have time to get a replacement otherwise I would've had it replaced.

Can it be the thing ? I rarely get big solid color decals to print. So I haven't noticed .
Dust is not so visible on colorful print. Last week I did a big multi color order for some church and it was perfect. Today I'm using the rest of this roll and and it's awful when I print solid black color.

 

[Printer101]

What.... besides your printer, cutter and laminator are in the room where that all takes place ??

I just got embroidery mashine .. can it be the problem ?

 

[DChorbowski]

The dust can be coming from inside your machine. Everytime that print carriage moves back and forth its moving air around inside the printer, not to mention slightly shaking the whole machine which can knock bits of dust and dried aerosolized ink loose. Can you reach under there with a finger and swipe some areas from inside under the print canopy, around the print carriage, near the ribbon cables, etc, if your finger comes back dirty, you probably found your issue. Best way to clean is to remove the outer case of the machine where you can get fully inside to clean with compressed air and then a solid going over with a vacuum.
I once opened up a well used Roland Soljet that was unbelievably dirty with this kind of debris inside, there was at least a 1/16 of an inch of filth everywhere gravity would let it land. It took some time to clean but was well worth it and made a huge difference in cleaner prints.

 

[netsol]

hot air heat? seems like the solution might be duct cleaning (athough i normally think this is a ripoff (ask my wife)
a good humidifier certainly wouldn't hurt

i couple threads on this site mentioned having someone passing a swiffer over the substrate as it enters the printer

 

[P Wagner]

Please help me out guys .
For some reasons I been unlucky and got bunch of orders witch black solid color .
I can not print it clean, it drives me nuts.
There is always dust on the print. Some pieces are pretty big. I don't know where is it coming from .
I have tinsel at the back of my printer. ( did I do it right ?) I have air purifier. I mop the floor before printing. I wipe the vinyl clean before printing View attachment 165424
And there is still this freaking dust . What to do ?

Why don't you post a picture of your nozzle test print pattern.

 

[JBurton]

I just got embroidery mashine .. can it be the problem ?

I'll say that cutting fabric does make dust, could be depending on the proximity between the two.


I've never heard anybody put tinsel up?? I thought it was a joke initially. I could only see tinsel causing issues as it grabs and lets go of dust. Or did I just miss the next big innovation out of the dollar store?

 

[mim]

could it be that the tinsel is attracting dust due to static (as intended, I think? never heard of using tinsel) but since you wipe down your prints, the media could be damp and the dust is setting on it instead of the tinsel?

 

[Notarealsignguy]

I'd start by getting rid of the Christmas decorations that are on your printer. Store your print vinyl vertical too.

 

[Humble PM]

Might want to get proper tinsel

 

[JBurton]

could it be that the tinsel is attracting dust due to static (as intended, I think? never heard of using tinsel) but since you wipe down your prints, the media could be damp and the dust is setting on it instead of the tinsel?

This reminds me of a science 101 lab. 3 swabs cultured, one from a unwashed hand, one from a hand washed with only water, and last one from a hand washed with antibacterial hand soap. You'd see very little on the first, a ton on the second, and essentially zero on the last. Water just makes more stuff stick to the cotton swab, giving the false impression that water makes you 'dirtier.'
At any rate, this makes a lot of sense, even if you've wiped media down 5 minutes ago, the immediate humidity of the vinyl will be so high it'll draw more dust. Unless you're wiping with alcohol already, and letting it dry, then all of this is stupid.

 

[dweavers]

Daily maintenance will reduce dust,do you have carpet as that holds alot,?
two pass print, first pass light enough to cappture dust, then clean media, return to origen and print again, bit like lightning it wont strike twice in the same part.
finally a set of sharpie fine tip felt pens does a magic job of a spot touch up

 

[Saturn]

I wipe the vinyl clean before printing

Solid coverage is always a tough one, but more likely than not, wiping any roll of vinyl is going to add more dirt than it gets rid of.

 

[Kemik]

That's not the proper tinsel, you can also get anti static string, instead of tinsel.

801 Anti-Static Tinsel

801 Anti-Static Tinsel is a traditional and effective method of neutralising static electricity on sheets and webs throughout industry, including film winder or unwinder applications where the web...

fraser-antistatic.com

Static String - StopStatic.com™

Static string is the largest selling ionizing cord in the world because it produces 20 times the ionization of any other ion cord or tinsel product! Static String® provides clean performance with no oxidation, copper contamination or scratching. Unlike electrically powered ionizers Static...

stopstatic.com

 

[garyroy]

Is it lint from the cotton shirts you are working with? The clothing that comes with the screen printing and embroidery business
is full of lint and dust. Not good to mix the 2 industries in the same room/area.

 

[Stacey K]

I agree with garyroy. I have a heat press and that corner of the room is very dusty from the cotton shirts being moved around. It's a bit surprising to me but it's true.

 

[Printer101]

This reminds me of a science 101 lab. 3 swabs cultured, one from a unwashed hand, one from a hand washed with only water, and last one from a hand washed with antibacterial hand soap. You'd see very little on the first, a ton on the second, and essentially zero on the last. Water just makes more stuff stick to the cotton swab, giving the false impression that water makes you 'dirtier.'
At any rate, this makes a lot of sense, even if you've wiped media down 5 minutes ago, the immediate humidity of the vinyl will be so high it'll draw more dust. Unless you're wiping with alcohol already, and letting it dry, then all of this is stupid.

I wipe it with dry cloth, basically I remove any visible dust from the roll

 

[Printer101]

Eventually I printed that order on matte vinyl. There were no visible dust on it.
I guess glossy vinyl is the trouble maker.