Trying to print acrylic ink with an inkjet?

[coopdog]

I'm trying to print a silver acrylic paint (It has to be acrylic) onto a kind of plastic card stock for an art project. I was going to try and use a stencil but I don't think they make any for characters that are 1/8" high. There is about 25 words of text I'm trying to print with the silver acrylic paint so a stencil would take forever to cut out, especialy at that small size.

I was thinking of using my HP Deskjet 895cse and injecting the acrylic paint into an empty cartrage I have lying around. Then immeditly prining onto the card so that the heads would not get clogged. Would this work?

I think it would work well just the only thing I'm woried about are the heads getting cloged after a word or two.

I was thinking of geting an old junky inkjet at a local electronics surplus or at a thrift store that prints at a bad DPI hoping that the head on one of thoes would not clog as easily.

What would you use to print it? Thanks a lot!

 

[Sun Baked]

I thought most all of the HP Inkjets print nozzles are in the cartridge, so clogging a nozzle means replacing the cartridge.

 

[coopdog]

Yeah, thats what I was afraid of. Is there any kind of inkjet or other kind of printer out there that would be able to do it?

 

[CanadaRAM]

I can't see a metallic paint of any kind working in an inkjet. Think of the relative size of the particles suspended in the paint, and then the size of the inkjet nozzles.

There is one type of discontinued printer that may do a "silver" job if you can find someone with it: an ALPS thermal printer (Seikosha I think also made a similar one). It used thermal transfer foil rolls, and silver and gold foils were options. It'll print on many substrates, and the resulting print is waterproof.

Otherwise, scout out a screen-printing company in your area and see if they will try it. Silk-screening is the same general concept as stencilling, except the paint is squeezed through fabric that has been prepared as a stencil (which can be computer generated) http://www.free-definition.com/Printmaking.html#Silk-screening

Thanks
Trevor
CanadaRAM.com

 

[coopdog]

Thanks for the info! Yeah I figured it would not work with my dreamed up inkjet method. I have heard about the ALPS but I don't feel like spending $400 on a printer for my little art project. Maybe I'll just end up making a stencil.

Thanks again!

 

[CanadaRAM]

Don't have to spend $400 for one print -- you just need to find someone with the ALPS printer and give them a bit of dosh to do your print for you.

Start looking among the outfits that advertise label printing -- the ALPS was popular for short run labels and small signs.