WaterSlide decals

[Angus Hines]

Where do you get the stuff and How do you do it? any help is greatly appreciated .

[Dee Gallo]

I have used Lazertran with good results, but there is another company called papilio.com that has lots of high quality waterslides, printable vinyl, indoor/outdoor use, etc. stuff you might like to check out.

cheers, dee

[martin g. boekers]

Water slide decals can be difficult to work with. For certain projects such as decorating candles it may be the best way to go.

Dee turned me on to the lazer transfer material. It works pretty darn good on hard substrates, I'm still dealing with fading issues on tee shirts, but I'm still in the testing mode.

Any help on those issues would be appreciated.

Dee I have client I'm working with and he supplied me with powder coated aluminum. it took the transfer well, his concerns were longevity and durability.
These are smaller panels for control systems (small runs a 100 or so) and if these work it really cuts his costs as to screen printing them. (multiple colors not spot PMS though)

Have you tried heating after transfering? If you have how well does it hold up?


Thanks,

Marty

[Dee Gallo]

Marty -

I have not tried to use heat, since I only use mine for wood transfer and it's not needed. I wonder if spraying with a coat of clear poly would help? Waterslide decals are more delicate than other options. The papilio vinyl mentioned in my previous post is supposed to be permanent and waterproof - maybe try that? You can get it in clear or white. I've seen it in action and it is a very nice tough surface, especially if covered with clear cold-laminating film (from Staples) which really protects it. The 2 layers are super thin, not really noticeable at all.

I should add that I have both the inkjet and laser decals - the laser ones print better, but they stick in my Konica-Minolta even though it says they are compatible. Must be too much heat.

I also have had no luck with the T-shirt transfers - they are not reliable at all. When they work, they're great, when they don't, they're AWFUL. I did find that less heat is better than more.

cheers, dee

[Mike Null]

I've been using CLT t-shirt transfers from MagicTouch for several years with great results.

[martin g. boekers]

Thanks Dee,
I'll check with my client about clear coating if it is ok in the environment where they will be.
Sometime it's so easy to bypass the simplest solutions!

Mike, on the the tee shirts do you do anything special, temp, peel off etc.

On washing I haven't done hand washing yet, but I have ran all cycles in the wash machine, cold, med, hot, then let air dry. I have notice visible fading after 2 washes as well as non image area marking. Magic Touches response was that I may be getting toner marks on the transfer sheet and that is what is transferring. I am fairly happy with the hard substrate material, but if you know me I like to take it where it hasn't gone before!

Thanks,

Marty

[Mike Null]

Martin

I just follow the Magic Touch schedule.

High pressure (90 lbs), 375 degrees F, peel hot.

This is not screen printing so there is a slight definition of the sheet but that goes away after the first or second wash. The colors are pretty good even after a number of washes. If somebody expects bright colors after a year then they should go to screen printing or decals.