Decal advice please

Hey everyone,

I have designed my own decals using the open source program GIMP.

Just wondering what everyone is buying to do decals on an inkjet printer?

I got waterslide sheets off the bay site and well its not good hence why I'm posting this. I couldn't transfer it from the backing paper to the guitar after soaking. It kind of melted. Sounds weird but yes. Only water was used.

Has anyone tried using an inkjet printer with standard book covering transparent CONTACT instead and a backing piece of paper or thin card to run through the inkjet printer with success?

I'm open to any suggestions please :)

Cheers,

Alkay.

After printing your decal you need to spray it to seal the ink otherwise it will run (if this is what you mean?)
I use Krylon Clear to seal mine, hope this helps... also don't leave it in water too long just enough for the decal to slide from the backing paper, it depends on your water temp a bit too. If you leave it too long it can turn to mush.

Yep... +1 for Krylon Clear. It certainly sounds like you missed a step in the process - you simply must seal the ink with a clear coat or two or it'll do exactly what you describe!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by corsair

Yep... +1 for Krylon Clear. It certainly sounds like you missed a step in the process - you simply must seal the ink with a clear coat or two or it'll do exactly what you describe!

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Thank you euroa and corsair,

Was a critical step I missed but I'm still learning so thank you. So I went to the hardware store this afternoon and they didn't have any clear acrylic in a can but they sold me PVA glue and said mix water with it so I'm going to give that a test run with a spray bottle. I did a search and one site said use 1/3 of water and 2/3 of PVA. So I'll see how that goes if not I'll buy the stuff you guys recommend. Just on a bit of a budget.

Cheers,

Alkay.

I managed to do this the first time too. Then I went back and read the instructions that came with the waterslide sheets again and realised I had missed the clear coat. I just use clear acrylic spray. I can't remember what brand. Once you do this it will work fine.

Hi Alkay, I have used White Knight clear acrylic bought from the big green shed and it does the trick for around ten bucks.

Hey everyone and thanks for the advice. So I went and got this acrylic lacquer from an auto shop here in town and did a test run.

I did three very light coats allowing it to dry inbetween each coat. It said fifteen minutes but I waited about an hour between each. Waited 24 hours after that and it worked. It was a light bulb moment of course the ink is going to run off if I don't seal it.

Well you live and learn after a brain fail like that, anyway my plan is the following:

Let the decals dry for a few days.
Apply a few coats of poly with a turps mixture except make it super thin this time and build up the layers.
Headstocks are up to 2000 grit so once there are enough layers of the mix over the decals I start on the micromesh. From memory I think 3200 was the next step as suggested by Simon so thank you so much for that. Things are happening slowly but I'm getting there. Next build should be better :) I'm learning so much everyone so I really appreciate all the input.

Happy to hear any comments on the above.

Cheers,

Alkay.

Hey everyone,

So the decals worked perfectly after applying acrylic laquer gloss.

I got some contact(that you use to do book covers) but it didn't even print the graphics. There are no issues with ink. I also used carboard paper to back it for the printer.

Has anyone had any success using contact for decals instead of the waterslide ones because its so much cheaper.

Cheers,

Alkay.

Hi Alkay, If the stuff going through a printer doesn't hold ink or toner then it won't work. In saying that I do remember when at school last century some of the teachers had what looked like pages printed onto clear OHP (overhead projector) slides which looked like some thin acrylic plastic stuff and presume they had been simply used in a photocopier to lay down the image. If you can get your hands on some OHP clear sheets and run it through a laser printer that might work however it doesn't have the sticky backing or softer vinyl texture of contact paper.

Maybe a compromise might be to use transfer decal waterslide paper, spray it with some clear acrylic, cut it out slightly bigger than the headstock then soak and apply. Once sufficiently dried out, trim and then apply the clear contact sheet over the top, remembering to trim that as well including the tuner holes.

Cheers, Waz

On my last effort I used Avery "Crystal Clear Product Labels"

http://www.averyproducts.com.au/aver...-mm_980019.htm

I then did a couple of coats of Cabothane, applied as a wipe on.

Seemed to work.

http://www.buildyourownguitar.com.au...7&d=1446338400

Nice!! Restrained and tasteful!

Good one Rabz, that solves Alkay's dilemma.

Ok thank you everyone.

Rabz that's awesome I was looking at something similar awhile ago I'll go buy some for my next builds.

Would you guys use Acrylic Lacquer clear coat to seal the decals or am I better off trying to make a thin wipe on poly mixture or try using that through a spray bottle?

Cheers,

Alkay.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by wazkelly

Hi Alkay, If the stuff going through a printer doesn't hold ink or toner then it won't work. In saying that I do remember when at school last century some of the teachers had what looked like pages printed onto clear OHP (overhead projector) slides which looked like some thin acrylic plastic stuff and presume they had been simply used in a photocopier to lay down the image. If you can get your hands on some OHP clear sheets and run it through a laser printer that might work however it doesn't have the sticky backing or softer vinyl texture of contact paper.

Maybe a compromise might be to use transfer decal waterslide paper, spray it with some clear acrylic, cut it out slightly bigger than the headstock then soak and apply. Once sufficiently dried out, trim and then apply the clear contact sheet over the top, remembering to trim that as well including the tuner holes.

Cheers, Waz

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Cheers Waz that would be great if I knew someone with a laser printer..maybe the local print shop here might be able to help with that. I'll go have a chat, thats a great idea.

Cheers,

Alkay.