[Messydeer]

Hello!

I got in my first few hours of label making using DecalPro yesterday. I had reviewed the archives, looked at other people's websites, and talked to Frank Miller on the phone.

My Project

My panel is different than most, mainly because I'm building a Sonex. There is almost no mention of DecalPro being used for these birds, so I appreciate being able to get info on this board. The panel is in two parts. The larger main part will have almost all the labels on it. Below the main is the subpanel, 1.5" wide riveted to the bottom of the main panel. It houses the control cables. The text for these cables will be on the bottom edge of the main panel. I'll put a vertical line on the subpanel between the cable and the text above. These lines will be the only labels on the subpanel.

I'm making the vertical lines 4 points wide and 3/8"-1/2" long. The subpanel has a couple coats of Rustoleum Hammered black over rattle can zinc chromate and alodined 6061. I botched the first subpanel and am using that to practice on. All my labels will be white, with the exception of one black label to go directly on the red cabin heat knob. A 12 point font size for the text looks about right. I don't recall what the size of the borders going around some of the switches are, maybe 1 or 2 points. I plan to spray rattle can clear matte over the top when everything is finished. This would fix the labels better and take the gloss off the Hammered.

I can do my main panel labeling later, but the subpanel cables need to go in soon, so I figured I'd start with just the vertical lines. I printed 15 or 20 lines fairly close together, not being concerned about borders or spacing between these lines. My printer is an older Konica-Minolta Magicolor 2300 Desk Laser with generic black toner. Any problems with this setup? If I have problems with this printer, I may have a print shop do the prints. Can these prints be then stored for some time before using?

Frank said to follow the written instructions in the PDF file instead of going by the video. As someone suggested, I ran 4 copies of my images onto regular paper and the 5th was printed on the coated side of the blue transfer paper. Below are the procedures I followed as numbered in the instructions file.

Step #1 - Remove Moisture

I used a Grizzly heat gun. I bought the 1200W one for $16. Seemed to work fine. Scorched a corner when I let it get too hot, though.

Step #2 - Prepare Two Foils

I cut a piece of my white foil and one of the clear carrier foil, both just big enough to cover my print. I didn't know which side of the white foil to put in contact with the print. I believe the shiny side was the one that worked.

Step #3 - Transfer the Foil

I opened my tack cloth I'd gotten from the hardware store. I had problems with this, since it removed some of the toner from the print, plus left my fingers really sticky. So I used 70% isopropyl alcohol on a paper towel instead (no 91% available) and wiped the print and white foil. I put the dry print and foil onto a board and ran it through the laminator a couple times. This produced lots of wrinkles, but I didn't care much since I had such small prints and was practicing. I've since been told that putting baking parchment paper over the whole thing works well in preventing wrinkles. I'll get some today.

Step #4 - Remove Excess Foil

Used 3M 2080 as per directions, even did it a second time at 90 degrees, since I'm doing white.

Step #5 - Clean the Carrier

Did as asked, except using the 70% alcohol.

Step #6 - Bonding the Carrier

Got some wrinkles, like with the white foil.

Step #7 - Water Bath

I used such a small piece for printing that I didn't need to bother with which way things curled. The ends still curled up a little, so I had to submerge them with a probe. I removed the carrier after a couple minutes when I saw it coming off. It slid off real easy. I forgot to drag it through the water, so returned it there for that process.

I was surprised to see that all the little vertical lines were still intact on the sheet. Dried with paper towel as directed.

Step #8 - Remove the Borders

I didn't have any borders to remove. But I did cut off a few of the individual lines with scissors.

Step #9 - Apply Spray Adhesive

This was a bit of a problem for me. My images were so small that they were blasted off the sticky paper towel. I used a short burst that was prolly less than 12", too. I'll have to get a bigger area to spray next time that will allow me to reach that altitude.

Step #10 - Make the Transfer

After pressing the images of vertical lines down onto the black painted subpanel, there was only maybe one in five that looked good. On the others, the carrier didn't leave all the white foil over the lines. Instead, when I pulled back the carrier, it took pieces with it, leaving gaps in the transferred line on the metal. When I saw this happening, I put more adhesive on the carrier before transferring the other ones. This didn't seem to help any. I later realized I had not cleaned the panel before transferring.

