That is a kind of enjoyable hacks that come about from discovering a product and going “I’m wondering if I might…” — on this case, artist/YouTuber [Wesley Treat] discovered his favorite vendor makes spray cans in CYMK colors– that’s the Cyan, Yellow, Magenta and blacK required for subtractive printing. Which bought him questioning: can I make full-colour prints with this paint?
His reply was “sure”, and the method to take action is pretty easy. First, break up the picture into color channels, generate a half-tone sample for every one, and carve it out of MDF on the laser. Then spray the MDF with the suitable color spray paint. Press the web page towards every block in flip, and voila! A full color print block print, albeit at very low DPI in comparison with your common inkjet.
Now, you is likely to be questioning, why half-tone as a substitute of blending? Nicely, it seems that these CYMK paints are too opaque for that to work in a block-printing course of. Not less than with a naive spray approach; [Weseley] does admit a really superb mist may be capable of make that work. The second query is why not simply hook the rattle cans right into a CNC machine for a paint-based mega inkjet? That’s a fantastic query and we hope somebody tries it, however [Weseley] evidently likes block-printing so he tried that first.
Laser-ablating sufficient MDF away to make respectable print blocks took too lengthy for [Weseley]’s tastes, nevertheless, so he switched to utilizing mylar stencils. As an alternative of spraying a block and urgent onto it, the paint is sprayed by means of the stencil. The ten mil Mylar not solely cuts sooner, however can assist finer element. Although the ensuing prints free a few of the inventive aptitude the inconsistencies block printing brings, it in all probability seems higher.
If you happen to want to skip the guide paint-can-handling, maybe we are able to curiosity you in a spray-can plotter. If you happen to do like manually flinging paint, maybe you could possibly do this dot-painting spray can attachment, for a extra self-directed half-tone.
Due to [Keith Olson] for the tip.
