Problems printing on canvas

Hi,

I recently acquired an Epson 9800 printer, in addition I've also purchased;

100% cotton canvas
Breathing Color varnish
Wagner Spray Gun
Electric staple gun

I've been having some quality issues and I wonder if anyone else has had similar issues.

The main problem is the ink seems very fragile and seems to crack on the folded corners (when being stretched) and can scratch off the canvas relatively easily.

I tend to put 5 or 6 light coats of varnish onto the canvas then let it dry overnight before stretching as suggested by Breathing Color.

The last batch I've tried has a gloss base coat and a matte top coat of varnish (as recommend by Breathing Color), so I put on 2 light coats of gloss, then let it dry for over an hour and placed 4 or 5 coats of matte, each coat of matte had 3 or 4 minutes dry time (until touch dry).

Is this only an issue with the amount of varnish I'm putting on or is there something else I'm not doing correctly.

I'm using the 'hospital' fold corners if that helps.

Any help or suggestions is much appreciated.

Can't help with wraps but I print with BC's Lyve then dry mount to 8 ply board. Followed with one coat of Glamour II varnish, rolled not sprayed. Works great.

I've rolled the varnish before but found it was uneven, left blue/ghosted dots and used lots of varnish may have been my technique but found spraying to have a nicer finish.

I use a 9600 so I don't know if the ink would be an issue but I stretch onto the frame before I coat. I let dry 24 hours first.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ed Kelsey

Can't help with wraps but I print with BC's Lyve then dry mount to 8 ply board. Followed with one coat of Glamour II varnish, rolled not sprayed. Works great.

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Ed, I'd like to try this. What do you use to dry mount...are you talking about wax sheets and a dry mount press or something else? I've wondered if one couldn't use the varnish as a "glue". Anyone ever try this?

Jim

I use Bienfang Ragmount at 180 degrees for about a minute with a Seal press. Colormount would be OK as well. No problems mounting in sections if you press is smaller than the print.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mm371337

...the ink seems very fragile and seems to crack on the folded corners (when being stretched) and can scratch off the canvas relatively easily.

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Probably not the ink. It's much more likely the inkjet receptive coating on the canvas is cracking. Some canvases are more prone to this than others. And some stretcher bars exacerbate this by having too small a corner radius.

Try the Breathing Color Crystalline canvas - http://www.breathingcolor.com/action/bc_shop/202/. These canvases do no need to overcoated. I tried a beta version of both on gallery wraps and stretchers and they work well. Not having to coat is a wonderful thing.

This new canvas is interesting. You don't have to coat it but Breathing Color does recommend coating for longevity. I have printed hundreds of rolls of canvas and I have learned a whole lot about coating. I do this for a living. last week I printed and stretched 50 canvases. First 100% cotton is not really a good thing. A poly/cotton blend is stronger and will not be as dimensionally unstable. Coating a 100% cotton is problematic to say the least. I usually brush a Golden polymer medium gloss diluted 60/40 to distilled water (40 water). One heavy flood coat is enough. I have more exact instructions if you want. I will email them to you. Hospital corners and sharp radius strainers (stretcher bars) do not pose a problem. After stretching I use a varnish with UVLS. Matt, Satin, Gloss or a combo.
If you can stretch a glossy canvas before making it matt so much the better as most matting agents are more brittle and plain less flexible. They will crack. Another tip is to humidify the stretching area and make sure that it is warm. The cooler it is the less flexible your canvas will be. All of these coatings are essentially thermal plastic polymers. They will be way more flexible if heated.
Every ink receptor / ink / coating combo needs to be tested. They all are a bit different...
Hope this helps a bit.
Grant