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Curtain Side advice
Hi everybody, hope you are all in good spirits. I have read all the posts regarding applying graphics to truck curtains so thanks to all that have contributed to that discussion. I was unable to get the required vinyl in gold, just my luck 😥 I have got the mask material, the ink and the 4" hair rollers ready to rock and roll, but my question is, how long do you leave the ink to dry before taking off the mask?
And I will be taking Rob’s advice regarding the third man behind the curtain with an 8 x 4, nice one Rob.Any help will be much appreciated 😉
Steve
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4 Replies
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4" hair roller?
Personally speaking, we avoid the hair rollers for obvious reasons. As the ink dries and becomes tacky, it pull the hairs out of the roller and leaves a mess.
Go for a tight foam (spounge) roller and saturate it with ink. The tighter the foam is and the smaller the holes are, the less bubbles you get. With practice, you should get virtually no bubbles at all.
How soon you remove the mask depends on lots of different things like timescale, weather conditions, ink thickness etc. If possible, i`d leave it over night and remove the next morning. This ensures the ink is 100% dry and won`t give you a "hairy" edge when removing the film off a some ink edge.
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quote Rod Gray:4″ hair roller? Personally speaking, we avoid the hair rollers for obvious reasons. As the ink dries and becomes tacky, it pull the hairs out of the roller and leaves a mess.don’t listen to rod, he and his family have painted and sign writen vehicles for "longer than i have even existed"… so take my word as only my opinion 😕 :lol1: :lol1: :lol1: :lol1: :lol1: :lol1: :lol1: :lol1: :lol1:
in all honesty, i have tried the tight sponge, but i found that to apply a nice coat to the curtain i had to apply more pressure to get the ink to leave the sponge. even then i found it took two or three coats to build up colours like a true white on the likes of a navy curtain.
if i had mixed a more runny mix with the thinner ink i found that if i had to do multiple passes the vinyl would react and begin to curl.
as for removal, i found that depending on how you "peeled the stencil away from the curtain, and how thick it had been applied" you could remove it very quickly. i.e. peel in the direction the letter is and the whisps are left behind… i remember in the past we had an apprentice heating the vinyl as we applied the ink and removing it behind us in one go… was pretty quick…
also, from memory we would mask off all areas below were we applied ink. the reason was the ink over spray from the rollers would land on the lower section of the curtain as you rolled… (not a fun job removing)probably NOT an opton but i remember i used to spray ink onto curtains, but mostly banners and it dried in minutes, coating was great…
it was from here i asked our local spray paint supplier to fill areosol cans with premixed ink i had made up to apply colour blends to vinyl way before for likes of the Roland PC60 and the like came about. 😀
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quote Robert Lambie:quote Rod Gray:4″ hair roller? Personally speaking, we avoid the hair rollers for obvious reasons. As the ink dries and becomes tacky, it pull the hairs out of the roller and leaves a mess.
don’t listen to rod, he and his family have painted and sign writen vehicles for “longer than i have even existed”… so take my word as only my opinion 😕 :lol1: :lol1: :lol1: :lol1: :lol1: :lol1: :lol1: :lol1: :lol1:
in all honesty, i have tried the tight sponge, but i found that to apply a nice coat to the curtain i had to apply more pressure to get the ink to leave the sponge. even then i found it took two or three coats to build up colours like a true white on the likes of a navy curtain.
if i had mixed a more runny mix with the thinner ink i found that if i had to do multiple passes the vinyl would react and begin to curl.
as for removal, i found that depending on how you “peeled the stencil away from the curtain, and how thick it had been applied” you could remove it very quickly. i.e. peel in the direction the letter is and the whisps are left behind… i remember in the past we had an apprentice heating the vinyl as we applied the ink and removing it behind us in one go… was pretty quick…
also, from memory we would mask off all areas below were we applied ink. the reason was the ink over spray from the rollers would land on the lower section of the curtain as you rolled… (not a fun job removing)probably NOT an opton but i remember i used to spray ink onto curtains, but mostly banners and it dried in minutes, coating was great…
it was from here i asked our local spray paint supplier to fill areosol cans with premixed ink i had made up to apply colour blends to vinyl way before for likes of the Roland PC60 and the like came about. 😀
Hi Rob, youre spot on mate with regards to painting it with spraygun. It gives the best results by far as it won`t "agitate" the first coat of ink the way rollers do.
Best way is to practice on some old banner material.
Good luck.
Rod
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Sorry I took so long getting back, it’s gone barmy here work wise.
Thank you very much for your comments Rob & Rod, now the question is, is it to be hair, sponge, sponge, hair, hairy sponge or spongy hair:roll:.
Joking aside, you both made valid points and I will be aware of the roller pitfalls that you have both so eloquently described.
As for removing the mask, I was going to leave it over night anyway but I wasn’t sure whether the ink would form a skin from the curtain on to the mask if I left the mask on over night but it seems from what you said Rod, this wouldn’t be a problem.
I took your advice Rob and got the ink from Apollo in Liverpool, spoke to Peter and found him very friendly and helpful.
Thanks again guys, now it’s best foot forward and get the job nailed.Steve
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