[Redvelvet12]

Morning all,

I've been a long time lurker of this forum and I finally have a need to post a question, because I cannot for the life of me find a decent answer anywhere.

A few years ago, I purchased a lot of plastisol and water-based ink from a school where the printing class was shut down. About 180 buckets in total of both new and used ink. Of those buckets there were about 30 or 40 that had cracked lids, were partially cured, I had no room in the house, etc. I set these buckets out on a tarp in my yard to hopefully let the sun cure them. Having just recently sold the rest of the ink that I had, I pulled those buckest from the yard to see if any had cured, and none had. So I now have 40 buckets that need to be cured in order for me to throw them away (NJ regulations, fully cured ink is disposable, uncured isn't).

So my question is, how do I go about curing these buckets of ink?

I think my only saving grace right now is that along with that lot of ink I bought, I also purchased a large flash dryer. So could I just plug the flash dryer in and set the buckets up under the dryer and let the bucket cure? Any idea how long that would take?

I've also heard of putting the buckets in an oven to cure, I however, do not have that option.

Thank you guys in advance!

 

[Kevin2coolair]

When I had a bunch of junk ink to get rid of, we used rag test shirts and smeared the ink over them with a spatula and then ran them down our dryer once or twice until the ink was cured.
Now I didn't have anywhere close to 40 gallons to get rid of, so I'm not sure that is a viable option for you,
but maybe you could try to get rid of a gallon or two a week in this fashion.
Good luck.

 

[mustangFWL]

Sounds like you might just have to leave them out in the sun to bake for awile - or find some way to heat them all up internally to curing temp

 

[gardenhillemb]

If you have a local small newspaper, they often have rolls of newsprint that they don't use (the ends of the rolls). You could roll out the paper and then spread the ink on it. It would be easier with a conveyor dryer if you have access to one. Just start the paper and smear/ cure as you go.

 

[TABOB]

Give them away for free on Craigslist.
Failing that, mix them with sand and concrete until they are not longer a spill hazard. Then you can dispose hem just like any pile of trash.

If you were in Sweden, I'd say use sawdust instead and take it for incineration. Maybe you can find a small operator near you as well. There is a lot of energy trapped inside those buckets .

 

[MuddyWater]

If they're not TOO far gone, we dump them into a 5 gal bucket, add eco-friendly paint thinner ( I know mineral spirits, etc. is not the appropriate way to thin plastisols, but it works for this. ) and then use them for anything we just need throw away prints like doing printing demonstrations and classes, or for new printers to get some training on the press if we've got a short-term need for it before the thinner starts drying up the oils in the ink. We do the same with old water-based inks by adding water and re-cycle it for tag printing and paper goods if it's still viable enough.

If it's too far gone, or we don't have a use for it in the next couple weeks, for water-based stuff we just open the quart buckets and set them on top of the tunnel dryer while we work. For gallon buckets we scoop out whatever wet ink is left onto paper or recycle it like above and do the same. Plastisol that can't be salvaged is usually so close to being fully cured anyway that we just leave it up there in smaller amounts for a couple days, or add mineral spirits to dry out the remaining oils, dump saw dust or kitty litter in, seal it and take it to the local power plant where they have an incinerator for stuff like that.