I'm starting to have my first experience with decals. Does anyone help me to suggest the right way to reach the maximun results ? Does anyone know some tips and tricks to have the maximum from inkjet printer and what kind of colours I can obtain ?

Thanks in advance to all
Marco

Rodmakers magazine had some sort of article on that some time back , if I recall correctly.

Marco, All printers and computers are different, an HP 2400 will not give you the same results as a HP 3100, and different software programs will give you different results also. Try to make sure that your monitor is as close to what your printer is going to print. Photoshop will give you better results than Microsoft Paint, but Paint come with XP or Vista and Photoshop costs $900.00 if you have to buy it, sometimes you can get it cheaper. When learning how and what to do with your computer and printer and what they can do for you, it will cost you time and money to experiment with your equipment. Do a search here and read as much as you can. One last thing don't use the decal paper for experimenting until you can see the difference on plain or photo paper. Others may chime in but you need to play with your programs and printer setting's until you are satisfied with the results.

I'm a newby amature but I've been getting good results with my inkjet and I've got pleanty of mistakes fresh in my memory :) FWIW... Whichever printer you're using; when you start the print function you should get a print settings dialog box where you may normally just click the OK button to print. Learn what options you have available for advanced settings. On my HP I'll select "Preferences" and change the default "General Printing" to "Photo Printing" and I'll set the paper to "Glossy Photo Paper". Tim's absolutely correct; make sure you can print what you want onto plain paper before you go using the expensive decal paper. When you're ready to try the real stuff practice with a few on a piece of blank or a dowell and do your wraps, CP, etc. exactly as you would on a real rod. You want to put your decal onto a smooth surface; untreated thread will trap air under the decal, I'll use light colored thread with a few coats of CP and sometimes a coat of epoxy before I put the decal in place. When you cut your decal taper the cut so that the edges taper out toward the bottom surface. Round your corners, sharp corners tend to catch your sponge and will roll up. The decal will stretch if you put too much pressure on it when pulling and pushing to positioning it so try to get it placed as close as possible and be very carefull when moving it. A long, thin, decal will stretch very easily; if you're doing something like a single line of text then cut it a little wide to give it more resistance to stretching. Don't touch the bottom of the label. Try not to use your fingers or anything sharp to move the decal; I use a spatula to hold the wetted decal still on its backing and a burnishing tool to slide the decal off the backing and into place. Use a small damp sponge and roll it across the decal to gently squeez out any air trapped under it. Once you have it perfect leave it to air dry and check the edges as it's drying; keep the little damp sponge handy to smooth down any edges that want to raise up. After it's all dry I put a coat of CP on it paying special attention to the edges so that there's no trapped air and no curled edges poking up. Once the final coat of epoxy is on it you should see nothing but the image you printed. [www.rodbuilding.org]

Jim Hicks

James, don't you have to cover the printed decal with acrylic clear spray before you wet and mount it

Tim, Yeah, Photoshop costs $900 bucks but unless you're doing professional photography, you just don't need all of that capability. You can get Photoshop Elements, which is a very powerful program for around $80.

To George:
What I said about Photoshop was an example of the range of programs available, in Open Office, which is a free download, there is a far better paint program to most all programs out there that cost money, including Photoshop Elements.
As far as spraying with acrylic clear spray some people do, some don't.
It is like I said before do a search here and or buy Putter's DVD.

George,
For coating the decal I'm using Papilio Fixative (Dioctyl Phthalate) because it came from the same source as my waterslide paper. Others may use Krylon or whatever. Wherever you're getting the paper from should have directions specific to that paper. I don't know that it's necessary to use a fixative at all but the stuff I have was recommended by the vendor and the 8 oz bottle I have will last me a lifetime. I'm just a beginner myself so I won't try to give you technical advice above that of "don't put your fingers in the sticky stuff". Rodmaker Magazine, Putter's DVD, the Pros on this board, and the search engine woud be your best bet for technical advise and reducing your learning curve. With all the resources available here the best teacher is still going to be experience. Try it. Experiment (on a scrap piece or dowell). Do something wrong on purpose just to see what happens. If you make a mistake... say you did it on purpose just to see what happens :)

The Testor's Decal Kit comes with both white and clear decal material and the sealing spray, plus some basic software. You can upgrade the software to the full package that let's you use your own images for about $15 including shipping.

Uncle Russ
Calico Creek Rods