stunthanger.com
Building Tips and technical articles. => Paint and finishing => Topic started by: kevin king on December 05, 2022, 06:57:48 PM
-
I was wanting to get some laser printed decals made at our local big box office supply type of store. I've got the correct decal paper, but my question is what else do i need to tell them, such as settings, if at all? I'm hoping they are already familiar with the best process, but they may not be.
Kevin
-
I was wanting to get some laser printed decals made at our local big box office supply type of store. I've got the correct decal paper, but my question is what else do i need to tell them, such as settings, if at all? I'm hoping they are already familiar with the best process, but they may not be.
Kevin
I have had a lot of luck with the Micro-Mark decal kit. I did it myself on a regular laser printer, and I just stuck it in with no adjustments.
Brett
-
Kevin,
nothing special needed other than a laser jet printer.
Like Brett, I did mine at home. Set the decal, after printing, by spraying with clear. When dry bath in warm water, slide onto surface, squeegee all bubbles and water out, dry and spray with clear again. Job done.
Craig
-
Are your image files sized right?
No white or metallic colors to print?
-
Thanks guys, and yes, i printed off a few test images and fined tuned the size i wanted on my ink jet printer, then put the file on a thumb drive. I have both clear and white decal paper, and the plane is white, so i guess either will work, and there are no metallics.
-
...
-
20 minutes after laser printing the images on the decal paper it still is not dry. How long does it take to dry? One i smudged the other the ink ran.
-
20 minutes after laser printing the images on the decal paper it still is not dry. How long does it take to dry? One i smudged the other the ink ran.
"Dry"? A laser printer uses dry powder, melted onto the paper, there is no ink and nothing to "dry". If you printed with a ink-jet printer, it will take a long time to forever to dry, because the paper is impermeable.
Brett
-
Are you using ink-jet decal paper with an ink-jet printer? That's what I use and I haven't had any problems with drying. Ink-jet printing on laser decal paper would likely cause a problem.
When using an ink-jet printer you have to give the finished decal a clear coat so that it doesn't wash off when you put it in water. I use Krylon Crystal Clear.
-
Well, i asked the lady in the store and she said yes we have laser printer, But after she had problems getting the correct size her boss jumped in. I guess i should have told him to its for Lazer printer, not ink jet. I came to same conclusion, they probably used an ink jet printer. Once Brett pointed out its a dry ink that convinced me that was the problem.
Thanks again everyone.
-
Does a Laser decal
also get sealed with a couple of coats of clear?
Kevin.
-
A decal printed on laser paper doesn't need to be sealed like an ink-jet does.
-
Thanks Neil. I got a call from the print shop. Im kind of surprised they dont have a laser printer. Guess i have to go to Staples after all. What a nuisance.
-
Staples has laser printers but they "cant print on customer provided paper" @#@@F#f#!!?f SERIOUSLY? F#f#!!?fF#f#!!?fF#f#!!?f
-
Staples has laser printers but they "cant print on customer provided paper" @#@@F#f#!!?f SERIOUSLY? F#f#!!?fF#f#!!?fF#f#!!?f
So, do they stock laser decal paper? So if you buy some paper from them isn't that going to be customer provided when you take it to the printer desk?
Ken
-
Hi Ken. No, they do not stock decal paper. Decal paper to them is "sticker" paper, something i stopped using in second grade to decorate my lunch box. Thankfully i found a third print shop that did. The entire reason to use decals is to not use stickers. Decals take work, stickers dont, so...outside of a very small group of modelers, happy sticker day. collect them all. Apologies for my sarcasm.
https://youtu.be/1QuzCEn7_4g
-
I 'mist' a few very light coats of Krylon crystal clear over dot matrix applied images to seal for the 'soak'. Then a first light coat of clear dope. Dry a while - not long, dry to the touch plus several minutes at least - then it should be good under the rest of your clear. Can't comment on other types of gloss topper materials...
Note: The white dot matrix decal paper I've used was not opaque enough to hide colors under it completely. Mask in a white background to conceal such colors. Worth checking...
-
Kevian,
Brett is right,
The only time I had a problem with decals was when I used the wrong decal paper, it wasn’t ink jet paper even though it said it was. I’ve done all types of decals for models, Stunt, FF, R/C models trains, it works great on all types.
Finding the right clear coat over the decal was more of a problem for me, I would up using clear dope lightly sprayed with 75% thinner and allowed to dry. Then the decals would slide of properly. Once the decal was applied and dry, I sprayed two light coats of highly thinned dope 80/20. Then spray on your final clear coats of dope and the edges of the decal seem to fade away.
Later,
Mikey