# Pad printing



## COEDS (Oct 4, 2006)

I'm considering purchaseing a pad printer. I have seen them at several trade shows, but know very little about them. i was hoping, I could get some information on the Pros and Cons. I would also like to know what substrates can be used with them( pens,cups,mugs,etc.)? I look forward to hearing from as many people as possible. .... Thanks ... JB


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## sunnydayz (Jun 22, 2007)

JB I know one of our members here does pad printing, If you ask XYlisa she should be able to answer some of your questions as I know her and her husband Terry do this. She is the only one I can think of that does it here.


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## ino (Jan 23, 2007)

You could do lighters,key chains,expresso cups, licence holders,ashtrays, golf balls,whiskey glasses etc.

Should you need more help you could go to the Screen prtinters.net forum where they have a section all about pad printing.

cheers.


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## martinwoods (Jul 20, 2006)

Hi Jerry, you can print on just about anything. We have done walnuts,coffee mugs, wine glasses, candy jars, mirrors,etc.

The only thing I do not like is the fumes, the smell is terrible, just make sure you have lots of venting.
other than that you do not need to use special coffee mugs or glasses, you can buy them at the local walmart or dollar store.

Hope that helps a little


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## XYLisa (Jan 20, 2008)

Hey JB I'll get you a quick note this morning (I need to get to work)! We have a printer from Pad Print of Vermont, they are great machines we have a 4 color, wouldn't suggest one so big if you want to stick with small one or 2 color jobs. The fumes from our ink are minimal however, I am use to screen printing signs which the fumes are quite strong so pad printing really has no smell to me. You can print lots of items but I find at times guessing which ink for what product can be a pain. I'll try to get you more info if you need or you can pm me anytime. Lisa


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## COEDS (Oct 4, 2006)

I thank you all for the help. I 'm looking for suggestions on he orinter itself. I have no idea of the best one look at. .... JB


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## XYLisa (Jan 20, 2008)

I'll give you a don't and that's don't buy an "Imprintor" they are cheap and a piece of junk!


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## lben (Jun 3, 2008)

I bought mine from All American Supply in Philadelphia, PA. They offer courses on it once a month, but so far I haven't been able to attend one, so mine just sits there. Mine is a very solid manual machine and well built and from what I understand you can imprint up to 8 different things on the platen because it is so versatile as far as movablity is concerned. I still have problems finding blanks for it, which is why I haven't really done anything with it. There's even a place that sells a pneumatic device for turning it into an automatic press.


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## amy_schutt (May 29, 2007)

I went to the class in Philly last Thursday. So well worth the money. I am so inspired now. I met a guy who spends all day printing golf balls. How awesome is that....I, too, am now on the lookout for inexpensive blanks.


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## lben (Jun 3, 2008)

I'll have to go. I keep putting it off, but I really need to do this. I know they also sell blanks (a sister company does), but I don't know how much they cost. I got a booklet from them on all the blanks when I got my printer and there were a lot of things in there that could sell, but I'm sure they have minimum purchases. Let me know if you find some cheap blanks. In the meantime I'll have to sign up for that class.


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## ino (Jan 23, 2007)

amy_schutt said:


> I went to the class in Philly last Thursday. So well worth the money. I am so inspired now. I met a guy who spends all day printing golf balls. How awesome is that....I, too, am now on the lookout for inexpensive blanks.


 Thanks for the information,thinking about it, all though as with everything there must be a learning curve, this could be a good line of business for any handicapped person.
BTW What is the max width and length these printers can print.
Thanks.


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## amy_schutt (May 29, 2007)

The one I have can print as wide or as tall as the cup that holds the ink is.


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## lben (Jun 3, 2008)

ino said:


> BTW What is the max width and length these printers can print.
> Thanks.


It all depends on what make you buy. They can print on things as small as electronic parts like transistors, or to pen size, or to coffee mugs, or to much larger images. It all depends on what you buy and who you buy it from. There are hundreds of pad printer manufacturers out there. Some print on large industrial things, some can print more than one color, some print on products on a conveyor belt, some are manual and some are automatic.

Google pad printer manufacturers and you will get a better idea. The larger ones are huge though and even the smaller manual presses/printers are very expensive. Even the smaller ones will cost you at least $900. The print plates are only good for one image and cannot be reused, but they can print up to 5,000 images. The ink is smelly and expensive and has to be mixed with thinners and thickeners. And the inks are specific for specific kinds of products, like cloth, glass, wood, leather, plastic, metal, and any other surface you might want to print on.


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## selanac (Jan 8, 2007)

Wow, this is a great post. I just bought a pad printer from All American in Philly two days ago. Spoke with them today, it should go out tomorrow or the next day. We live about 50 or 60 miles from their site. 

