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screen printing => Ink and Chemicals => Topic started by: Northland on July 23, 2013, 10:12:54 PM
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I've always hated cleaning empty (almost empty) ink buckets for disposal.
I found a bench-top lab oven ($50)... problem solved.
170 degrees C, for ten minutes and everything hardens right up (the bucket melts pretty good too).
Right into the trash with the whole lot.
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Since I am not yet printing in my own shop, I fear I may be unaware of something. Are you saing that the ink buckets we will discard need to be free of any ink Resedue? As in, no liquid form?
That's a good idea you have if so.
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Yep... that's my understanding.
Hardened (cured) plastisol is not considered hazardous waste. Dumping uncured plastisol is a no-no.
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So are you guys curing all your clean up cards and tape and such?
Are they quart and gallon pails? I might take them off your hands... we are on the opposite end of the spectrum and could always use an empty container for a custom mix but we are bragging to ourselves to be done with our 2nd gallon of white ink. LOL
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So are you guys curing all your clean up cards and tape and such?
Are they quart and gallon pails? I might take them off your hands... we are on the opposite end of the spectrum and could always use an empty container for a custom mix but we are bragging to ourselves to be done with our 2nd gallon of white ink. LOL
Cleanup cards and tape and what not go thru the dryer before the trash.
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So are you guys curing all your clean up cards and tape and such?
Are they quart and gallon pails? I might take them off your hands... we are on the opposite end of the spectrum and could always use an empty container for a custom mix but we are bragging to ourselves to be done with our 2nd gallon of white ink. LOL
Cleanup cards and tape and what not go thru the dryer before the trash.
Seriously?
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I take an old shirt and clean all the ink out my old ink buckets and run the shirt down the dryer, old emulsion buckets I let sit outside and just peel the dried emulsion right off.
Darryl
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He's in California... they probably pay people to dig through people's trash to make sure it's all legit.
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So are you guys curing all your clean up cards and tape and such?
Are they quart and gallon pails? I might take them off your hands... we are on the opposite end of the spectrum and could always use an empty container for a custom mix but we are bragging to ourselves to be done with our 2nd gallon of white ink. LOL
Cleanup cards and tape and what not go thru the dryer before the trash.
Seriously?
Seriously
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Yeah, all inks whether plastisol or water base or silicone or HSA or whatever must be cured/solid to throw in the trash. If it's a liquid or not a true solid it goes to the city/state or third party chemical disposal where they incinerate it. I love what you have going on. Is that thing vented out? I assume so. Need to get one!
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Ink cards seem like such a waste. I have my clean-up people just use the same spatula from the can to put the ink back in the can, then as a last move after you've scraped the squeegee back into the can, wipe the edges of the spatula on the squeegee blade to get the last of it. We have to wipe a couple mililiters of ink off the spatula & squeegee at most. If I'm near a dryer, I'll toss the wipes on a belt, but the amount of ink we waste cleaning up after jobs is minuscule. Ink is expensive!
So are cans. Empties are 3 bucks From GSG. We usually use the ink degradant & a scrubby at the reclaim sink to get them clean enough for re-use.
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ink cards have a use...emulsion. they scrape out the scoop coater really well. and the leftover dries on the card and can be tossed out.
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we have one of those jumbo black body flashes for our manual press. I crank it up, and then just push the empty bucket under it after it's up to temp. The heat radiating down turns the residual plastisol into rubber. Probably not as cheap but at least no additional chemicals like hardeners and stuff.
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No one has an occasional bad batch of business cards?
We had a client prepay for 2500 and then he sold his business and didn't pick up the cards. So that set us off well. Then we ordered 1000 for a friend and we had a mistake so we ordered another 1k and then that friend betrayed us pretty bad so we never gave him the second set either.
From that alone we have plenty of "clean up cards" that work well for the most part. We also have a pack of the ones that fold up to clean the scoop coaters. I really don't know which my guy uses for that. I just know we use junk business cards for on press clean up and spatula clean up or when making up a small trial custom color recipe.
Again, I'll pay shipping on some buckets of ink if you guys need to get rid of them and don't want the hassle of cleaning. ;)
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my ink supplier sells me buckets for around $3 with a lid, so I would rather order them clean...just a thought.
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He's in California... they probably pay people to dig through people's trash to make sure it's all legit.
It is not just a California thing. Most of the disposal laws are the same if not worse around the country. You would be surprised on what you are legally allowed to throw away.
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He's in California... they probably pay people to dig through people's trash to make sure it's all legit.
It is not just a California thing. Most of the disposal laws are the same if not worse around the country. You would be surprised on what you are legally allowed to throw away.
I think that Gilly is just joking that in California, with its "tree hugging big government" they actually take it seriously! lol!
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Exactly!
I am also serious about taking anyone's ink buckets that they don't want to mess with. The wife just informed me we need some for the kid's activity center that we bought (did I mention we bought another business?)
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personally, i wouldn't use old ink buckets around kids. I am about the furthest thing from a granola-eating-all-natural-organic-type person, but knowing where they came from and what was in them, I would buy new in a heartbeat.
check with your ink supplier, they probably will sell them cheaper than paying a guy to clean them out...but this post will probably be ignored.
CLEANING OLD BUCKETS ISN'T WORTH THE HASSLE.
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LOL... I didn't ignore your last post.
Found out they were for her brother to use to mix ink in because he's painting a large mural on the wall before they open.
If I have to pay my guy anyway (I don't send him home because of no work) then it doesn't really cost me anything. He's spent the last two days playing with artwork for two jobs. Granted, he's learning more about art in the process but still... whew!
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We just use water. There is a row of soaking/rinsing sinks behind the presses. Takes a few seconds. Pints, qts, 1/2 qts, gals, etc. Our meticulous ink dept has multiple drawers on a long work bench that store the empty DC containers and actually file them by color # to eliminate cross contamination. The containers are permanently marked with color # and formula.