Hi there guys
So the project for today is
to take a nicely silvered dial
and get some numerals on it
and we're gonna do that
via decal paper
this isn't decal paper
this is me testing out the size
for my printing
and err
we'll see how that goes
and I'll take you through the process as I go
so
I've come indoors cos it's nice and cool in here with the air conditioning
you can hear the air conditioning going
it's like 30 degrees outside
so what am I using
what tools am I using
or products
well I got decal paper
for inkjet printers, I've got an inkjet printer
i got that off of Amazon
crystal clear lacquer
acrylic
because
you have to spray the decal paper
after you've printed it
otherwise the ink runs when it hits the water
because it's an inkjet printer
if you're using a laser printer you wouldn't have to use this stuff
the actual graphic
I just got off the internet
and I use my iPad
with the Keynote App
you can use PowerPoint, whatever
I just copied that into a page
printed it off a few times
until I got the size that I wanted
and we're good to go
so, I'll go and put the paper in the printer
and then we'll print it off
OK - so I put the paper in the wrong way round
that looks a lot better
so the next job
is to spray it
to seal the ink in
and it needs roughly 3 coats
so you have to wait for each coat to dry
which shouldn't take long in this heat at the moment
so we have now sealed this
with three coats of lacquer
we can now cut it out
now normally
you would actually just cut
the outside out if you were doing a flat
dial, and then putting it onto that
but because the dial i'm doing is curved
I actually going to cut out
the outside bit
and the centre, so that
there's less area to try and stretch
over that curved surface
so there's the decal cut out
let's go and put it in some water and see if we can get it on the dial
ok - so we are going to put the
decal in the tepid water
i'm keeping it reasonably flat
what we're looking for
i'm just going to put a bit of water on the
dial - to help it move around a bit
what we are looking for is the decal to be able to slide off
i think we're there
that'll do
get it roughly in position
trying to get all the air bubbles out
just slightly dampening it and rubbing it
i think that's about as good as I'm gonna get on that
and we'll let that dry
So this is the finished decal
there is a bit of
missing ink
but, you can also see where
the inner bit shows
what I'm hoping is
a couple of coats of lacquer and some rubbing down
will get rid of that inner ring
Now here's the finished product
it's had about 6 coats of lacquer
the Crystal Clear Rustoleum that I used
you can still see where the decal was but
if it take this back a bit
when you look at it, it's not that bad
so compared to what it looked like origionally
I'm fairly happy with this
but at a reduced cost
I mean, the decal paper was
£3 - £4
the tin of Rustoleum
£3 - £4
and er, of course silvering powder
the only thing I would change
going forward, is actually
make these numbers smaller
then you would not get that crazing effect from the
inkjet printer