Decals - follow up to the Engraving thread

[Macman]

Hi all,

So I finaly got round to trying the decals using the waterslide decal paper I bought.


Here is my experience. I turned a Cigar pencil in Oak and a European pen in Walnut.

I turned the pen and sanded as I normally do and then applied a coat of CA to seal the wood. printed the lettering off, and followed the decal paper instructions. Applied the decal as per the instructions and as it said to leave for 3 hours or more I left them overnight.

On the Walnut pen below, which was the first one, I cut the decal out leaving a bit of room, assuming that with it being transparent it would not matter, I was wrong.On the finnished pen you can clearly see the decal background which looks matt compared to the rest of the finish and the black lettering is hard to make out on the walnut, although it looked fine before applying the finish.. There is no picture of the finished pen but I will get to that shortly!


I cut the decal for the oak one much closer to the lettering but you can hardly see the decal background so I think it looks better on the oak anyway.

Both were then given about 6 more coats of CA. I then decide to buff the finish as I normally do - big mistake. The logo on the oak pencil came off and on the walnut pen it raised the edge of the decal, as the lettering was too dark I decided to take it off the walnut pen and will try light coloured text.

Here is the finished oak pen, which was buffed very gingerly but survived.


So to sum up what I learned. The process of printing and making the decals is straight forward, as is applying them. The real issue is with how they look on a particular wood. This will be less of an issue if you can trim off most of the non printed part of the decal.

Finally if you use ca you will probably be better adding a lot more than I did, particularly if you want to buff it.

Hope that helps anyone considering giving it a go.

Macman

 

[Woody]

Hi Macman that sounds and looks interesting thanks for showing

 

[Neil]

Thanks for that, would be interested to see how it survives?

 

[chas_41_uk]

I'd be interested to see how future experiments go. And as Neil says, how it survives.

 

[Grump]

Well it certainly is visible and looking good to me init?

 

[Macman]

Thanks for that, would be interested to see how it survives?

I suspect not that well as the decal must be close to the surface, which is why I suggest much more ca. These are give aways for freinds so I am not concerned if they do wear off as I have told them its an experiment.

If I was doing this on pens for sale I think I would either apply a lot more coats of CA or spray laquer with an airbrush to make sure the decals are well covered.

Be interested to hear your suggestions.

 

[Penpal]

Macman how informative with pis thank you so much really educational and helpful.

Peter.

 

[Jim]

Tis a very good effort for the first time MM, I am sure with practice you will crack this ..

 

[Jimjam66]

On the Walnut pen below, which was the first one, I cut the decal out leaving a bit of room, assuming that with it being transparent it would not matter, I was wrong.On the finnished pen you can clearly see the decal background which looks matt compared to the rest of the finish ...

In decal parlance it's called 'silvering', and it's extremely common. The best solution is to do what you then did - cut as much as possible of the backing sheet away. You could also try some purpose-designed products called Microsol and Microset, which are supposed to aid in settling the decal and reducing silvering. I have had little success with them, but then I haven't tried that hard either.

Finally if you use ca you will probably be better adding a lot more than I did, particularly if you want to buff it.

Hell to the yeah! Common sense, init? Buffing generates heat, which CA doesn't like much. The thicker the CA he better it will stand up to the buffing. I personally use about 12 to 15 coats of CA, then I buff lightly with T-cut.

Thanks for the progress report, looking forward to future results.

 

[mattyts]

Look great to me

 

[Kardav]

Hmmmmm! Very interesting! Please keep us informed Macman.

 

[Pete B]

Hi,

i like this method but have never tried it.
Would the edges not vanish if you applied ca then polished it first, then apply the decal then re apply further coats of ca then re polish.
I don't know whether this would work or not.

Pete

 

[Grump]

gadget Dave in Scotland was the man for this, he did extensive experiments with decals to the point where he sent me some paper to print from laser printer which I did for him.
I think I still have some of that paper (in those days colour laser printers were beyond the reach of home users) I had one in my office.
I know he gave up the forums through ill health, here's hoping he made a full recovery, if you're looking in Dave sign up and show us what to do init? It would be good to hear from you again.

 

[paulm]

Thanks Macman, thats very interesting, I'll have to give it a go sometime.