(My first post) - Painting and labeling hammond boxes.

[arielfx]

Hello everyone - My name is Tom and this is my first post on this forum.

I have some questions about applying logos to my stomp boxes to get a professional look... I am using hammond boxes (1590 range) that is pre painted and some are textured as well.
I ran a search in the forums but I didn't find a good answer to my questions so here goes.

1.) What is the best way to get a color logo onto a pre-painted hammond box?
2.) How can I make it permanent so it won't come off?
3.) What's an easy way to apply black only lettering to boxes (Keeley style) on pre-painted boxes to get a pro look?

That's all really... Hope someone can help me.

[Peter Snowberg]

Welcome Tom,

I have been looking at the alternatives, and if you are making more than one, it seems that silkscreen printing is the best way to go. The results are the most durable of any method I've seen and it does not require a laquer coat which in time will get scratched or can change color.

I have not had super success with any other labeling method yet. They all suffer from being fragile to one extent or another and will scratch in time with rough use. Some finishes turn yellow over time too.

Screen printing at home is fairly easy, but more fuss than it's worth for single boxes. You need to rig up a little jig that will hold the screen at the height of the top of your pedal and everything else can be purchased off the shelf.

Make your graphics on the computer at a high resolution (like 1200 or 1225 dpi) or use Illustrator or some other Postscript program for best results. Get the files output to film at a place that handles digital prepress output. In the US they're called "service bureaus". Film is quite often produced at 2450 DPI.

When you get the film, it is a simple matter to make a silkscreen for the jig, expose some stencil material using the film, two sheets of glass, and sunlight. Develop the stencil (you need a VERY minimal darkroom), mount it to the film, let it dry, coat the edges around the film with screen filler, let that dry, mount the screen in the jig, pour some ink in, squeegee (sp?) some ink back and forth to wet the screen using scrap paper over the surface of your box, pull out the paper and run a few tests on more scrap. When you're happy, print the boxes.

You can do blends or fades fairly easy with some practice, but multicolor printing requires a new screen and film for each color.

You can get inks that dry by evaporation, or by UV light. Ink cleanup is easiest with xylene and citrus cleaners.

Good luck,

-Peter

[arielfx]

thank you very much for the long answer and I think that silk screening might be the best answer for me as I have a friend that does that thing on shirts and stuff...

I guess i could ask him for instructions of how to get the best looking prints.