Thoughts on wall printers?

[Jburns]

Yes these are all my concerns. The only reason I am considering it is a lot of my customers need lettering direct on the wall. In some cases they use vinyl lettering, but for a lot of their exhibitions they used this company that did silkscreened letters direct to wall. That company closed and did not sell. To my knowledge this way of silkscreening is not a common practice, so a lot of my clients want what they cant have. In an effort to fill this void I started looking into this tech. However it still looks really too young and untested.

silkscreen text for a wall - hmm.. that sounds pretty cool.

 

[Jburns]

How big is the area that you need to add this text to? I understand it varies - like 4 x 12 inches for one,,, 12 x 36 inches for another - typically single color text?

 

[Pauly]

Only one for my needs: letters painted on walls. I have Musuem clients that insist on it. They used to use a screen printer, but he closed his shop so now their is a huge void as there is not many vendors that do it. I do vinyl for these clients, but for a bulk of their jobs they use screen print, so my choices are: let the business pass me by, learn screen printing, or learn this new tech. no options seems great. It can also do small lettering which is a plus for those 12pt serif font jobs when they want a label painted direct no the wall.

I would look at the most cost effective way to do the job.
If screen printing them is the way to go, as it's easier, cheaper and quicker. Then so be it.
Although screen printing is old tech, there's still a place for it in today's world.

besides, do you really want to carry your printer around with you? or produce the work at your shop.

& wouldn't call it "new tech" as they've been around for 6-7 years already.

Just buy one of these.

 

[GAC05]

Seems like you could hardly go wrong with such a low price and extremely strong product name......

 

[johnnysigns]

I'm guessing you'd have to sand the old printing off the wall so it doesn't telegraph through when you redo the next exhibition?

 

[Billct2]

I haven't done a direct screen on a wall in at least 20 years. Hated it then and wouldn't want to start again now, never liked screen printing of any kind. Maybe it's changed but the inks & solvents were nasty.
But, it isn't really hard, it's just that you only get one shot to get it right. And holding a screen to a wall that may or may not be really flat without shifting at all is tricky. For small screens we'd have one guy hold the frame and the other pull the squeege. Too bad you can't find the guy that used to do them to give you some pointers. And then you have to start making screens...

 

[depps74]

Here are some video links of the machine in action from a distrubutor in china I have been in conversation with.....

 

[balstestrat]

Does it have like a automatic depth control with ultrasound or something? That would be kind of cool.

 

[VizualVoice]

So if the end result desired is painted text on the wall, why can't you just cut some paint mask and stencil it? Basically same end result as screen print, your client gets what they want, and you come out the hero and $ in your pocket. I think you're making this harder than it needs to be.

 

[zspace]

It‘s definitely got a cool factor. If you pull the trigger let us know how it works out.

 

[Pauly]

Dude just way up the pros and cons of every way to do the job. That will give you a proper answer.
That's how investments are made.
Not by buying a toy that you want, but knowing there's a better, cheaper way of doing the job.