how do i clean glass before applying glass etch?

[Robert Lambie]

regardless to wet or dry, clean is the key!
use a blade scraper, you will get it from b&q or paint suppliers. tyhis is basically a raser blade held in a plastic handle. wipe down the glass then start going up and down the glass in regimental strokes. overlaping each other so as not to miss anything sticking to glass. once done. wipe down the glass again and round the sill and outwith, using a damp cloth. once very claen, wipe down with meths or similar.
make sure your hands have been washed as your finger prints will left of back of vinyl where your holding it. make sure your clothes are free of dust/ oos. wool etc before removing vinyl from backing paper as the static will make the bits jump onto rear.

use a new-ish felt squeegee, far more forgiving.

if you have extra body, get them to help out. (make sure they wash hands too, particularly finger tips)

dont apply dry if not confident though…

dont apply wet with anything but nylon squeegee.

[Terry Beech]

thanks rob looks like i am going to b and q first
just read dereks problems from thursday some how i dont think this is going to be straight forward

[Peter Normington]

Terry, is the etch contour cut, or solid? if solid, will you cut it to size on site?
peter

[Terry Beech]

in has a coffee cup cut out and the name of the cafe in arial

[Lorraine Clinch]

How did this job go, Terry? How did you apply in the end?

I have a 1/2 door to do tomorrow. I will be applying wet (sorry Rob! 😀 )

My concern is that I only have 12″ wide app tape, which means I will have bubbles from the join all down the centre.

The etch is cut out in places. Would it be better to apply app tape only to cover the cut-out areas? Will this make things worse? I am only going to get one go at this one, so need to get it right!

[Hugh Potter]

Lorraine, i didnt use application tape, did it wet and just let the vinyl suck onto the app fluid, i peeled back about 12″ of backing and put a crease in it, hung the top 6-10 inches to get it square, and then (remembering to hold the top o stop it slipping) i pulled off the rest of the backing,

i didnt squeegee til it was all pretty much on, this gave me room for manouvre if it was slightly out of true,

edit,
oops, just realised you got a design in it, you’ll need tape then, i think if you’re as careful as poss to line up the two bits of app tape so there’s no gap or overlap (no easy task) then you’ll get away with it, i’d still do it wet, but i think like others have said before, you’ll need to give it a day to dry properly,

or what he said underneath me !

[Glenn Sharp]

Lorraine,

Another option which I use is to “pounce” cut the vinyl.

Pounce is an option in signlab (not sure which other software has it)

But it enables you to perforate the vinyl rather than cutting through in a continuous line as you normally would.

This then lets you weed of the background vinyl with the cut image intact, position onto the glass wet, squeegee out carefully once all the water is out you can weed the image away and your done – no application tape involved.

We always used to take twice the amount of etch on the job with us just incase of mistakes but since we’ve used this method we haven’t had any problems

[Grasshopper]

in my limited time in design and install a large amount of my work has been etched vinyl. If you have got four windows great. Clean is the key as Rob says.

Spray bootle, wet the window well and the vinyl as you take the backing off, you will find then that the vinyl floats well on the glass, get it level, felt sqeeze and lay it down, then leave it and move onto the next window.

After 30 mins or so it is bonding ok carefuly remove application tape, take care around the leetring as etched rips easily as does all vinyl but is not as forgiving as any blemish will show.

Give it a final flat out with with a felt sqeeze and you are done.

Just my input but it works for me.

Good luck

Jay

[Lorraine Clinch]

I did my window, went perfectly! 😀

I put app tape over the cut-out areas only at the last minute, applied wet, used nylon squeegee. App tape gave no problems, and the customer was well pleased.

Cheers all. I’ll post a piccy when I remember my camera (Doh!)

[Hugh Potter]

i think i’d use a nylon squeegee if using app tape too, when i did mine with no tape, it was amazing just how much fluid there is being pushed around under the film, i had to use felt cos i’d not used tape, but i would’ve much preferred to use a nylon applicator !

[Lorraine Clinch]

Hugh I used a Metamark purple squeegie (really hard), over the uncovered areas too, with no scratches or marks at all, on any of it.

[Hugh Potter]

cool, how did it go with the app tape ?

[Lorraine Clinch]

No marks anywhere from app tape, although I made sure I didn’t overlap it anywhere-I taped ONLY the bits I needed, no bubbles.

I always get bubbles from overlaps- a little line of them, and they will not come out, they are tiny, and sooooo frustrating!

I need to invest in a tape applicator, then I will be able to manage tape over 12″ wide!

[Hugh Potter]

oh good ! why not make an applicator ? just like a bog loo roll dispenser will do ! tis all mine is, works fine 🙂

[Lorraine Clinch]

Post a picture Hugh, I want to see! 🙂 Please!!!

[Hugh Potter]

will see if i got one, if not i’ll get one later 🙂

[Lorraine Clinch]

Go on, get yer camera out! :lol1: