Liquid Resin Doming

[David Rogers]

I played with a sample kit many years ago. (Spandex)

The results were good, but pretty slow to do more than a few dozen at a time. Works on almost any vinyl. And MUCH better for small stickers. Doming a 3 or 4" square is not the best idea!

Downsides are: you go through a nozzle everytime you use it.
You need to have a market for it as it has a shelf life, it’s not something you can keep in stock for years.

I think there are be two versions – the semi-soft, and the hard.

Not much help I know!

Dave

[Rodney Gold]

We dome around 5000 items a day , very profitable work. Print and cut here goes for about 30 quid per sq meter m. Print , cut and dome goes for round 280 quid a sq meter. Doming resins cost around 10 quid a litre and 1 ml will cover around a sq inch , ie 1 litre will do 1000 sq inches (which is about .7msquared)
Doming is a little odd , there are basically 2 ways , either handguns and carts which is extremely expensive but usefull for small qtys and the occasional job , or one has to set up a dedicated environmentally controlled facility and buy some very expensive mixing and dispensing equipment.
Prime consideration when doming is to do it in a dry warm environment, moisture in the air is guaranteed to give bad results like foaming or bubbling. Same applies when leaving the domes to dry , warm moisture free!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There are about a zillion uses for domed items. We use a polyurethane (the most difficult in terms of environment) that is semi flexible , so our domed decals can be put on curved surfaces. Used for branding all sorts of items , decorative stuff , car decals , inserts for medals and other spun cast products , protection against all sorts of abuse etc.
In reality , one is limitied to the area one can dome , the smaller the decal the better the dome. big areas are problematic as the dome sinks in the middle.
Domed items sell themselves , they look fantastic and have a wonderful tactile feel about em.
The kits are cheap , you might as well get one and try , I beleive mockridge in the UK is the place to get em.

[Alan Drury]

I use the doming kit from Victory but I think they are all the same or at least very similar. I use Victory because you can get a pack of 9 refills where other suppliers require you to have more. As I understand it shelf life is between 6 months-1year so bear that in mind when buying, Rodney is right though it does look good and can be profitable.
Alan D

[Colin Hibbitt]

Hi MARK,

Ive just finished my first attempt at doming bought from graphityp last month .

After figuring out how to use the hand held gun i managed to dome around 150 stickers about 1.25"x.75" ovals
All going ok with a few over done took me around 1hr start to finish
Then…….. i decided to move them to start some more and the resin decided to run into each other….ouch …losing around half that i done
never mind .i will know next time

Apart from that ithink they went ok let you know in 24hrs

Colin

[Andy Gorman]

When moving, even if the badges look OK you can put momentum into the resin which could cause it to spill over minutes later. Once you get used to the properties of the resin, you will find that you can dispense a blob in the centre, move the sheet and then allow it to spread to the edges. If you move them once it has filled the badge you are risking overspill.

Make sure your bench is perfectly level, also.

[Rodney Gold]

The resin should spread over the item by itself if you get the shot size correct , however I would suggest using a scalpel to "pull" the resin to the edges if it does not get there as well as to pop bubbles prior to the resin gelling. (you can use a needle too)
DO NOT contact the print with the needle or even pull too much resin with it , you might find the print bleeding into the resin.