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Silkscreening CD-Rs?
anonymous amateur silkscreener asks: "Here's a question for those Slashdot readers who fall into the intersection of Photographer /
Artists / Computer user. A comment
posted in response to the story on Sneaking Open Source Software Through
the Front Door led me to this company which
makes some cute silk-screened blank CD-Rs.
I send out CDs once in a while with photos or (occasionally) my own graphics. Now for a little
while, I've been thinking about making some home-screened graphics for them, and I wonder if anyone out there has already done some of the experimentation necessary. I have a silk-screen kit which I have successfully used to make T-shirts and other things (on paper and fabric, that is), but with CDs I'm uncertain about the results."
More generally, can anyone point to their own successes / failures / HOWTOs on creative CD embellishment? (and packaging for that matter!) I'd like to avoid the expensive 'buy our special CD-sized stickers' approach if possible, but there are probably things I've overlooking.
No Batik, please."
"I am uncertain for the following reasons:
- Disintegration of the graphic - I'm actually afraid to put the results in a drive, because I'm worried that the pigment will be spun right off the disk and foul the mechanism, and I don't have a dozen replacements sitting around. Is there special pigment I should be using for this? If I spray a sealant on a CD, will the result be too heavy, or too thick, or possibly damage the drive? Yes, I know there are factory-produced screened disks all over the place, but I don't know if they're doing anything special to protect / seal their graphics. They seem to have a nice smooth surface, and I've never seen one to separate graphics from disk from wear or anything.
- Balance: If I screen on an asymmetric design, will I unbalance the disk too much? I suppose not, because there are those wacky shaped CDs, too.
More generally, can anyone point to their own successes / failures / HOWTOs on creative CD embellishment? (and packaging for that matter!) I'd like to avoid the expensive 'buy our special CD-sized stickers' approach if possible, but there are probably things I've overlooking.
No Batik, please."
Those "wacky shaped CDs" still have their center of weight in the center of the mounting hole. If you're going to apply an asymetric design, you should either make sure that the weight of the paint is negligible or that the paint is distributed in a way as to keep the center of weight near the center of the disc.
What sort of heat transfer process? The only one I've seen for t-shirts involves an iron, and I can't imagine that that would be very compatible with a plastic CD-R.
Not really. They may look to be "off" at first glance, but they're actually balanced around the center.
In itself it's not directly addressing your issues, but it's definitely about one dude's adventure in trying to silkscreen CDs from scratch and I have pics.
Although I'm still waiting to get some of the chemicals to get my emulsion formula right, ie chromium tartrate, I painted silver CDRs (uncoated twenty cents a piece) with acrylic and had no problems with either damaging the CDs or drives.
Check the page if you want to see a down and dirty DIY effort.
There's also this earlier Slashdot thread that was supposed to be on automating CDR duplication but went into various other aspects of the job as well such as silkscreening and some debates about media pricing.
i have published some limited runs of indie music albums on printable cds (which have a matte silver finish and are meant for specialized laser / inkjet printers with cd tray feeding mechanisms) using:
;) of course, this may be limiting play...
(1) customized rubber stamps with regular inkpad ink -- these can be ordered online by submitting a graphic file for as little as $10 for a 5" by 5" stamp
(2) layered bicolor woodcuts with substantially heavier pigments -- these were a bit messy, but after the initial loose bits came off after drying, all seemed fine
i think you should be concerned about loose pigment as it must be more abrasive than dust. the sealant route, imho, is ill-advised, most i inspected contained serious solvents, which (again i presume) could harm the cd. if you must cover up the ink, a clear label might be better, but i realize you don't want labels, plus they are generally more expensive than the cd.
i have published roughly 600+ using the rubber stamps and 300+ using the woodcuts and so far the only complaints have been about the music
It would be my pleasure.
The first page there you have me making silkscreening frames that are suited for CDs. The frames you buy at silkscreen shops are usually square and made for T-shirts. So, that's where I cut my thumb.
The next shot is the pivotal step where you use a bright light to expose the emulsion and devlop it by placing a transparency that was printed on an ink jet over the pattern.
Finally, you see the finished product.
The next page is just talking about various formulas for emulsions ans showing pictures of emulsions settting up. If you're not a big chemistry fan, I'd recommend just buying a product called Liquid Light which I hear comes with instructions and you can also google it to find lots of T-shirt instructions.
My own technique was to purchase silver nitrate salts and experiment with different substrates and activators but it was partly for educational purposes that I went this route. If you just want the CDs done and done quickly then I'd recommend just buying a pre-mixed batch of emulsions.
When I do finally get all the details on the chemistry worked out so I can take someone from metallic silver to hardy silkscreen emulsion, I'll be sure to share with anyone interested.
In the mean time, you can also use a stamp technique and a few stickers with reflective backgrounds to get a pretty cool looking CD that you can kick out by the thousands at low cost.