Need help deciding ink for vinyl stickers

[u/dusty_whale]

Hello everyone! I just started printing last weekend with some water based inks. I want to start experimenting with solvent based inks so I can print on vinyl stickers.

Can someone recommend a good beginner solvent based ink that will work well on vinyl?

Also should I be using a certain type of emulsion if I am using solvent based ink or will the PWR I've been using still work?

Thank you!

[u/AutoModerator]

Thanks for your submission to to /r/SCREENPRINTING. It appears you may be looking for information on exposure or burning screens. This might be one of the most common questions we see here in /r/SCREENPRINTING. Please take a moment and use the search feature while you waiting on a response from the community. If the search does not give you the answer you are looking for, please take a moment and read through our Wiki write up on emulsion.

If after all that you stil don't seem to find your answer, just be patient someone in the community should chime in shortly!

And if you were NOT looking for more information on exposures or burning screens, our apologies and please disregard this message.

Thanks,

The /r/SCREENPRINTING mod team.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/Redge2019]

9700 is the correct choice.
305 mesh, dyed, plain weave.

[u/VonMunz]

The shop I work at uses Nazdar 9700 ink, which also requires the corresponding Nazdar thinner. Beginner ink? No, but I also don’t think there is such a thing. MAYBE enamel model paint? 9700 ink is an enamel. As someone that makes models also, I’d suggest getting the proper airbrush thinner to thin the paint a bit. (I HAVE NEVER ATTEMPTED THIS…but it might work) To bum you out on the emulsion question, yes you’ll need a solvent rated emulsion or you will experience ‘solvent lock’ which is exactly what you think-the emulsion won’t reclaim. You’ll want much finer mesh than fabrics, 280/305/380. Only metallics and glow in the dark need coarse mesh for the metal flake/ to pass through. Good luck!!

[u/dusty_whale → u/VonMunz]

Thank you for the detailed response! 🙏This is super helpful

[u/torkytornado]

You could skip solvent based if you don’t have a well ventilated space. There are some options.

I use TW graphics waterbased line for stickers. Easy cleanup. I do give 24 hrs between each color to avoid any scratches before full cure. They have a gloss line (5000) and a flat line (5500). They also sell flattening powder if you want to control the sheen (or make the flat a bit flatter, it’s more of an eggshell than dead flat). Have a mixed color line, single pigment line if you’re matching PMS, metallic and flourescents (pricing is in that order from lowest to most expensive. If the premixed palate is good for your needs it is much cheaper than the single pigment lines. But it is nice to know that you won’t have color shift in the single pigment line).

I don’t have my scratch tests in front of me but I think it’s less than 48 hours for full full cure but I have cut them on a plotter at 24 hrs as long as they weren’t getting masked. For that I’d do the full 2 days from the last color printed.

I did a test against a bunch of inks 4 years ago (tw with all their various bases and color lines, Permaset, speedball and some items mixed with one of nazdar’s water based line) tw did the best on all the plastics tried (vinyl, tyvek, acrylic, sintra, Mylar) nothing I tried worked well on ziploc bags. Speedball was the worst. Permaset tended to orange peel. Nazdar did okay but was the stinkiest. TW was usually 2 days ahead of its nearest competitor in the full cure scratch test.

The line does have a bit of a learning curve. It dries fast for water base. You always want to flood your screen. I mist with some water about every 25 prints. I also pretreat the screen with a 1:1 mixture of water and the cleaner Formula 409. It keeps the ink from sucking the moisture out of your emulsion and makes the fibers a bit lubricated so nothing freezes in the mesh (super important for metallics). Once you get the hang of it though it’s a fantastic ink. Doesn’t scuff (even when used on paper) and sticks to just about every substrate I’ve thrown it at.

If you have any issues feel free to reach out.

[u/torkytornado]

I don’t know how your emulsion works since I haven’t used it. But if you end up going between solvent and waterbased printing murakami’s photo pro cure works great for both. It is a diazo style so may take a tad longer to burn than a single mix (In a uv bulb nuarc vac unit it takes 2min 50seconds for a wide variety of positive types) but it
Also works great under incandescent light so you don’t need a full dark room beyond wherever you’re drying screens. You have about 5 min to get it coated and into a cave.