Didn't know about the smelly ink issues, but saw a guy selling pens on ebay too. If you search pad printing, you'll find the guys products. They're usually 28 to 30 cents per, and you can buy small quantities. If you go to a promotional advertising show, you can get a list of pen suppliers. Usually they sell them printed, but you can request blanks too. Also, Coastal has blanks I believe. 

Didn't know you can't reuse the plates. Anyone know of a low cost wholesale supplier for the plates? Anyone want to co-op purchase supplies?


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## doskalata (May 16, 2010)

anyone got any leads on online info, or tutorials? im in ca and cant make it out to philly


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## selanac (Jan 8, 2007)

Justin, That's funny, cause my post is just above yours. Anyways, you can look it up on YouTube. I've seen many tutorials there. 

You can also contact local Pad Printers, and ask if they let you come by and look. Maybe they're give some free classes.


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## lben (Jun 3, 2008)

selanac said:


> Wow, this is a great post. I just bought a pad printer from All American in Philly two days ago. Spoke with them today, it should go out tomorrow or the next day. We live about 50 or 60 miles from their site.
> 
> Didn't know about the smelly ink issues, but saw a guy selling pens on ebay too. If you search pad printing, you'll find the guys products. They're usually 28 to 30 cents per, and you can buy small quantities. If you go to a promotional advertising show, you can get a list of pen suppliers. Usually they sell them printed, but you can request blanks too. Also, Coastal has blanks I believe.
> 
> Didn't know you can't reuse the plates. Anyone know of a low cost wholesale supplier for the plates? Anyone want to co-op purchase supplies?


What's nice about the pad printer from AA is that you can put 8 different images on one plate and just move the pad or the blank around to meet the plates images. Granted they have to be small images, but still. At least you get 8 uses out of one plate. Of course you have to put them all on at the same time.


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## selanac (Jan 8, 2007)

Loretta, Why do you have to put them all on at the same time? Does the plate expirer? Do you tape off the other images like you do in screen printing?


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## brice (Mar 10, 2010)

You have to burn them all at the same time. It's like emulsion on a screen. Burn once only. The same plate is reusable for the same design. I never throw plates away. Customer comes back, you are good to go with little to no rework. 

The inks are smelly. The cleanup is messy. If you can get the work it's enormously profitable.


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## selanac (Jan 8, 2007)

I can get the work. My problem is the Blanks. We get tons of emails from promtional companies that want to sell pre-printed items and not blanks. They normally want to give you the end of the line discount for blanks. Meaning, the same as buying the highest amount of products.


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## brice (Mar 10, 2010)

Right, End Quantity Pricing with huge minimums.


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## lben (Jun 3, 2008)

selanac said:


> Loretta, Why do you have to put them all on at the same time? Does the plate expirer? Do you tape off the other images like you do in screen printing?


The plates for pad printing are different. Once the images are burned on they are permanent and cannot be reclaimed. The whole process hardens the plate kind of like emulsion hardening. I don't think you can print just part of a screen in screen printing either. Once it goes under the light that's it. 

I don't think the plates expire but you can only burn them once. So if you want to save some money and gang images up on a plate you will have to do them all at the same time.


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## royster13 (Aug 14, 2007)

Is there some way to mask off the images you do not need for a particular imprint?


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## lben (Jun 3, 2008)

royster13 said:


> Is there some way to mask off the images you do not need for a particular imprint?


I don't know but I doubt it. With this particular pad printer you can manipulate the location of the pad when it hits the plate and you can turn the plate around, and you can manouver the "table" that the blank sits on, so you just move your stuff to line up with your print on the plate.


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## Charms4all (Jan 29, 2007)

How do you decide which ink which thinner and which hardener to apply to what substrate? I have seen a sheet out there that tells you, but to a beginner it does not tell all. for instance a plastic ... there is so many names for the plastic pieces you print on. and you have like 3 different mixtures to choose from. sometimes the stuff your substrate is made of isnt even listed on that sheet i am talking about
can't they make ink that will stick to anything? 
They need a book pad printing for dummies 
Also the companies that sell pad printing supplies dont have a price list on their website so one can see about how much things cost. and only if they would sell there inks in small containers would be great to start off.
Does any one have a list of ink to substrate that is in elementary english 
thanks
jess


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## royster13 (Aug 14, 2007)

As far as inks you need to do lots of testing......I have been at a few promo product suppliers shops and they do lots of testing....They also keep records of all the formulas so they can repeat the next time around....


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## brice (Mar 10, 2010)

royster13 said:


> Is there some way to mask off the images you do not need for a particular imprint?


No, not reliably. Part of the process is to put the plate into developer, a chemical, and then bake the plate for an extended period. It's not all about light exposure. Burn once. Period.


