Dye sub color woes

[Andy_warp]

Ok. So my worst fear come true. My heat press was turned off by a coworker without a cool down cycle. This resulted in oil leakage from the drum in the heat calendar. There was a troubleshooting process in which it wasn’t getting hot enough to sublimate the dye. The tech had me add oil and burp the drum. Great! Back to sublimation temp!

This is where it gets messy. I suspect this happened in the past, and I profiled with oil levels not at optimal. Now I’m having shift issues with optimal oil level.

The question I have is could I get back to my profile by measuring a linearization from my original good profile to incrementally take oil out and remeasure? Is the eye one going to be accurate enough?

Everything has been stable for five years, so I’d love to re create my print environment. I think it is a better route than adjusting dwell time with temperature and speed. I tried to reprofile and had issues with the measurements. I think the dye is burning off faster.

Just wondering if someone with dye sub experience will tell me this is a fool’s errand!

Thanks!

 

[Andy_warp]

Edit:
Could I compare linearization from original profile to new ones as I take oil out?

 

[Correct Color]

Andy,

"Relinearization" is one of the biggest myths in large format printing. Fact is even if you took a second set of readings from the first patch sets you used to make your original linearizations, they wouldn't be exactly the same as the first readings. There will always be some difference. And linearization readings are an absolute key variable in creating a machine state. Any variation at all will have a noticeable effect on your greys, in particular, as whatever the difference, your ICC profile will now be invalid by that difference; by that difference the machine is no longer in its originally profiled state.

To try and chase what you had before by this method is indeed a fool's errand.

In dye sublimation, dwell time, temperature and speed are all profileable variables. If you did your profiles correctly the first time, it should be much, much easier to just profile for the new condition than to try and recreate the old one; and if you did your original profiles correctly, your new condition should print the same as your old one.

Maybe it's time you had me out.



Mike Adams
Correct Color

 

[Andy_warp]

Came to this conclusion and rebuilt my profile.
I was still getting some strange differences....THEN...my heat press completely lost it's seals! 280 degree oil spraying out of the drum...good times!
Had it serviced...all color came right back to my original profile! I guess I did it right!

My fifteen year old gretag spectro is not the best...will wait until I get an i1 pro 2 before I get into much of this again.

I'd love to have you out, but my boss would ask me why he pays me...I know the answer, but that's my situation.

Thanks for confirming my fool's errand!

 

[davarino]

OEverything has been stable for five years, so I’d love to re create my print environment. I think it is a better route than adjusting dwell time with temperature and speed. I tried to reprofile and had issues with the measurements.

Just a fast reminder about redeveloping scenarios: there will always be variance in measurements. That's the root of the concept of "standard error" in statistics.

It is much easier and much more predictable (and productive) to shoot one bird than to try to get two birds to line up so that you can shoot them both with one bullet.

I'd say, profile from scratch and try to keep catastrophes from reoccurring. You'll never reproduce the past perfectly.

 

[Andy_warp]

I've profiled several machines/inks/rips now, so I'm ok with variance.
My cyan heads are a little worn, so no point in going full boat yet.

I'm getting good grayscales in images so we are pressing ahead.

Thanks for the input!