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Originally Posted by numski |  | | | | | | | | | Luis/Brett,
What settings are you using for your heat press and printer. I just got a Oki C8800 and have been working with the imageclip and duracotton papers. I like how the imageclip works but I keep getting a ton of speckles in the non-printed area. Is this a printer or maybe heatpress issue? Thanks guys!
-mark | |  | |  | |
Mark,
I had that problem. What causes the polymer specks is the papers cool down way too fast before the sheets are peeled apart and not allowing the polymer to release from the unprinted area. If you notice that as soon as the press is opened the papers will curl. The papers should be flat on the lower platten to keep the polymer from cooling down. So, I came up with a solution:
Material required - SILPAT brand Silicon cookie sheet with notched corners or other brand with at least one side with smooth surface trimmed off corners
1) Press the two papers together with light pressure at 210F temp for 10 seconds.
2) Open the press and immediately cover the papers with silicon cookie sheet with smooth side against the papers.
3) Make sure that the top left corner is exposed so that you can fold the corner of the red paper as shown below:
4) Press the stack for another 5 seconds (The time is critical. May have to experiment with your press. 5 seconds works best for my press.)
5) Open the press, pick the corner of the red paper and peel the red paper with smooth even motion while keeping the silicon sheet with it and keeping the green paper in contact with lower platten surface.
6) Keep the red paper and silicon sheets as close to the lower platten while peeling as shown below:
Note: The purpose of the silicon cookie sheet is to keep the papers from curling and its heat keeps the polymer from cooling down before the papers are peeled apart.
Some user suggest to use teflon sheet with increased dwell time but when I tried it the process still left a lot of polymer in the unprinted area. The teflon sheet does not have enough mass to keep the papers from curling and therefore cooling down in some areas.
Hope this helps.