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help please with flood coating windows?
Hi,
We are about to start and flood coat a 2.8metre x 1.7metre piece of polycarbonate, using 610 wide Oracal 851 black.
The finished article needs to have four spaces or windows so you can see through the vinyl\polycarb.
Here are the steps we think we need to take but we are open to suggestions!!!
1. Mark-up and mask out 4 windows on the polycarbonate using low tack masking tape. (this hopefully will create an edge that can be seen under the vinyl, once the vinyl is in place)
2. Clean the polycarb ready for the vinyl.
3. Soak the first section of the polycarb to be covered with a mixture of baby shampoo and water.
4. Peel off the backing on the 851 and soak the adhesive side in mixture of baby shampoo and water.
5. Apply the 610 vinyl accross the 2.8metre width, square up etc and then squeegee out liquid using felt squeegees from centre using vertical strokes up and down the 610 height for the 2.8m length
6. Once the bottom vinyl is done follow same proceedure but overlap the bottom vinyl with the middle vinyl etc.
7. Once all vinyl is in place, we hope to be able to see the masking tape outlines that we laid earlier for the window outlines and cut around their edges, peel away the vinyl and masking tape then clean any tack away. Leaving the vinyl with four see-through windows.
We think we have covered everything, but I am open to tips \ suggestions.
Thanks in advance.
Daz……
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9 Replies
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As a suggestion.
Contact Victory or your normal vinyl supplier and get some 2 metre wide vinyl.
That way no unsightly joins.
When flood coating:
1. spray the polycarb coating before peeling (reduces static)
2. spray & wipe down.
3. spray ready for application (LOTS!).
4. spray NON-sticky side of viny (reduces static)
5. peel off liner & spray adhesive.
6. get some help & lay sheet on p/carb.
7. use a window cleaner squeegee (with firm pressure) & work from the centre to remove the fluid. (Have used technique on all types of flood coating projects)
8. allow to dry for ‘half an hour’.
9. mark-up where ‘windows’ are
10. LIGHTLY score with new scalpel blade & peel out.well, that’s how I would do it…..
😀
Dave -
i would use a nylon squeegee not felt.
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Hi,
Yes, we thought about apply vinyl then marking windows and cutting, but the windows are already marked out on the polycarb so I thought we would take advantage and mask before vinyl to keep it simple.
One question, what’s the difference between the two types of squeegee when applying the vinyl, so I understand which might be better for me?
I have both, but I would have used the felt one if it had not been mentioned.
Daz…..
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quote q582gmzhi:Hi,
Yes, we thought about apply vinyl then marking windows and cutting, but the windows are already marked out on the polycarb so I thought we would take advantage and mask before vinyl to keep it simple.
One question, what’s the difference between the two types of squeegee when applying the vinyl, so I understand which might be better for me?
I have both, but I would have used the felt one if it had not been mentioned.
Daz…..
Felt squeegee – great for applying vinyl over contours, but as it’s a bit flexible you can leave a trail of bubbles as can’t apply even/heavy pressure.
The advantage over nylon is it doesn’t scratch the surface.
Nylon (Gold 3M for me) is a great little squeegee…but it’s just that…’little’.
The heavy duty window squeegee (10 or 12") creates a wide, even area of pressure – never fails (for me). SURFACE MUST BE WET
I wouldn’t pre-mask. Unless you can get it amazingly clean & absolutely perfectly aligned. It can’t be difficult to measure where they are & jot down the dimensions!
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We use orange spandex squeegees all the time – soak the substrate spray the vinyl and apply vinyl to substrate – wet surface of vinyl wipe away any large bubble with swipe of hand – -use the release paper which was attached to vinyl put shiny side onto vinyl and squeegee from centre up and down slightly moving left (or right) with firm even pressure – when finished look for any small bubbles if any and replace some more release paper and remove – and guess what no scratches
hope this helps
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the only problem with felts and wet, is that the felts expand and are usless afterwards, plastic with a cotton edge is a better alternative, if you must apply wet.
Just my opinion, whatever gets you the best results is the way to go.Peter
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quote HIDDENMOLE:We use orange spandex squeegees all the time – soak the substrate spray the vinyl and apply vinyl to substrate – wet surface of vinyl wipe away any large bubble with swipe of hand – -use the release paper which was attached to vinyl put shiny side onto vinyl and squeegee from centre up and down slightly moving left (or right) with firm even pressure – when finished look for any small bubbles if any and replace some more release paper and remove – and guess what no scratches
I used to use that technique for big floodcoats…and swore by those squeegees for umpteen years!
Only use the "wet liner" way on small panels…and now reserve the rock hard orange spandex (with a load of ridges cut in it) for putting down evo-stik.
Try the Avery (?) ‘blue’ with the material on one side – a quite firm one, but with the added benefit of the ‘cotton’.Dave
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Thanks for the advice.
Daz…
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We used to coat toughened glass sheets with etched effect vinyl for use as walk-in wardrobe doors. That needs to be absolutely perfect because any microscopic imperfection would stick out like a sore thumb once light was shone on it from behind. Black should be easy in comparison.
We found that what gave the best results with least wasteage was bags of Rapidtac and applied with a 3M Gold squeegee covered with a 3M SA-1 low friction sleeve to eliminate surface scratching.
We didn’t use application tape either. If a speck of dust found its way under the vinyl we could usually peel back and remove it, but with application tape anything like that wasn’t visible until it was too late to do anything about it.
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