Roller offset issues on c&p
The 15”x22” C&P at my studio works great, but I’m getting offset inking at times. (I attached a picture of my setup.) I disengaged the ink disk in order to do the gradient, and I assume this has a lot to do with it. But I also noticed it with some of my larger blocks that used flat colors.
I’ll upload a picture of the issue once I’m able to get a good shot of it.
Any idea why this may be happening?
IMG_0810.JPG
Running split fountain on a platen without having rider rollers is an exercise in frustration—requiring printing on alternate impressions, or other means to even out the ink laydown. You may also want to use oscillating rollers, but you will tend to have a wider “blend” band at the middle.
saucewaffle, Offset or Set off is when ink offsets to the back
of the sheet on top of it. It happens in the stack of freshly print paper. So do you mean poor inking on the form?
I’m guessing the issue is ghosting, not offset? Either way I would try double or triple rolling before making an impression.
If you haven’t already done this, I would roll the rollers over the form slowly by hand and check to see the image ghost of the form in the ink on each roller. If only one roller is making contact that might make it harder for good inking on each pass and indicate roller or truck issues that could be resolved.
Or maybe the spring that keeps the rollers firm against their rails? maybe tired, or broken, I have had this.
And a little more info would be helpful, you say ”offset inking’
do you mean on the back of the sheet? Is it happening because you are staking wet prints too high? try laying out in rows on a board, slows you down I know, but saves heartache.
Thanks for the replies!!
Offset is clearly not the right word here - it sounds like poor inking may be a better way to describe it. There’s a ghost of the outline that’s off by about a centimeter. It only shows up in the block area being printed, which leads me to think it has something to do with how the rollers pass over the block twice before being re-inked?
Allowing the rollers to re-ink between passes (trip 2-3 times) doesn’t seem to remove the issue. The only way I’ve been able to avoid the issue is to use less ink, at which point I just can’t see the ghost offset in the lighter impression.
I’ll check the image ghosts on the rollers to see if I can find any odd behavior.
Here’s a picture of what I’m talking about. Sorry it’s not a good shot - I didn’t actually take a picture of the issue when I was doing this print. But you can faintly see it.
The lower outline of the shape is copied into the strange ghost above. If you look closely, you can see that the ghost line curves down around just like the form does.
If I find a print that better shows the issue, I’ll post another picture.
IMG_0951.JPG