PLease help me!! Left oil based ink on press!!!

your best bet would be glaze remover, wear gloves and you might want to do it outside, you can get this from Van Son, nothing easily removes dried oil ink, you will have to work at it. Next time you leave oil ink on the press you should use the spray they sell that will keep it loose so you can wash it later.

Mineral Spirits, at HD they sell the odorless kind.
Then, Naphta works as well.
If all else fails, paint thinner. But you can only use paint thinner on the ink disk, NOT on the rollers, otherwise you’ll mess them up.
But really I don’t think you’ll need more than Mineral Spirits.
Do it with good ventilation. Not that I do, but I think you are a more careful person, since you usually use veg. oil.

Or Dick’s advice, I haven’t needed glaze remover, and I’ve left ink a day or two.

Good luck.

Thank you both so much. Running out to HD now to get mineral spirits, fingers crossed.

It was completely unintentional…. just completely forgot about it! I am kicking myself…

Now I’m just throwing this out here. I’m not recommending anything. But, I recently left oil-based ink on a small, inexpensive Speedball brayer (rubber, I think) for maybe a week. I thought I’d experiment, so I soaked the brayer in a lye solution for maybe half an hour — not sure, since I forgot about it for a while. The ink just floated off, and the brayer still feels and acts like its old self.

Barbara

I think Enrique meant “paint stripper” — paint thinner is basically mineral spirits, and stripper will definitely clean all the dried ink off the metal (as well as any paint it touches) but may not be good for the rollers, though Barb’s experience is illuminating.

Bob

another thing you can try is coleman fuel, thats what i use to wash my presses (hows that Paul),

Use Naptha. It is stronger than kerosene and Mineral Spirits.

Is Naptha something you find at home depot? I got the mineral spirits, will try in a bit.

Thanks all!!

Naptha is available at any hardware store. It is sold as the much mentioned California Wash (except that California Wash contains more carcinogenic chemicals), and has been widely used as type wash for years. You don’t say what kind of rollers you have. Rubber will not be affected by Naptha, but I would be cautious with other roller compounds. Make sure you have proper ventilation, any of the cleaning chemicals put off noxious fumes, which can build up in a closed room and cause fire danger.

Paul

Naphtha is the main ingredient in many press washes and works very well for lots of cleaning tasks as it evaporates rapidly and dissolves lots of things. You can even use it on raw wood to get an idea of how the grain will look with a clear finish, as it does not leave residue upon evaporation. Usually around $14-16 USD/gallon around here. I mostly use naphtha for cleaning metal rollers & fountains, and press wash for rubber rollers.