Frog Juice

[Martin C]

I bought my first can of Frog Juice today and have been trying it out tonight. I think I’ll soon be out of it as the fumes are pretty overpowering!!

I haven’t tried the clear which I presume is what you need to know about but have got some pretty interesting effects with Pond Water Blue and a bit of scratching and scraping over vinyl lettering.

Any tips and ideas would be welcome……..

[Robert Lambie]

i have the clear and a few colours in stock. we only use the clear to protect
thermal prints on curtain sided “truck vinyl” i always cover my thermal prints in clear vinyl, as it more than tripples the life of the print.
on a curtain sider i cannot do this as i have yet to hear of a “clear” truck vinyl. so i ended up coating in frogjuice…

first one i did was 2 years ago.. havent heard any problems so far.. touch wood. 😉

[John Singh]

I’ve used frog juice on a print and it was fine
Frog juice is pretty versatile and very durable
Can be used in a variety of applications
Dries extremely fast and can be recoated very soon after first coat without fear of upsetting the previous coat
Best applied with foam brush and straight from can

It far exceeds the quality of ‘one shot’. ‘One Shot’ is a clear lacquer that signwriters sometimes use over finished signwritten jobs, to afford a little more protection and give a little lustre

Although it is expensive (frog juice) its surprising how little you actually use. So it goes a long way

[Martin C]

I’m getting some fantastic results tonight!

I do a lot of street type wear so experimenting with different logo’s etc., Cut a standard logo and before weeding gave it a heavy coat of Frog J, took a piece of card and then criss crossed it up and down along the text as a rough wavy ine and it looks excellent.

I think I’m an artist!!

[John Singh]

Go for it Martin!!

I’ve some cans of different colours for experimenting
I saw a quick demonstration at the NEC at the different effects you can create with a little imagination

you can spray tonal effects, rag roll, comb etc…

[keith]

We use frog juice on all external jobs from our pc 600. It works a treat!
We make sure that it is applied before weeding as the slightest over pressure on the cutting blade allows the frog juice to seep behind the print and stick it to the backing paper.

Keith

[Rodney Gold]

Here’s something odd , but worth a try – In SA a lot of guys doing digital prints use “Spray and Cook” or a silicon based spray on their graphics , We have tried it and it works quite well. As to how long the protection lasts , I dunno , but it makes the graphic water repellant , glossier and very much more scratch resistant – especially stuff that is printed on coated media.

[Henry Barker]

I have been using Frog juice for years on my sandblasted signs was buying it from Butch “Superfrog” Anton’s family at Far From Normal Supply Co.

I also have One Shots 4005 Speed Dry UV clear which looks and smells exactly the same, we where buying quart tins for about $20 (frogjuice) but now buy One Shot from AS handover, as we buy lots of other stuff from there and it comes here within a couple of days. They give great service.

[Phill Fenton]

One of the things that frog juice does apart from protecting the sign is it “levels” the print. This makes it virtually impossible to see any banding produced by the print head on each pass.

Alternatively, Instead of frog juice, as Rob has already said, laminate the print with clear vinyl for the same amount of protection (and to remove the appearance of any banding). Another added bonus is a high gloss finish to the print.

This was brought home to me recently when I happened to see a printed design I had done for a customer which has been ruined by some form of chemical attack. The customer has never complained to me about this, but had I laminated the print, I’m sure it would be looking much better today. The customer may have thought it was his own fault that the printing has been dmaged, but I’m sure he would be even more pleased (and likely to buy from me again) had this not happened.

My advice is to laminate vehicle prints to negate any banding caused by the colorcamm, and to provide extra protection and a gloss finish. Frog juice does the same thing.

[Martin Pearson]

As has already been said frog juice does an excellent job but there are cheaper alternatives on the market, lyson do a similar clear coating which is available in both a gloss and matt finish.

[Ian Stewart-Koster]

For interior stuff on vinyl, and Butch Anton’s special effects, it’s great, but…..
In the Aussie heat & sun, it doesn’t hold up well as a clear coating, and I’ve heard dozens of signies say to ‘leave it in the can’, rather than risk having to redo a job a year later.
Sorry to seem to rain on this parade- just another opinion!

[Carrie Brown]

We use clear frog juice, find it does the job just great. We use it on all our pc600 prints.

😀

[Chris Wool]

As frog juice has been brought up
I have used it on and off for years pefering to stick a lump of clear on but i am at present having a bad time with frog juice
redo 11 vans has that got your attention 😳
4 weeks and the frog is degrading and spoiling the print done this way cus of tricky print & cut after lots of consultation no real reason has yet come forward
The only advice i can give at present is its posibly dogey on solvent type prints the problem is only after fitting spare bits in the work shop are still perfect 8 weeks on not isolated to one van all cleaned diferently .
one other job showing simular signs.
only common thing is there all merc vitos & sprinters and contain a lot of red
roland soljet pro2 roland vinyl
smaller 10×2 inch stuff still perfect after 11 months on all sorts of things so there we have a tail of woe it does say some where that you are responsable as to its suitability of use.

chris mrsticker