New drying/offgassing box

[jfiscus]

Printing too much for the old box so had to add another to keep up with the flow around here.
Made this one to comfortably hold 16 rolls if necessary. It REALLY pulls the air through, way better than the old one.
Not 100% finished yet, but it's in operation. (we are adding lettering below the "crux" later)

 

[Gary1]

Printing too much for the old box so had to add another to keep up with the flow around here.
Made this one to comfortably hold 16 rolls if necessary. It REALLY pulls the air through, way better than the old one.
Not 100% finished yet, but it's in operation. (we are adding lettering below the "crux" later)

That is very well done!

 

[Boudica]

Coolio.

 

[Mike Paul]

Separate room?

 

[Johnny Best]

What kind of printer do you use to cause you to doing such a thorough job drying your prints.

 

[Mike Paul]

Air scrubber if in the same room for solvents in the air? That can be a lot of prints outgassing at once…

 

[Notarealsignguy]

Nice setup but I still think it's unnecessary. Seems like the bigger risk is blowing dirt up in the roll vs the ever elusive outgassing issues. I'm getting some years under my belt with the whole printer thing and still have not seen any failures, let alone one that can be attributed to drying. I always start printing around 4-5pm and laminate the next morning. Still a nice setup jficus, we have that same wall rack. Always thought it would rip out of the wall once we loaded it up but it's still hanging there.

 

[GaSouthpaw]

Did this at my last shop, which was primarily a wide-format printer with a lot of wholesale clients:
Cleared out a space under one of the shelving racks (12') wide and closed in the sides, put a light in it, and installed two exhaust fans (like you'd use in an attic) at the floor (because the gases from solvent prints "sink") wired to a switch. For the "doors," we used clear PVC warehouse "curtain" strips.
On an average day, there'd be 20-30 rolls in there. When we were in the midst of a bigger job, there'd be 60+. Worked great, though- if you have the space to do it.

 

[Gary1]

Where did you purchase the metal roll holders at the bottom?

 

[White Haus]

Very cool! Nicely done. Ours looks pretty ghetto in comparison lol.

Did you put acrylic behind the wood door? What did you use for fans? I bought some cheap (crap) window fan things and they don't move enough air, have a new offgas set up on our to-do list for this year.

 

[jfiscus]

The fan is pulling air down through the rolls and blowing it out at the bottom so not putting any more dust onto the prints than is floating around already. Customers are getting more and more pushy with turnaround times and even with multiple printers running all day long we're still overbooked most days. When you take a roll off of a solvent printer's take-up the solvents are still trapped within each wind around the roll unless you give them somewhere to go. Loosening up the roll and letting air pass slowly over it ensures a better final product. Remember, solvents are heavier than air and like to go down.

I have seen and tested MYSELF the difference in prints that were rushed (and failed within weeks) versus prints that were allowed to off-gas properly, and have yet to fail years later. Same exact print/material/laminate; just a different length of time before lamination.
it might not make a difference on flat cheapo signs, but you will have failure on wrapped recesses popping out on vehicles due to the solvents attacking the adhesive once they are trapped under laminate.
Anyone who argues about solvents off-gassing being a myth must also believe you can stick vinyl onto a vehicle that was just painted or a wall/surface that was just painted.

 

[jfiscus]

Very cool! Nicely done. Ours looks pretty ghetto in comparison lol.

Did you put acrylic behind the wood door? What did you use for fans? I bought some cheap (crap) window fan things and they don't move enough air, have a new offgas set up on our to-do list for this year.

It is just a standard cheapo box fan at the bottom. Our first box was built around 9 years ago and the fan on it is still going strong, lol. I thought it would have died years ago. We have acrylic behind the cutouts in the door; got to get a good seal around all sides so that the flow of air works best to pull down through the rolls. Anything is better than nothing though.

 

[jfiscus]

Where did you purchase the metal roll holders at the bottom?

Either Grimco or Fellers, it is a rolling floor rack with the casters removed.

 

[jfiscus]

Air scrubber if in the same room for solvents in the air? That can be a lot of prints outgassing at once…

They're going to off-gas either way. We have a pretty big shop here. The printer room has a special air scrubber built into it as the fumes are worst in there.

 

[jfiscus]

What kind of printer do you use to cause you to doing such a thorough job drying your prints.

Our solvent printers here are all Epson S60600 printers. You "can" laminate pretty soon after the prints finish, especially lighter colors, but we don't take any chances with failure here. Rich blacks and blues are the worst for solvent prints, and it seems that is most of what we print. We want it to be right the first time, and never come back. We aren't competing for cheap work.

 

[Notarealsignguy]

Anyone who argues about solvents off-gassing being a myth must also believe you can stick vinyl onto a vehicle that was just painted

You can. This is essentially what our entire business is, everyday at least one thing comes out of the booth and get decals put on it. Same as they do at Caterpillar, John Deere, Case, Ford, Chevy, auto and equipment auctions, every RV manufacturer, boat manufacturer etc. Heck, I bet that the sign companies here that fab in house and spray their assemblies are popping their vinyl on a day or two after it's sprayed. We pump out a lot of work and have not had a single comeback for decals or paint issues ever. Interior walls, we don't use that kind of paint so couldn't tell ya. Seems like just about every failure that is shown on here is from people using the wrong materials and/or cheap garbage.

 

[brdesign]

What kind of printer do you use to cause you to doing such a thorough job drying your prints.

I used to run an old Roland eco solvent, and had to build something similar to dry out the prints. Without the boxfan dryer the ink on that Roland would take a couple of days to dry on prints with a lot of saturation like rich black

 

[JBurton]

'm getting some years under my belt with the whole printer thing and still have not seen any failures,

How's that bagged print you said you'd experiment with looking? Or was that some shoddy equipment painter that said he'd do as much for me?

 

[Notarealsignguy]

How's that bagged print you said you'd experiment with looking? Or was that some shoddy equipment painter that said he'd do as much for me?

I don't remember what I ate for lunch Burton. What do I do? I got a wet spray out I'll go stick a decal on

 

[Notarealsignguy]

How's that bagged print you said you'd experiment with looking? Or was that some shoddy equipment painter that said he'd do as much for me?

Here ya go Burton. I'll stick this over in the corner. 2k polyurethane, fresh spray and not cured. You can see the marks the transfer tape left.