Have you ever done something for so long and thought there could only be one way to do it because it was so simple that nobody could mess it up? I have been using water slide decals for 30 years. I've used them on plastic models as a kid and later on HO scale model train cars. Then when I started building rods I used them for making my signatures. Everybody knows how to use a water decal right? You dunk it in the water until the backing is loose and then you remove the decal, slide the backing off and apply it to the surface. Right? Wrong........ wrong......... wrong..........!

I finished reading the article in the new Rodmaker on water slide decal application and feel like an idiot. But how is anybody supposed to know that you shouldn't leave a water decal IN water for more than 5 seconds? Never seen that anywhere! Same with putting the still stuck decal into a puddle while you prepare the surface. Who knew? Same with beveling the cut when you trim it out. Genius!

I put 3 decals on rods tonight and for the first time ever they have positively disappeared into the rod surface. You cannot see anything but the lettering. It looks like the lettering was printed directly on the rod.

So after 30 years I read this article and find these simple little tricks and suddenly my decals look like they're supposed to. I am amazed that the simplest things usually have these little tricks of the trade that you don't know about but which make a world of difference in the results you get.

Thanks Tom and Jimi for this great information. I started not to even read it because everybody knows how to use water slide decals right? Well as it turns out I didn't. But I do now. Thanks.

Hi Rob,
An idiot would have NOT read the article. The fact you DID proves you are
no idiot dispite the fact you may feel like one ! LOL!

Raymond Adams
Eventually, all things merge, and a river runs through it..

Rodmaker has a way of making a lot of us feel that way!!

Mike (Southgate, MI)
If I don't want to, I don't have to and nobody can make me (except my wife) cuz I'm RETIRED!!

I was also under the impression I knew how to apply decals until I read the instructions on the Decal Connection we site.I`ve come to realize that over time we get set in our ways whether they are right or wrong.I am a firm believer in RTB(Read the book).I now am always reading during down time to relearn most things I thought I knew.Still didnt get the issue,cant wait.

Freddwhy (Rapt-Ryte)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/24/2006 09:55PM by Tom Kirkman.

Rob,
I felt exactly the same way that you did about that article. Especially the beveling of the edge of the decal. My reaction to that was, that really makes sense and is fairly obvious so why in all of the years of struggling with decals didn't that ever occur to me. If you are an idiot than so am I.

Ditto Mike!

Raymond Adams
Eventually, all things merge, and a river runs through it..

Who do you think you are, coming in here and proclaiming that you are an idiot? I am the preeminate idiot around these parts. Don't forget that!

There are idiots in rod building ?????

Well I'll be ...... !!!

I figgered out the correct way to apply them via Decal Connections very good instructions that are on the web site and what they sent me. What I still have a hard time with is how do you get them correctly aligned and straight on the rod itself.
Anybody have any good tricks for that?
BjR

The magazine had a bit more info and photos to go along with it.

...........

Okay... I'm sold. I finally broke down and subscribed to RodMaker.

I had an issue with a decal for the GLX P8400 that I just completed. I applied the label to the blank in-between the cork of the split grip handle. Of course I totally screwed it up. After reading how you proclaimed to be an "idiot" I snapped to the fact that this label just might be a WATER SLIDE DECAL...

I believe I just threw down the "trump card" - DUH! (I'll wear the cap proudly)

I emailed G. Loomis and Cindy said she would make one and get it in the mail to me. I think I just might try water this time.

So much work on the double axle chevrons, just to have a label that says "G o is X P 40 6 2 b L e"

Darn Amature I tell ya...