-
waterslide decal printer ?
hi, looking for a litlte background info on a printer suitable for waterslide decal printing, its for a specific customer, need to know if it’ll be worth my/his while if i buy the gear for him,
i’ve heard of an american brand called ‘alps’ or similar, anyone shed any light on this stuff ?
cheers.
Hugh
-
18 Replies
-
Hugh I have done them on laser printer and inkjet (Epson), get the paper from Lasertrans either white or clear. Don’t have details here but search the board that’s where I heard of it.
Cheers
Dave
-
Hugh
http://www.themagictouch.co.uk do waterslide a4 sheets, but I think its even available at pc world nowadays like Tshirt print, depends on the quality you need and etc.Peter
-
Hugh
Used the stuff. It is not very durable I am afraid. What are you planning on doing with the decals.We tried to lacquer the decals after application to a motorcycle tank but unless you cover the whole area , the damp etc will seep through. Tried motorcycle tanks with a complete coverage and still they lost colour and faded. Also, my experience was that you could see the edges defined clearly after application. Additionally, the clear material did not offer the saturation required. Even at the highest quality setting, the colours were still transparent when applied, losing the design to the colour of the tank we were applying it to. There must be material that you could use with a higher end inkjet I am sure which would perhaps do the job. Maybe even screen print the stuff? Would love to know myself as I could sell loads of the stuff to classic car and bike restorers.
Peter
-
thanks all, it’s for a fishing rod manufactururer, supply him with stickers for his custom rods, but he wants to be able to personalise them, and was on about using waterslide as it can be printed tiny etc, i’ll forward him your reply
Peter M, think it may put him off !thanks.
Hugh -
Hugh
How about printing onto clear vinyl instead?Peter
-
thanks Peter, i’m not sure why he wants to go this route, perhaps because it’s super fine detail, on wafer thin material (its going on fly fishing rods) and he can laquer over it without there being any type of ridge afterwards,
i supply his beach caster rod decals now, and these can be printed onto vinyl as normal, but he wants this stuff for his own reasons, as above i guess.
as it happens, he called me last night to say he’s done a deal for a printer and suitable media, i pasted your concerns in an email to him, and he says with the media being used (very popular in the US apparently), it wont be an issue, and will be laquered over anyway.
thanks again for the replies though.
regards.
Hugh -
Hugh
Hope it works out. Would be interested to see the reults if possible.
Peter -
i once helped some one with hi-resolution Ferrari badges for a 1/1000th (or whatever) replica, think we silk screened then applied a glue layer as the final coat… i had to send away for image setting to be done as the detail was very fine.
i think some kind of chemical etching was involved afterwords…. i cant remember much -
Hugh
Any news on these decals? Would be interested what solution the customer used and how they came out.
Peter -
i’ll have to ask him mate, to my knowledge he’s bought one of the american made printers and the waterslide film and is using it now, but i’ll ask anyways !
Hugh
-
Hi Hugh
I do water slide transfers for a friend who sells models of trucks to local haulage companies, done quite a few.
I have been using lazertran which works well in a colour laser printer but this is only any good for white backgrounds.
For dark backgrounds you need to print a white undercoat and for this you need an Alps type printer, Oki took over the technology and made them for a while but they are out of production now. (though Powis Parker still sell the MD5000 for $1800.00)
Look on EBay for alps under the computer section, they do come up, some go for silly money but others go quite cheap.
If you do look at one get the seller to print a current self test page, this will show how much the head has been used and also show any banding.
The best one was the MD5000, also the MD1000, both these used white ribbons with no problems.
I have an MD4000 that needs tricking into using the white ribbon, not to hard you have to alter the label to gold or silver.
There is also metallic gold, silver and mirror gold and silver ribbons available.Cheaper better transfer paper is available from Tango papa in America and there is an Alps group on Yahoo
For fixing and melting the transfers into curves etc you need microset and microsol, both available in this country.
If you need any more info pm me.
Steve
-
Hi all,
Question from the ‘home of the bewildered’!: ‘what is waterslide’? -
quote :For fixing and melting the transfers into curves etc you need microset and microsol, both available in this country.whats this them
chris
-
Harry waterslide transfers are the ones you get in Airfix models.
Chris Microsol is a solution that is used to melt the transfer into complicated shapes on the model, like double curves or rivets.
Most of the time it’s not needed. The Microset helps to make the transfer stick to the surface and also stops silvering.
These model makers really take this seriously, there’s a bloke near me that charges hundreds for a detailed model of a wagon, spends hours on getting them on perfectly.
Me I just bang them on but I’m not charging much.Steve
-
Old thread i know.. but i was wondering if i could use the PC60 to print on to special waterslide paper or do i need the Alps printer?
I’ve been asked to replace some decals on a model car as we need a different decal set on it. They need to look as crisp as the originals are.
I also have access to a CMYK laser printer and was wondering if that would be also OK to print the decals with?
Any advice would be greatly welcomed as I’ve not done any waterslide printing before.Alex.
-
alex the pc 60 is a over grown alps.
you can put the wax ribbons in and the machine recognizes them if the decal paper is designed for a alps i would not hesitate to use it with wax ribbons in the pc60.need to try some of that my self
chris
-
Thanks Chris,
By looking at the Alps MD5000 printer i thought it was very similar to the PC60 way of printing but wasn’t sure. Does anyone still sell the wax ribbons in spot colours or would i need to print the decals in CMYK?Alex.
-
haven’t bought any for a long time, do a search for alps ribbons, also the driver knows about them as well.
i used to print business cards on the 60 with the wax ribbons and score the cuts as well you can get a big bit of card in.
chris
Log in to reply.