Summary of First Attempt

The main problems I could see were with wrinkles caused by laminating and pieces of the image not sticking to the painted metal panel. I'll try using baking parchment paper to cover the sheets when laminating and will make sure I clean off my painted metal subpanel. I'll also be more careful where my fingerprints land, maybe put on some gloves. And I won't cram a bunch of images together, which would make the transfers much easier.

I did try a second time last night, but the foil didn't stick at all to the printed images. I recycled the transfer paper that hadn't been printed on from the first time. Maybe it's good for only one trip through the printer?

Cheers,
Dan

 

[scsmith]

Dull side of foil goes toward printed image

Hi Dan,

All your steps sound right, except the dull side of the color foil (in your case white) goes toward the printed image on the blue decal paper.

Just practice, you'll get to where you can feed the board through the laminator without wrinkles.

do start printing your images with a 1/8" border around them. This helps.

Good luck

 

[N427EF]

Dan,
Use a little tape to stick the carrier foil to the back of the board.
This will allow you to use both hands or thumbs to keep the foil stretched when you feed it through the laminator. In addition you can bend the board down while clamping the foil between your fingers. The radius will stretch the foil over the top.
Keep trying you will like the results.

 

[Messydeer]

2nd try

Thanks, Steve

I knew it was one way or the other So it looks like the blue paper could be run through the printer more than once, but I'll do that only for practice ones.

I tried the baking parchment and it works real good for preventing wrinkles. Below is an image before cleaning up with tape.

It says there shouldn't be any black toner showing. That's only part of the problem.

This pic above is after pulling tape. It took white foil off the letters and around the border, although it did cleanup the stuff in the middle of the letters. I put the tape over just the top 3/4 of it, fwiw.

And above is the final product on the practice panel. I noticed also that after I pulled the label from the water, dried it and cut off the border, there were some specks of white that ended up in the field. Don't know if this was from the border or letters. Lettering is 12 pt. The drilled holes in the panel are #30.

Round 3 will start soon. I'll use fresh blue paper.

Dan

 

[Messydeer]

Round 3

Using a virgin piece of transfer paper and keeping my mitts off the print field sure helped.

New one on the left, duh! This was the only one I tried. I might try another to make sure this wasn't a fluke. Now I have to read up on how to apply the clear coat. I've got a rattle can of Painters Touch Rustoleum matte clear. I've heard it's best to put on very light mist coats to start with.

Cheers,
Dan

PS: Ernst:

The baking parchment worked super for getting things flat. So I didn't try taping. Price was right, too. I asked the lady behind the bakery counter where it was and she grabbed 6 oversized sheets and charged me a nickel.

 

[Messydeer]

Round 4

So I ended up doing the vertical lines in my subpanel. After doing one, I figured since it's just a single line, I wouldn't need a border. But without a border, even the single line seems to breakup and it's harder to get the carrier to stick to it. So I went back to a box around the line. Cutting the border off seemed to work better for me when I taped over the black toner. I overlaped the border to the inside and left a little blue tape as the new border. Taping it allowed me to cut without wrinkling the carrier and breaking up the decal. It also kept the border from crumbling into pieces when I cut it.

The pic above is my subpanel, 1.5" tall, 36" wide from 1/8" extruded angle. The bottom of the main panel will end just below the piano hinges on top of the subpanel. I never thought I'd be so proud of four stinkin' 1/2" white lines! I'll end up doing all the rest on my main panel in a few months.

The only thing left is putting on the clear over what I've done. I have a can of Rustoleum Painter's Touch 2X matte clear spray. I misted over the first couple 'coats', waiting 10' between coats and before putting on a couple heavier coats. This was about an hour ago when I finished. It looks pretty good and I rubbed my thumb over it just now and it seem good. For the real panel, maybe it would be best to put on 3 or 4 heavier coats? Seems like there'd be a better chance of the scratch stopping before it hit the decal then. Weight certainly isn't an issue.

Cheers,
Dan

PS: I've seen reference to a Microscale's micro liquid decal film. Would using this over the top of the applied decal work for sealing, or is it used only for other types of decals?

PS: