Daige EZ GLide

[ghaynes754]

Has anyone had experience with the Daige EZ Glide for coating canvas?  Can't spray, enclosed space doesn't ventilate well, and rolling, well that is challenging and takes a bit of time.

Or any of the other liquid coaters that don't cost $10K plus.

[dgberg]

Interesting! I just came from the website and have viewed the video. Several comments from someone that does mainly canvas. With orders only coming in 1 at a time these days setting this up using it for 1 or 2 prints and then disassembling and cleaning it would be a killer for me. With the cost of the varnish and the waste factor in cleaning I can see this only being cost effective if you have a half dozen to do at a time. I have the same dilemma at this time as I am trying to shake out the best solution for top coating. My first complaint is the cost per gal. of all these products. This one is $75.00 gal. Clearstar is $100.00. In my cabinetry business we spray the most expensive high end catalized finishes available and the cost per gal. is like $37.00. I recently purchased Clearstar in gallons and also a case of the spray cans. In my tests using the spray cans I did 4- 17 X 17" canvas prints(8 sq. feet total) with the suggested 3 coats. A tack coat and then the final 2 coats both directions using the standard 50% overlap.
A 12oz. can at $12.00 a can comes out to $1.00 a square foot. For my 7900 and 9900 my ink costs per square foot are around 64 cents a foot. That makes the varnish almost double my ink cost. The cost per square foot of coverage in their marketing literature is way off,I think they say something like 33 cents a foot. Yes it may be 33 cents a foot for 1 coat.
It looks like back to Glamor II. I will finish the tests on the packaged gallons from Clearstar but really do not anticipate a change in the numbers. The price point of this product is just too far off to make it work. Finaly a good thing to say about the Clearstar (solvent based) finish is the almost instant dry time of the laquer. I did a wrap yesterday an hour after spraying and probably could have done it sooner. Our use for Clearstar will be for our Canvas Workshops where we will be printing varnishing and wrapping all in the same day. For production,no thanks.
I am also interested in hearing of other solutions. Maybe a unit similar to the Daige possibly with sealed storage for the varnish that would not require daily cleaning?

[Randy Carone]

If you plan to use a solvent based coating in the Daige I don't think you will alleviate the need to ventilate. Though we don't offer Daige at Shades of Paper, I sold them for years. They are very good units but the main issue is cleaning. Dan is absolutely correct that this unit is not intended for single prints but rather to do multiple prints once it is filled for use. Generally, I did not recommend them unless the user had a way to stand it up over a drain and rinse the small amount of water-based clear coat left using a hose that can supply a large volume of water after the liquid was emptied back into its storage container. There is a valve on the bottom of the tray that allows for easy recovery of the unused coating. Every user who bought the E-Z Glide from us was using it with the water-based version of coating. Solvent based clear coat is most often applied with HPLV equipment and the appropriate spray booth.

[ghaynes754]

Thanks for the comments.

My thoughts were to use water based, like Glamour II.  I usually do 4-6 prints one day a week, let them cure/dry/stabilize for a day, then coat, followed one evening in the week with stretching.

Agree with the comments on laquer and Dan has a good setup since he has the capability of using the other tools in his wood working business.  

Just appears to be a slightly better/more consistent approach for coating when you are doing more than one at a time but don't have the spray alternative.

[na goodman]

I've worked with Daige for years and they have always been great to work with. They make very good products and my customers have always been happy with them. Cleaning is an issue with any piece of equipment like this. You just have to make sure the coating does not dry on the bar. In my case, where Minnesota's winters seem to go on forever and I cannot spray outside the EZ Glide looks like to be a viable solution. It is meant for water base coating. Daige has their own which you do not have to mix with water or you can use other water base coatings.