DIY Waterslide Decals?

Gizmo

Hey guys

Anyone had success with home printed waterslide decals?

Im refinishing a chravel spectrum atm and im in need of a Black headstock decal to put over the orange candy finish

Ive had a quick poke about various auction/esty type online stores and only managed to locate the charvel toothpaste logo i need as a waterside from a US based seller and im sorry but there's no fecking way im paying £9.53 to have a small slip of paper posted across the pond....

Im vectored the logo myself in about 20 mins so that's good to go.



Just wanted to check if anyone had feedback about home printing decals on a standard inkjet or if i should get some waterslide paper then head to the local printers to get it laser printed?

I did find a vinyl sticker printer on ebay who could print me 45 logo's for £6 but i don't fancy burying the headsock in 2mm lacquer to make it sit level.

Cheers
Gizmo

Roland

Homemade water slides are OK if you can stick to standard inkjet colours. Forget gold or silver unless you want to paint it on first, and then print over it.

I create a whole page of logos at a time so that I don't waste any waterslide paper. Lettering is printed in bold to get good density. Once the ink is dry I spray the whole sheet with two thin coats of polyurethane varnish. Otherwise the ink disolves when you put it in water. Two coats gives you the thickness you need with less risk of it running.

Once transferred to the guitar let the transfer dry overnight. The substrate absorbs water, and this needs to evaporate out. Then overspray with varnish to seal, even if using an oil finish. If you don't then the substrate will soak up oil, swell, and crack.

Corvus

As above print a whole A4 sheet of 'em. It covers you for printing hickies, smears etc, and bits landing in the clearcoat. As you're using 1k acrylic I think, use that. Let the decal sheet dry pref overnight, dust the first coat on. After 5mins go a bit heavier. Just enough to cover is all you need.
I float them off with as little water as poss, and let them sit overnight or all day on the guitar before clearing over (again, mist the first coats or you risk wrinkling the thin coat on the decal). Time for the moisture to go away.
With your candy I'd lay a thin coat of clear on the headstock first and if needed flat & polish that, the decal clear border will vanish then when it's cleared over.

A disadvantage with home printers is the black can be see-through over light colours, but it can be a nice effect itself. very bright sun pic, see the smiley -

http://alleykat.co.uk/images/stuff/mods/ecstasy_1.jpg

An alternative but no cheaper is use Rothko & Frost custom decal template, if you can do Photoshop files (if not chuck me your vector file and I'll sort it out, I've got their PSD template here). Good thing is super-thin good quality decals than bury easily, with a solid black. They'll give them a seal of acrylic if you want, I use them uncoated, they're thin as anything that way.

Jez6345789

ISTR my friend having an Alps craft printer back in the day it was dye sub and used ribbons he kept an old windows 98 laptop running for years as that was the end of the driver support but he knocked out endless silver and gold guitar wetslide logo with that both original and all the normal Fender and Gibson stuff Don't think anything replaced  it these days so gold is out.

but quality was very nice istr 

wetslide transfer paper is readily available these days

thermionic

I went through two sheets of waterslide paper making decals for a pedal a few years ago. I tried thin coats, thick coats, multiple coats... every single one smudged and ran. There's a very small possibility that it was either the non-Canon ink that was at fault, or I was using the wrong lacquer (pretty sure it was acrylic though). Laser printers work best because the inks are not water soluble.

Next time I'm going to try the rub-on (letraset-style) paper.

Rox

I did it - with gold lettering - for my strat build.  Inkjet paper, then used a gold pen to fill in the gold bit.  I then covered the logo with sanding sealer, then truoiled it on the headstock.

WezV

You can also print them in reverse, colour in the "back" and then stick them on face down

Gizmo

Hey guys

Great info many thanks for your feedback it will be very useful Im just off to my local sell it all store to see if they have any waterslide paper instock if not look like its ordering  pack from evilbay.

will post result once ive had a play

4114Effects

The thing you'll find with home printing a waterside is that the paper is much thicker. It'll take a greater number of  clear coats if you want to bury the edges in the laqcuer and it never looks quite as good as a pro printed one. 

In my experience it's worth paying a bit extra and getting a decent one. 

Gizmo

Slight update to this,ive been a bit busy with the HN strat refinish and waiting for the clear on the charvel to vent so this got up aside,but the other day i managed to get the decal's printed and clear coated (i used canbrush's clear plastic primer) and got around to getting one transferred to the headstock this afternoon.

Still need's to be let dry fully & then get buried in clear coat to hide the edges but im happy with the blackness of the print and there was no lift or distortion on the ink/logo..i think it looks pretty good

Gizmo

So got around to blending this in and taking it up through the micromesh grades (still need to final polish it)

Came out pretty good i think

Roland

Yep, looks good

Adam_MD

Looks excellent good job