Non-toxic cleanup of rubber-based ink?

The is no better way to clean your forms than with solvents. The least toxic would probably be Kerosine, but it is rather smelly, next would be Odorless Mineral Spirits, but that just means you are not smelling the fumes yet still inhaling them. Then there is Naptha or as much discussed here the same product sold as Coleman Fuel. It works best, but the fumes are strong. If you are working in the house, I would suggest that you rig up a box that you could carry the chase, and possibly the rollers to a location where you could clean the aforementioned with less discomfort - a garage or porch would suit. If you must clean up in the house I would suggest that Odorless Mineral Spirits would be the choice. There are scented Kerosines that are available for lamps, but because it is slow to evaporate you might find them offensive over time. Even the people who tout non-toxic methods of wash-up are usually forced to do a final wash-up with a solvent. Try to figure out a way to do it that won’t impact your household, but would be efficient and effective without the mess that vegetable oils or other such remedies would offer.

Paul

Does your bedroom/studio not have an openable window? Can you open a window and put a fan in it blowing out to get the fumes out of the room safely? Even a slight draft in that direction will keep the fumes moving out. There are fans mounted in an adjustable panel to essentially close off the window except for the fan openings (they usually have two smaller fans) and you can open the window, insert the fans, and clean up, if the temps are not comfortable enough to leave the fans installed.

Bob

The rubber-base ink you are using does indeed have an oil based vehicle. It is the resin used to dry the ink that is rubber-based. Anything used to clean an oil-based ink can be used to clean up a rubber-based ink.

I am not a fan of vegetable oil as a cleaner for rollers and press, but if it works for you, give it a try and see what issues its use might raise. You might use a vegetable oil to do the initial clean and then a quick wipe with an odorless cleaner for the final clean/dry of the rollers and press ink plate, minimizing the exposure to the more volatile solvent. Either way, make certain to dispose of the rags you use in cleaning immediately after use, placing them in a container outside the building if possible.

John Henry

Have you tried Gamsol?
http://www.gamblincolors.com/solvents/

DGM

We use Crisco at the university, followed up with another cleaner (sometimes odorless mineral spirits, sometimes water based cleanser). It works fairly well, but only on the press. Cleaning type doesn’t work well with Crisco.

At home I use the water miscible roller wash from NA Graphics. It does a much better job on both press and type, but smells stronger. I remember looking at the MSDS for it and it seemed relatively harmless in occasional use.

Gamsol is:

http://www.gamblincolors.com/msds/gamsol.html

I’m sure all environmentally-friendly printers will refrain from using Crisco past its expiration date to wash their presses that are used to print napkins! Between the soy-based inks and the Crisco, your shop should smell like the Dumpster behind an Oriental restaurant!

TOXIC, SHMOXIC…
Reprinted from several years ago…
There are some printers who smoke cigarettes, cigars, chew tobacco, use drugs, drink alcohol, sit in drive-up lanes eating exhaust fumes from the cars in front of them at the bank or waiting for killer-fast-foods. Twenty-thirty some pounds overweight, they don’t know what exercise is, yet worry about short exposure to fumes from some things like gasoline, kerosene, naphtha.
Printers of my day were exposed to:
—Poorly ventilated composing rooms.
—Washing the self-centering Ludlow sticks in gasoline once a week.
—Melting lead for the Linotypes and Ludlows in an open cauldron sort of smelting pot with all its smoke and fumes. Stirring it was done to skim off all the impurities out of it.
—Cleaning Linotype spacebands with graphite.
—Using a mix of kerosene and gasoline (we called it benzine) as a press wash.
—Carbon tetrachloride used as a type and plate wash. You could always tell the stone man (doing press lockups) from the rest of the printers. Carbon tet had burned the hair out of his nostrils.
—Scrubbing type forms with lye.
—Dust from type cases was pretty heavy and blown out with bellows.
Meanwhile, my shop smells like a print shop, not a salad bar, an oriental restaurant, a day-care center, Dawn soap, Crisco, mineral spirits, California wash (whatever that is!), but if there’s something in their water, I’m sure it would be in their wash!
Excuse me I must go out into my shop now to inhale the wonderful aroma of a real, authentic (it ain’t no studio) print shop.
Have a great week,
Stan

A topic well covered in other posts, use California Wash, which is mostly rather “benign” Naphtha, wear solvent resistant gloves and an organic vapor respirator.

Problem solved.

Ventilation—which can be as simple as an open door or window—is a big part of reducing exposure to volatile organic compounds.
Using Crisco will have a more lingering olfactory presence in its rancidity unless you are as careful removing it as you are in removing the ink. I’ve been around rancid college Vandercooks.

THANK YOU all for the suggestions. The room does have two windows, and I try to keep those open (and close the door to the rest of the house), but even then it seems to smell a bit too much. I have purchased a window fan that has two small fans, which can be set to both “inhale” and “exhale” air, circulating it pretty well (according to its good reviews on Amazon). In the meantime, I will try the veg oil method (to get the main cleanup done), and then try odorless mineral spirits. Thanks again!

When you get tired of the mess made with the vegetable oil wash-up, just use mineral spirits.

Suffocating in Portland:

Set your window fan to blow the air out of your house. Open the door a crack, and open a window elsewhere in the house. You want to create as much cross-flow as possible, and you want your fresh air to come for a supply located far away from the stinky air you’re blowing out the window.

Failing that, the suggestion to take the bits outside to clean them seems to make a lot of sense.

I’m with the “you gotta use a solvent” crowd — you’re making a mess with something quite unnatural (rubber based ink), and expecting there to be a natural way to clean it up. I’m not a chemist, (warning, jumping-to-conclusions ahead) but it seems that the more volatile a solvent — and therefore the more stink — the better it works as a solvent.

I tend to shy away from vegetable and animal based oils, they leave residue and can go rancid. Maybe find the lightest weight mineral oil possible and use that? Unscented “baby oil” is pretty runny stuff, and I don’t think it is actually made from babies.

It would be worth experimenting, anyway.

I don’t understand the reasoning of using one product to clean-up another. I you use an oil for your initial wash-up you will have an oil to clean up. You already have ink to clean off of the press, why would you want to put something else on it?

Paul

Things that smell bad or appear dangerous are probably safer to use than things that don’t smell or look benign. The reason is is that you KNOW they’re dangerous and will take proper precautions to limit exposure to the hazard.

If you don’t believe it, think of how many injuries are caused by dull knives which are used improperly because they’re dull.

So far as wash up goes. If you want to cut the oil base ink, get a squirt can of common motor oil and put a squirt on the press. Run the press to work up the ink and sheet (placing paper on ink disk and running the rollers across it to transfer ink off the rollers) the glop off.

Then final wash with mineral spirits (the smelly kind). If done right, you’ll use a 1/2 teaspoon of oil and a tablespoon of mineral spirits. Use the ink paper/rags to light bonfires or what have you, Direct cleaning, using solvent on rags, is generally inefficient and requires the need of much more solvent.

Vegetable oils are a royal pain to wash up—avoid them.