White art on painted enclosures

[Beo]

I've tried a lot of image transfer and embossing powder techniques to get white artwork onto painted enclosures. Very poor results. My one success was using inkjet on high temp laser transparency, sprinkling embossing powder, and gentle heating to melt the powder, and finally applying the transparency like a decal, then covered over with clearcoat. I hate decals though.

I have rub-on white letters in several fonts and font sizes that I'm going to use for my next enclosure. For my line art graphic though, I'm planning to use a white ink or paint pen. To get the image as accurate as possible, I'm going to try white transfer tracing paper. This is like the old carbon copy paper, only a white tracing material is left behind which shows up better on dark surfaces. I'll trace over the design with my paint pen (or more likely have my daughter attempt it, since she is far more artistically inclined).

Has anyone else tried this method to get white artwork onto enclosures? Does anyone have any other suggestions / ideas?

[runmikeyrun]

I had to break down and screen print mine to get white on a dark pedal.  Its a little tricky, but you can do it. 

[therecordingart]

I had to break down and screen print mine to get white on a dark pedal.  Its a little tricky, but you can do it. 

Can you elaborate? My wife has a cool article out there to DIY screens, but I've only done t-shirts.

[Earthscum]

I screen print for a living (laughable) :lol:
To put it simply, if you can screen a shirt, you can screen a box. Hard surfaces are so much easier to screen than textile.
Look into Lacquer inks, and for better results, Enamel. Enamel is more of a pain to clean up, is harder to get out of the screen, harsher chems, but is super durable. Lacquer is pretty good, but suscceptable to milder solvents, meaning it doesn't hold up to cleaning with alcohol, although beer and shots haven't affected any of mine.

[Beo]

Another idea I had is custom rubber stamps. There are several online sources, where you can upload your graphic / text and they create a custom rubber stamp for you. I haven't tried stamping white ink onto a pedal, but it works for analogman...

[nexekho]

And if you need it to never scratch off, a quick splash of

[runmikeyrun]

You used to be able to pick up a small screen printing kit at Michael's for $50, but that was 10+ years ago that I did that.  If you already have stuff to screen print, all the easier. 

You have two choices- Nazdar Super White works well, but is petroleum based (pain in the butt cleanup with mineral spirits) and needs a professional UV light to cure properly.  Even leaving it under a bank of fluorescent lights took about 2 weeks!  There has to be good news, right?  The ink is a very bright white and really resistant to wear and even scratching. 

Your other choice is to use a water based white ink and clear coat the box after you've printed it.  I've done that as well.  If you're currently printing with plastisol, I don't see why it wouldn't print ok onto a box.  You'd probably just have to clear coat it or it might chip/rub off.

I found that setting up the screen to print on a 2" high box is a pain, so I would just use the box upside down and print on the cover.

[jazbo8]

Earlier thread http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=45504.0

[ACS]

What's the beef with decals? I've had nothing but great results with them...

[darron]

screen printing will give the best results

[ACS]

screen printing will give the best results

No no, a laser will give the best results 

[darron]

it's hard to make a laser make something white, unless it's anodised aluminium maybe, that comes up great. rather it just exposes whatever is underneath (raw metal). good old fashioned screen printing really tickles my fancy. it shows someone has really done things in an old-style way, not an inkjet printer way. more timeless i suppose. acid etch is timeless too.... like carving in stone

you COULD use an inkjet decal. i really dislike the results. you'd have to colour match the print background perfectly to whatever colour your paint is, and then not print where you want white. and don't use a clear decal obviously. BAH, no good...

i've always hated decals, until i saw this: http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=88271.0