Printers plate developer

[misterNNL]

I am looking for a source for developer used to remove the coating from aluminum printers plate.Thanks in advance for any information you can supply.

[kitbash1]

What are you going to do? Are you trying to make a plate or are you just wanting to strip the coating from the plate. You can just use water to remove the coating as it's water soluble.

[misterNNL]

This is not water soluble.It evidently uses a product called "developer".This information comes from the printer that gave me this supply of plate.That printer had not used this emulsified(coated)aluminum material for quite some time and no longer has any if the developer product available.My goal is to strip the emulsion off and polish the aluminum.I am currently building a series of three vintage travel trailers('35 and '36 Airstreams plus a teardrop shaped one)and would like to use some of .005" polished plate on them.

[Crazy Ed]

     Tom given where you want to go with'em you just might get away with wet sanding them.

 

Edited April 7, 2016 by Crazy Ed

[Lunajammer]

At the risk of being one of those guys speculating out his lower cheeks, acetone seems to be a universal solvent...

[Art Anderson]

I am looking for a source for developer used to remove the coating from aluminum printers plate.Thanks in advance for any information you can supply.

Tom, correct me if I'm wrong, but are you asking about an offset printing master?   If so, back in my model Indy car building days, I used old offset printing masters as a source of very thin, somewhat hardened sheet aluminum for race car firewalls and instrument panels.  I used to just simply sand the sheet clean and smooth with 600-grit sandpaper, to get that rolled, satiny finish.

Art

[JTRACING]

I use printing plates also, mine have some blue coating on one side, I just sand it off,  move up the grits to get polished look if desired.

[misterNNL]

Art,I personally have never heard it called anything but printer's plate.You're probably correct seeing as how you are considerably older than I am:)

Thanks for all of your comments and suggestions guys!

[Art Anderson]

Art,I personally have never heard it called anything but printer's plate.You're probably correct seeing as how you are considerably older than I am:)

Thanks for all of your comments and suggestions guys!

Yeah, not too many offset printers out there anymore.  My mom was the secretary of a rather large church here 1956-75, and when smaller offset printers became available, the church bought one for printing bulletins and their weekly newsletter.  Offset used a photographic negative on thin, hard aluminum sheet having the text and images as etchings in the aluminum which picked up the ink, tranferred that to the paper.  Once the print job was done, there was no further use for those sheets of aluminum, so I was able to cabbage onto them whenever I needed a bit of thin aluminum.

Art

[misterNNL]

I have given up looking for a chemical product to remove the emulsion from the printers plate.Acetone does not work at all.It looks like the only answer is to ebrade it with ever finer grades of sandpaper which is a never ending job.What I really wanted was a mirror like surface that I can use to cover my scale trailers with.I want to make them look like the those polished ones I see on line.that simply is not going to happen using this material.

[Cato]

I have given up looking for a chemical product to remove the emulsion from the printers plate.Acetone does not work at all.It looks like the only answer is to ebrade it with ever finer grades of sandpaper which is a never ending job.What I really wanted was a mirror like surface that I can use to cover my scale trailers with.I want to make them look like the those polished ones I see on line.that simply is not going to happen using this material.

I'm not being facetious and know the difficulty of locating it BUT, nitromethane (race fuel) may work on that. I once stripped a 1:1 factory paint finish down to bare steel by wiping with a cloth. Try contacting Bill (Ace Garage Guy) and ask if he can help with experience or to locate some fuel. Race shops in your area may help also.

[Crazy Ed]

   Tom from what I recall from LONG ago the Plates were Aluminum Sheets with Photosensitive materal on one side. Given that's true, couldn't you just use the other side?

[kitbash1]

This is not water soluble.It evidently uses a product called "developer".This information comes from the printer that gave me this supply of plate.That printer had not used this emulsified(coated)aluminum material for quite some time and no longer has any if the developer product available.My goal is to strip the emulsion off and polish the aluminum.I am currently building a series of three vintage travel trailers('35 and '36 Airstreams plus a teardrop shaped one)and would like to use some of .005" polished plate on them.

