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Is there anything I can do to stop windows frosting over?
Hi,
Before I begin I think it is only fair to point out I’m not a ‘sign-writer’ as such. I have a small powder coating business and on the side I also build custom quad bikes.
I recently bought a cheap vinyl cutter just for doing basic decals and stickers for the quad bikes and for some customers who wanted sticker-ed logo’s on items that had been powder coated.
My friend Has just rented a shop that he is opening as a tattoo studio. He is trying to set it all up on quite a tight budget and asked my if I could do his shop window for him….. Being keen to help a friend starting his own business I agreed to help.
The shop front is all glass. I have applied black vinyl lettering on the inside of the glass – this was done dry with no problems.
On top of the black lettering (still on the inside) I have applied frosting. Due to my lack of experience at this kind of thing but knowing how important it would be to line all the joins up on the frosting (large shop window made up of 2 pieces of frosting) I decided to lay it wet to allow for re-positioning and to make it easier for me to squeegee out bubbles etc.
When done it all looked great! However a couple of hours later the finish started to deteriorate! Some of the moisture has worked its way under the black lettering which has turned the glue white in places…. If they were individual letters I would be confident that the moisture would dry out, but due to the letters being ‘encased’ by the frosting I am not so confident that will happen. Its been a few days now and although the problem hasn’t got worse, it hasn’t improved either.
Is there anything I can do to rectify the problem….?
Many thanks in advance
Dominic -
8 Replies
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Pictures, if they help, available at:
http://www.onetruemedia.com/otm_site/vi … m=text_url
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Dominic
it should dry out the water as attacked the glue on the vinyl, It looks like the vinyl you used as a water based adhesive so goes milky when applied with water. It may take a while with the weather the way it is but it should dry outKev
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Dominic tell you mate to leave the heating on full blast over night that should do it. . 😀
Next time try flood coating the windows with frost first, make sure you’ve got all the water out, go have a cuppa, come back and put the text on behind the frost. .. you’ll still be able to see it just the same and you won’t be left with any bubbles around the edges of the text !hope it sorts itself out though, best of luck
Dave 🙂
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thanks for the advise guys…..
would it help pin pricking the effected areas to help let the moisture escape….?
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Dominic
This has happened to me before the problem is exactly what Kevin has said the glue on the black is water based and goes white when it gets wet
Have faith it will come back to black as it dries out.
Colin
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If you are doing it again, you could also cut the text out of the etch and then apply the etch leaving a clear see through area where the text is
Peter
Welcome to the boards by the way.
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Hi Peter,
That was actually the initial plan, to do the design as a negative image just using frosting. We didn’t get as far as doing it on the main window. We tried it on the door glass with the opening times and the dragon design and it just didn’t stand out enough, possibly because the interior is a mixture of white and mirrors with very bright lighting reducing the contrast between the frosting and the clear lettering.
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Domimic you could have cut the text out of the etch and then applied the text or graphics to fill in the empty space in a different colour. That way you don’t have to worry about applying etch over the top of another vinyl. Looks good if you leave a small outline around the text so there is a gap between the text and the edge of the etch.
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