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## brice (Mar 10, 2010)

Charms4all said:


> How do you decide which ink which thinner and which hardener to apply to what substrate? I have seen a sheet out there that tells you, but to a beginner it does not tell all. for instance a plastic ... there is so many names for the plastic pieces you print on. and you have like 3 different mixtures to choose from. sometimes the stuff your substrate is made of isnt even listed on that sheet i am talking about
> can't they make ink that will stick to anything?
> They need a book pad printing for dummies
> Also the companies that sell pad printing supplies dont have a price list on their website so one can see about how much things cost. and only if they would sell there inks in small containers would be great to start off.
> ...


It not as simple as sticking to the object. It's a chemical bond in many cases and some inks work better than others on certain materials. It's important to have 1) a good relationship with your supplier and 2) knowledge of the makeup of what you are printing on. 

Inks are expensive. Much more expensive than plastisol for printing shirts. I just paid $50 for about 1/2 cup of ink for a pad printing job. That 1/2 cup of ink will print about 50,000 imprints.


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## Charms4all (Jan 29, 2007)

That would be an expensive test to mix up Is there someplace on the internet that has a list of a particular item with perhaps the item number and then what mixture? for instance

Econo License Plate Frames - Absorbent, Ink.

i want to print on the above license plate frames. the description says made out of plastic..... what mixture successfully stuck to this...it does not say what sort of plastic


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## lben (Jun 3, 2008)

Charms4all said:


> How do you decide which ink which thinner and which hardener to apply to what substrate? I have seen a sheet out there that tells you, but to a beginner it does not tell all. for instance a plastic ... there is so many names for the plastic pieces you print on. and you have like 3 different mixtures to choose from. sometimes the stuff your substrate is made of isnt even listed on that sheet i am talking about
> can't they make ink that will stick to anything?
> They need a book pad printing for dummies
> Also the companies that sell pad printing supplies dont have a price list on their website so one can see about how much things cost. and only if they would sell there inks in small containers would be great to start off.
> ...


 
I got pint sized ink and it was still very expensive - yet in a small container. They have inks that are substrate specific like glass or fabric, and then they have generic ink that will stick to just about anything else.

From what I gather you have to mix the ink with the thinner in tiny bits and try it to see if it will dry and stick to something.

I agree - pad printing for dummies would be an awesome book. I have had my pad printer for 3 years and have yet to do anything with it. The insructions that came with it didn't make any sense. The plates and ink are so expensive I don't want to waste any experimenting. I know... I really do need to dust off those instructions again and just dive into it head first like I did with screen printing and sublimation.


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## lben (Jun 3, 2008)

Charms4all said:


> That would be an expensive test to mix up Is there someplace on the internet that has a list of a particular item with perhaps the item number and then what mixture? for instance
> 
> Econo License Plate Frames - Absorbent, Ink.
> 
> i want to print on the above license plate frames. the description says made out of plastic..... what mixture successfully stuck to this...it does not say what sort of plastic


If you are planning to buy from this company I suggest you let them do the printing because you are only going to save maybe 5 cents on each one. They also say that they are screen printing theirs.

Another obstacle for pad printing is finding someone to buy blanks from. www.acmeblanks.com will sell them without the "you must buy 500 at a time" minimums. I just got some blanks (10-20 of each - an no, not cases, individual pieces) from them. But I still haven't decided on what to put on them. Everyone else wants the ASI number which I don't have.


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## MRPRINTER (Nov 12, 2010)

Check out Quick Printers.com
and they should have info on pad printing


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## MRPRINTER (Nov 12, 2010)

check out you Tube there are about 200 videos there.

good luck


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## brice (Mar 10, 2010)

Charms4all said:


> That would be an expensive test to mix up Is there someplace on the internet that has a list of a particular item with perhaps the item number and then what mixture? for instance
> 
> Econo License Plate Frames - Absorbent, Ink.
> 
> i want to print on the above license plate frames. the description says made out of plastic..... what mixture successfully stuck to this...it does not say what sort of plastic


The license plates you posted are screen printed not pad printed. Most pad printers are limited to a 90 - 100mm (or about 3.5 - 4" and in practicality print smaller than that.


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## Charms4all (Jan 29, 2007)

ok then what screen print ink would you use for them?


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## royster13 (Aug 14, 2007)

Take a look at Nazdar.


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## doskalata (May 16, 2010)

I was given a press a print machine and all the works; plates, inks, and some ink thinner. The guy who gave it to me let it sit around for, well, quite a long time. A portion of which was in direct sunlight,

1) an unopened bag of plates is with it, Do these go bad? provided that the sunlight hasn't ruined them. 

2) the bag of plates says "alcohol wash", do i develop them in rubbing alcohol, the guy said he used water? 

