Digital BW, The Print

On Wednesday, July 9, 2003, at 04:52 PM, davajon wrote:

> On 7/9/03 3:21 PM, "Robert Morrison" <rmorrison@...> wrote:
>
>> One important thing to mention is that I can do 10 prints of the same
>> image that turn out identically with the rod...I'd find it very
>> surprising if you could match that with any sprayer.  The Mayer rod is
>> made for precision coating...applying exactly the same film thickness
>> to each print provided that the viscosity of the solution and the
>> surface of the paper is the same.  This is the exact technique that
>> many of our inkjet papers are actually coated with.  The key is 
>> getting
>> your coating station right.  I working on developing a commercial
>> station for larger format prints...but it is likely to be expensive
>> because of pump equipment and machining...probably interesting for 
>> fine
>> art printers and prepresses however.
>>
>> Robert
>>
>> Robert,
> Thanks for the feedback!  Perhaps your finger-manual dexterity is much
> higher than mine.  Over a period of months I tried to perfect the right
> speed and the right pressure and still had far too many failures for 
> me to
> consider the rod a viable solution.

Well I've probably done about 10,000 draw downs in my day...so I'd say 
that counts as practice.  I think the key is getting the right surface 
to work on...were you using heavy glass...did you try putting some 
paper underneath?  Did you pitch the board at a slight angle?  Where 
did your rod come from?

> The badger's lay-down of material is
> very consistent from  print to print!  Since one would be using the 
> same
> settings on the gun and the same pressure from the compressor and 
> shooting
> from the same distance, I can't see why your pattern would be any 
> different.

Because it depends on how you overlay the passes from the sprayer and 
how fast you move your hand.  None of this matters with a rod...it puts 
down a uniform thickness regardless of speed or pressure...that's why 
they are used in labs...they are absolutely the most uniform way to 
apply a solution to a surface.

> The surface on every print I've sprayed so far looks identical from 
> print to
> print-- much more than I could achieve with the rod. So I guess it's
> different strokes for different folks!  Thanks again for the feedback! 
> I'm
> sure our friends on this group will benefit.
>

Happy coating,

Robert