decals the easy way.... etch cheating. :)

[Perrow]

@jim looks nice...i just don't like the 'noticeable 'edge' when using stickers'waterslides etc'....i'm a right fussy sod eh..

Takes a few coats of clear and light sanding with fine grit "over the edge" in between, but you can get the edge to disappear almost completely.

On my "Little Big Angel", you have to catch it at the right angle to be able to see it, and I only think I gave that two coats.

[deadastronaut]

gotcha...

[amz-fx]

@jim looks nice...i just don't like the 'noticeable 'edge' when using stickers'waterslides etc'....i'm a right fussy sod eh..

i'll stick with etching, but i'll defo try a colour laser in the new year for kicks...

For the pedal below, I used the water-slide decal paper from Small Bear and then clear-coated it with Krylon (twice) and the edge is almost invisible.  I think I saw somewhere, a bottle of decal solvent for sale that is supposed to make the decals lay down flatter. Haven't tried it though.



Best regards, Jack

[Mustachio]

Looks good. I think if you use something like the resin I use it will keep the black ink black. It really darkens/brings color out. And It will make any raised edges from the decal smooth and just not there. You should see what it does to carboard and wood. Makes em look golden.

What's the highest dpi your printer is capable of? I'd imagine images with high dpi will come out better.

I think if you spray with clear right away, while its cooling down it might work well with a light coat. The heat will probably make the clear set faster. If you have a heat gun id try that out too after you spray coats. Using a heat gun has helped me out a lot lately. Just don't get things too hot.

Man I gotta get a new laser printer!

[davent]

At least with glossy magazine paper, is there not some sort of clay coating on it that gives it the properties people look to it for, for toner transfering, is the clay permanently bonded with the toner and responsible for the grey colour? Does photo paper have similar coatings?

dave

[deadastronaut]

ok, not a stompbox....but hey..

on this box i just sanded, ironed on toner, then clearcoated....ive tried this simpler toner graphics method before but the black went grey after a while once clearcoated , but i have it sussed now....

i used a toothbrush to get rid of any residue/fibres which may be the cause of the 'grey' instead of 'black' ...dry...then repeat... you can be quite vigorous with it , seems to have worked nicely.

thus nice n easy graphics. ...=fake etch.

now to try it on colour toner..

[pakrat]

That looks really good Rob, I may have to try this...

[deadastronaut]

cheers man, yeah you have to be rough with the toothbrush with a little washing up liquid/water and dry and repeat,  and get those fibres/ residue off..seems to be fine now.

[pakrat]

I'd like to see what color toner would look like. Looks like it's time for a color printer 

[Scruffie]

I used to do this many years back, I too had the 'greying' issue.

Quick rub with fine grade steel wool and getting the lacquer on there as soon as possible with a decent coating seemed to be all it took to get reliable results.

[deadastronaut]

@scruffie:  cool, did you try colour ?...


my missus has access to a colour laser printer...

ive hjust never liked waterslides....moody visible edge etc..

[Scruffie]

No, I was going to but then stopped building (I hated drilling that much... and no longer have one so that's the end of that) so never got round to it.

I've just never liked doing decals! My pedals never looked nice enough for my liking, I agree decals were worse and I was using inkjet at that point so any spillage and they were ruined.

[pakrat]

+1 on the waterslides, haven't had much luck with them either. Do you think this toner transfer method would work on a powder coated box? Would the heat damage the powder coat?

[newperson]

I have never had any luck with large thick aluminum areas when using PNP.  How hot/long are you ironing this for?

[deadastronaut]

@pakrat:  i wouldn't  try it....probably burn your powdercoat...

@new:  i use my iron on hottest setting, but not for very long at all really...a minute or so...the aluminium  gets red hot very quickly...

using glossy photo paper...

[Keeb]

I bought a colour laser printer to make graphics like frequencycentral does (printing on transparent paper and fitting it with clearcoat...) but when I tried to etch PCB's the traces would always smudge. Very difficult to get good results, and by good results I mean a usable board not a clean etch... This was very frustrating as you can imagine (especially since I had very good results in the past with toner transfer using a black and white laser printer using the same technique).

I tried to find an explanation and found one etching tutorial that stated that colour laser toner would not work properly... So i dont know if it's hopeless or just more delicate but perhaps with the right temperature/paper (i use junk/magazine paper and maximum heat) it could work but in my experience colour toner is way more prone to melt.

[deadastronaut]

hmmmmm.....i'll stick with black then...cheers keeb,

update:  still black....no grey.

[Keeb]

hmmmmm.....i'll stick with black then...cheers keeb,

I actually thought about using a thin plate of aluminium in some sort of clamp contraption to put on top of the paper and keep it aboslutely still, but I never got around to it.

[pakrat]

I don't think toner transfer is an exact science. What works for some people doesn't work for others because of all of the variables.... which brand enclosures, the type of printer and toner etc. I use glossy magazine paper to etch boards with a laminator and it comes out amazingly well. But to etch enclosures it didn't work out as well so I bought PNP blue. 4site boxes took the toner transfer very well with the PNP blue, but Tayda boxes do not, they just smear. So after some experimenting, the dollar store glossy photo paper worked very well on the Tayda boxes. I guess it's always a learning/experimenting process....

[deadastronaut]

yep, ive said it before, but hammond and eddystones are very different animals when it comes to sanding/etching...

i have some hammond backplates and they are shiny as hell before prepping...very hard to sand....whereas the eddystones are like butter...cuts through easy..

chalk n cheese as they say...