3) Can the inks go bad? being in the sunlight caused alot of the tubes to expand, and then burst in some cases. The ones that burst i tossed, but could the heat change the chemical structure making them useless? (the black oozed a semi-clear substance)

4) pads; it came with several red silicone pads, the guy who gave it to me is an offset litho pressman, and he gave me some press wash for ink cleanup, he's not sure if the stuff is too strong for the pads, and that it might deteriorate the pads. i think he called it CA-Wash, or something... is this possible, and is there a good way of testing without ruining the pad i test it on?

please and thank you much!


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## selanac (Jan 8, 2007)

Someone told me you can get License Plates from SignWarehouse.com I checked their online site, and the price for Black Plastic frames are about .69 each plus shipping. You have to buy 5 frames. So about $3.45 for all five. They come in a package so the quantity says 1, but it's five in all. 

That's a very good price IMO.


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## lben (Jun 3, 2008)

doskalata said:


> I was given a press a print machine and all the works; plates, inks, and some ink thinner. The guy who gave it to me let it sit around for, well, quite a long time. A portion of which was in direct sunlight,
> 
> 1) an unopened bag of plates is with it, Do these go bad? provided that the sunlight hasn't ruined them.
> 
> ...


Did he give you the license for the business from PaP too? You will not be able to buy supplies from them without it. I don't know if the plates for all these different presses are the same or not. If they are you can get water wash plates from All American. Alcohol plates have to be washed with alcohol after the image is burned on them. If he used water to wash the plates, that could explain why they sat for such a long time unused...

Sunlight will destroy the plates. It burns the image on the plate the same as the exposure unit will. Even though there wasn't any image on them to burn, chances are they are shot, but you can try to burn one and see if it's any good or not. I would think the heat is what destroyed the rest of the stuff.

To clean a pad just use plain soap & water (if no ink on them) or use tape to remove the ink from the pads.


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## royster13 (Aug 14, 2007)

Every thing you need can be sourced elsewhere......But it is a hard grind to make money with a PAP system....They are darn slow...


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## Charms4all (Jan 29, 2007)

what other pad printing site has the prices for their supplies?


the ink is crazy expensive.. when i was playing with my pad printer one time i cut a vinyl decal and placed it on one of the plates i had ruined after i cleaned it to the metal, and it work i was just messing around with all the stuff and printed a golf ball, that is all that i successfully printed really. I tried a ceramic coffee mug, but it didnt work.. couldnt get the right mixture going.. tried plasitc water bottles from the dollar store, and that didnt work either..


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## lben (Jun 3, 2008)

All American has their prices on the website. I got my pad printer from them so I know my supplies are geared towards my printer. I have all the supplies, I just haven't done anything with it yet. Maybe this week I'll try something. I hate the experimenting with the ink thickness though. What a pain.


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## doskalata (May 16, 2010)

Which of the allamerican.com pad inks would anyone recommend for printing on plastic ping pong balls?


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## Artsplace-CBR (Feb 22, 2007)

I had a pad printer but sent it back because I couldn't stand the odor, it permeated my whole house.


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## lben (Jun 3, 2008)

I had to move the box of chemicals into the basement. I would get dizzy everytime I walked past the closet where I kept the box. Mine still sits. I figure if it stinks that bad in a sealed container... imagine how much it will stink when I open it up and pour it into a bowl.. ewwww.


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## Artsplace-CBR (Feb 22, 2007)

I think it is a dangerous thing unless you work in a wharehouse with many windows.


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## selanac (Jan 8, 2007)

Wow, I didn't think it was that bad. Do you have allergies or something? Do you suffer from Migraines or Sinus problems? 

I would check that out. 

I wonder if we can use Plastisol instead of the Pad Printing Ink?


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## lben (Jun 3, 2008)

I have allergies, asthma and chronic sinusitis, so yeah any smell bout kills me. So far the only part about screen printing that bothers me are the chemicals to clean screens with. Now I know I can just use vinyl instead of the emulsion, so that eliminates a bunch of chemicals.


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## selanac (Jan 8, 2007)

You can also outsource Loretta. 

Lots of people are using water based ink. I haven't master it yet. Drives me nuts. I love the clean up though. Just wash and dry.


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## royster13 (Aug 14, 2007)

Water based ink for pad printing?.....Is it durable on hard goods?....I thought the epoxy inks were required.....


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## selanac (Jan 8, 2007)

No, screen printing. I think she mentioned screen printing somewhere in her previous thread. 

You're right, Epoxy ink. Is plastisol ink considered an Epoxy Ink?

Do you need Epoxy so it sticks to the plastic or glass products?

Anyone have a good vendor for Cups, mugs, pencils etc.? I have a customer interested. My condo association. I need a Catalog real soon. PM me if you can give me a catalog. I'm willing to outsource this.


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