Avoiding dust

[David Eckels]

I am looking for tips on avoiding dust, which leaves tiny white spots here and there on my roll paper prints. All it takes is one in a critical place to spoil a large print. I have a hepa/ionic filter fan going in the studio, which helps some, but I am hoping there is a way to clean the paper's surface just before printing. If this has been addressed in a prior post, I would appreciate a link. Searching "print dust" turned up nothing relevant. Thanks in advance!

[howardm]

I always use cotton or nitrile gloves, brush w/ a drafters brush and then canned air.

I know a guy who uses a commercial dust 'roller'

[Mark Lindquist]

Depending on what printer and paper you're using a cowl helps.  If no cowl, a sheet of plastic over the roll would work.

I had a design for a modified vacuum brush made from shop vac parts and hooked to the vacuum system positioned so that the paper would pass just under it before entering the printer, brush lightly touching the surface, but I never made it.

If I have a roll I'm having issues with I will roll it out on a table in front of the printer, brush it first, use some air as discussed in the previous post, then roll it back in.

With sheets, I usually tap them on edge on a table a few times before loading.

[Benny Profane]

B&W?

http://www.instructables.com/id/The-Vanishing-art-of-How-to-Spot-That-means-retouc/

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

I am looking for tips on avoiding dust...

Have you considered moving out of Arizona? 

[DeanChriss]

I've found some papers apparently come with more dust built into the rolls than others. I don't know if it's brand specific or just random luck. For instance I had a roll of Ilford GFS and after using the entire roll had only one or two prints with a speck that fell off along with the ink. Then I loaded a roll of Hahnemuhle Photo Silk Baryta, which is apparently identical to IGFS, and made 6 prints to get one without multiple white specks. On the last (good) one I fed out enough paper for the print, thoroughly cleaned it with a Swiffer Duster, rolled it back, and then printed it. I also thououghly cleaned the printer multiple times during this ordeal, but I'm convinced the dust came with the paper roll. FWIW, the Swiffer dusters hold onto the dust instead of moving it around and seem to work quite well.

edit: Also note that with these baryta papers after the printer cuts the print off of the roll the paper edge is absolutely loaded with little flakes of what I assume is the paper coating. It you press a finger tip on each side of the cut edge and run them down the cut you'll find them full of these white flakes. After doing that about 3 times they are mostly gone. The point is, when the printer cuts off the print and then winds paper back onto the roll, that cut paper edge effectively distributes dust all through the paper path. How convenient!

edit 2: FWIW, I have not seen this problem with Hahnemuhle Photo Silk Baryta sheets, but then sheets are easy to blow off before using them and rolls are not.

[Garnick]

Since I seldom uses either of the papers in question here, I cannot offer any pertinent "advice".  What I use mostly is Epson Luster and semi-gloss for my customers who want a standard print on so called "photo paper".  However, I do use the Epson hot and cold press Fine Art Papers and also do a lot of printing on canvas, both of which are susceptible to leaving rather large amounts of dust behind.  Therefore, my method of dealing with this is to run the paper/canvas through the printer after the cut, far enough to run my finger and thumb together along the cut edge.  In this way I can release most, if not all of the cutter dust/remnants and let them fall out of harms way.  Invariably, canvas is much "dustier" than either of the Fine Art Papers, it does require extra work to clean the cut edge.  Once finished that procedure I manually roll the paper/canvas back onto the core, ready for the next print.  When I switch the K ink back to PK I do a thorough cleaning(vacuum) of the paper feed throat and then open the roll feed section and the front cover to vacuum the rollers and any spot that may accumulate dust.  In that way I am able to eliminate enough of the "dust" to print on the "photo" papers without any problem.  Granted, there might be the odd occasion when a speck will find its way to the paper surface before printing, but its a very low percentage compared to what was happening before I adopted mt cleaning routine.  Hope this helps.

Gary     

[schertz]

When I print on Baryta/Platine papers I also use Swiffer dust cloths to very gently wipe off the authentic factory dust that comes in the package. Nothing is more annoying than getting a nice large print out of the printer and having it ruined with the little white spots from coating dust. After starting to wipe the papers, I now get > 95% spot-free prints (still rarely get a white spot sometimes). This is with sheet paper... I don't print on roll paper which I imagine would require rolling out the paper and de-dusting prior to print as others have mentioned.

Canson BP/Platine, Epson Legacy and Ilford GFS all suffer from coating bits in the bag, I can't comment on any other brands

MS