Try using plan white vinegar. This is used as a poor mans developer in black and white film development. It might work on the off set plates. 

[misterNNL]

I will try the vinegar method tomorrow.I have already tried lacquer thinner,paint thinner,alcohol,gasoline and easy off oven cleaner with no luck.Incidently the 15" x 18" sheets I have are actually coated on both sides.Thanks again for all the helpful hints and suggestions.I'll keep trying!!

[Fat Brian]

My mom worked in pre-press for about twenty years, I'll ask her tomorrow what was in the plate washer where she worked. From my very limited knowledge of piddling around there on the weekends the plates had to be exposed to UV light before the coating could be removed.

[Fat Brian]

I will try the vinegar method tomorrow.I have already tried lacquer thinner,paint thinner,alcohol,gasoline and easy off oven cleaner with no luck.Incidently the 15" x 18" sheets I have are actually coated on both sides.Thanks again for all the helpful hints and suggestions.I'll keep trying!!

I spoke with my mom today, she said you can buy the plate developer online and do them by hand but the stuff is pretty corrosive and generally nasty. She said to find a local offset printer and see if you can slide them a few bucks to run them through their automatic plate washer.

[misterNNL]

Corrosive AND nasty ?? I think might have worked with both of those guys at some time in the past!Thanks for the tip.Did your mom happen to mention what the brand name of the developer was so I am sure to get the right stuff?

[Fat Brian]

Corrosive AND nasty ?? I think might have worked with both of those guys at some time in the past!Thanks for the tip.Did your mom happen to mention what the brand name of the developer was so I am sure to get the right stuff?

I asked her but she didn't remember, it's been quite a few years since she worked in that industry.

[Art Anderson]

Tom, come to think of it, you keep referring to "developer"?  Offset printing sheets are created by a photographic process, in which a photographic emulsion is coated onto the thin sheet aluminum, then exposed in the same manner as black & white camera film is exposed--it's developed in the very same way, after which the undeveloped emulsion was washed off in I believe, water.  The only thing left on the bright (?) aluminum surface would be the developed emulsion, which is essentially permanent, hence no developer should be present.  In the printing process, the ink is picked up only on the lettering and/or graphics imprinted on the aluminum.

Harking back to a previous reply that I made, I used left-over-to-otherwise-be-discarded offset printing aluminum sheets for such as firewalls and instrument panels for 1050's and 60's Indy roadster models that I built (I built over 100 1/24-1/25 scale models of vintage Indy cars just from 1969-1981, and used a fair amount of old offset aluminum "stencils", for both engined-turned finished panels and POLISHED aluminum as well--with no problems whatsoever.   After all, the images on those plates are only lightly etched into the metal, so you should be able to obliterate that with a Micro-Mesh Polishing Cloth very quickly, then following that up with a fine polishing compound to get as bright a shine as you want.  Assuming that you are planning on mounting the aluminum panels on some sort of smooth "buck", this method should work, I would think!

Art

[Art Anderson]

I asked her but she didn't remember, it's been quite a few years since she worked in that industry.

I would wonder if offset printing supplies are even available anymore, given the immense changes in say, small jobs printing, what with digital technology.?

Art

[Art Anderson]

I would wonder if offset printing supplies are even available anymore, given the immense changes in say, small jobs printing, what with digital technology.?

Art

I see that offset printing is still being used, upon searching.

 

[JTalmage]

I haven't seen oven cleaner mentioned yet...

Also, nitromethane should be available at rc hobby shops still right?

[JTalmage]

Also how about a dip in muratic acid? (pool cleaner used for rust removal)

[misterNNL]

And the information and helpful suggestions keep on coming.Thanks to everyone responding!

[Art Anderson]

Also how about a dip in muratic acid? (pool cleaner used for rust removal)

That stuff is DEATH on aluminum.

Art