Fished for steelhead today. It was cold when I got to the river...about 28 degrees. Anyway....For the first time today I could notice the clear part of of the waterslide decal under its coat of FC lite.

Don't believe that I've ever noticed it before. Kind of a slight "cloudy" or "ghosty" image.

Have I just not noticed it before (I'm on trip 6 or 7 with the rod)...or might the cold have had something to do with it?

Keith

There are times when this "ghostly" cloud appears and I have no earthly idea as to why it occurs, I use Micro Set to place decals and move them into final position. Sometimes when this cloud appears it happens when the drying of the initial placement takes place. The "cloud" can be made to vanish if you apply one brush stroke ot Micro Sol over the top and let it dry. The Micro Sol step insures a completely clear top surface before you apply finish. Also you should wait until the Micro Sol completely drys. I wait for 12 hours before applying finish. If you have finished over the top I doubt that you can do anything now. It was probably there and so faint that you did not notice until you took it out in the bright light.

Gon Fishn

There are several reasons this happens. First, if you apply the decal to the rod blank directly, without a layer of epoxy underneath, you will get this slight cloudiness or hazing. Or, if you leave the decal in the water long enough so that the adhesive begins to come off the back, you will have this same cloudiness or hazing.

Water slide decals should never be left in the water for more than about 5 seconds. Make sure you closely follow the direction for preparing and applying the decals.

I'd have to believe that the cloudiness you see has been there all along. It may be due to the particular angle of the light you had the rod in.

Jimi Ellis from Decal Connection has written a step by step instructional article for RodMaker that details all the ins and outs of waterslide decal application. It will be in the very next issue of RodMaker.

......

Thanks guys,

Tom,

I might have left the decal in the water a few secons past the 5 second recommendation......but not more that 8 or 9 seconds.

It may have been there all the time...but I think I would have noticed it.

Keith

I can't get the decal to slide off with just 5 seconds of soaking. It will rip before it moves. What could i be doing different? I did solve my cloudy background problem by using distilled water instead of tap.

Bob

I dip the decal for about 5 seconds. Then I let it sit on my bench, face down for about 1 min. The water that is on the backing from the initial dip is enough to release the decal.

This thread and some of the answers made me go out in the shop last night and mess around trying to duplicate the "ghosting" that is described. Think I figured it out. If you leave the decal in the water too long and let the adhesive backing get soaked some of the adhesive can be transferred to the top of the decal with your wet fingers when you are sliding it around on the blank for placement. I probably have been too careless in the original placement and move the decals more than necessary. It really has not caused me a problem because the Micro Sol placed on top removes the ghost effect.

I place the decal in warm water, then go a place a drop or two of color preserver on the blank where the decal is going to go, then go get the decal out of the water and side it off onto the blank. The decal remains in the water for as long as it takes me to eyeball the area where the decal is going to go, and apply and spread the cp slightly - well over a minute, maybe more than a minute. I have done waterslides this way for years, and did DC's first few this way with no problems with ghosting. Who knows, maybe its just a matter of time before I see this ghosting - cp or no cp. The decals I have purcahsed from DC are of the new thick film variety.

With the remainng scraps of decal paper cut away from the decals, I have tinkered with applying decals with and without cp, over a coat of freshly cured finish, even applying without any water - ie. soaking the decal off, letting dry, and applying over partially gelled or freshly mixed finish. I have stuck with using cp to apply these decals.

Using remaining scraps of decal paper as if they were decals, I have tried applying the decal directly tot he blank using nothing else than water, which caused the decal adhesive to shrink and the overlying decal to wrinkle. Even after the decal had dried for 12 hours I was able to lift it by placing a small piece of drippig wet paper towel over the decal and allowing it to soak for 10-15 min. I was able to lift the corner of the decal and pick it right up off the blank. I then applied the same decal over a drop of cp as I usually do, next placed a piece of cellophane over the decal, and "burnished" it by applying finger pressure over the decal to squeeze out excess cp. I then carefully lift off the cellophane and very gently clean up the excess cp. The same decal that was previously wrinkled lay flat, and cured flat - it did not wrinkle. The edges of the decal were bare visible and disappeared with the first coat of finish.

Of course these peices of decal paper were not decals in themselves, but just scraps. Therefore I am not certain whether the actual decal ink would survive on a decal being resoaked and moved around, but I suspect it would as long as the actual ink was not touched or disturbed.

I have not tried Micro Sol or Micro Set - but will probably order some to see what it's all about, but I suspect I will continue to use cp as a base for these waterslides since, afterall, its not a good idea to fix somthing that ain't broke to begin with.

Lou

Lou

Lou,

You're saying that the CP is wet (or mostly) when you apply the decal correct?

DR

What Lou is doing is using CP as a wetting agent in order to move the decal to its final spot while keeping the decal from sticking to the rod before you have it placed correctly. In model railroading we used to put a drop of dishwashing liquid in the water we used to separate the decal from the backing with the same result. Today I use a decal solvent to get the same effect except I do not have to blot out the excess liquid, natural drying takes care of it.

Yes, the cp is wet, and as Ray mentions, the cp is used not only as an adhesive to bond the decal to the blank, but also as a lubricant while it is still wet - allows the decal to be slid around a little for alignment.

Lou