Hello,

I picked up a pack of the media sheets from the Swampland booth at the expo and just tried my first rod decals. I'm using an HP InkJet 4280 and while it does an OK job, after the label is printed it's putting tiny scratches in the ink on the way out, before the ink is dry. After much moving around of the decal printing it at various places on the sheet, it's just not working, every one is coming out with scratches through it. So I don't think this printer is going to work. Can anyone recommend a good printer to do these labels please? Would the Cannon PIXMA (ip2600) be a good one? Hoping to find one tin the $50 to $70 range that has the capacity to handle these 8.5x11 media sheets. Any suggestions would be much appreciated!

Thank you!
Jeff.

Hard to say. I'm doing okay with an Epson C88. Not sure what the current model is. My older Epson C84 left tiny marks when the feed wheels were running across the wet ink. The newer one doesn't do it, but with the archival ink I have to set my saturday down to about 60% or 70% to keep the ink from puddling on the holographic and metallic papers.

Other than the white media, the ink doesn't soak into these papers so it stays liquid on the surface for a bit. If the paper feed and output rollers move through the ink it can leave marks.

One work-around is to find where those rollers are, and set up your decals so they won't be in line with those rollers.

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If you use a full backgrounds with darker inks, many of the small scratches, which will appear as a reuse effect, in the metallic paper will not show, to the point of detraction, in the completed decal when covering finish is applied. Some sheets of the metallic media will have a pronounced vertical scratch on the paper as a manufacturing anomolies - take a close look at the sheet, prior to use, and set your print area to avoid if possible.

I have a Lexmark X3470. I have only printed a few decals but I do not see any of the wheel or roller marks you are referring to. However, I do notice the ink coverage is not solid. Printing on the stardust holo paper the media shows through. Indoors not so obvious with black, pretty noticeable with green and red. Outdoors it is way more noticeable! Maybe that would be good for you.

I think that could be a very useful effect for some things, but I was wanting a more solid background so the text would be the star, no graphics on these decals, yet. I'm using MS Word with background fill set for 100% solid coverage and most of the text is white to let the media show through. Some of the text is colored following what Tom wrote in his magazine. On the colored text I was looking for some show through and I got it. Just need a more solid fill.

I'm using an HP 5740, NOT a high end printer. You might want to play with the paper/print settings to get the best one for your printer. For the metallic, I have found that setting for Photo paper (plain, not matte or glossy) and Best for print quality (not photo) gives me the best quality. One key thing that I picked up from Bobby Feazel in HP was to let the decals done on mettalic sit overnight! Any small scratches, etc completely disappear.. I also spray with a couple light coats of Fix a Tiff .
Once finish is applied, the colors really intensify (especially on the white vinyl

The pix in Rodmaker and the Photo Page can't really show how stunning the results are. I have done small photo's of customer holding a fish, boats, etc.Thanks again to Bobby for sharing this!!!!!

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!!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/15/2009 03:07PM by Mike Barkley.

Thanks for the input everyone!

Tom, I burned through both my silver and one of the holographic sheets in my pack playing with ink settings and positioning of the decal on the paper. No luck, this printer has so many rollers on it there was no where I could place the label without one or two scratches gettng into the label as it fed out after printing. The C88 is a bit out of my price range.

Bill, yes I see those anomolies in the sheet itself, that's not my problem. It is with the printer rollers scratching the wet ink as the sheet is fed out of the printer after the ink is applied.

Andy, thanks for the suggestion on the Lexmark. Mainly I'm doing a "handcrafted for .... by ..." label with a solid background to match the blank color as close as I can get. I ended up using the white media on a project that was due because the ink soaks in and I wasn't getting the scratches like I was on the metallics, but the results were only fair compared to the metallic media. Your comment about the media showing through concerns me as I too wanted to completely block out the background and only let the text pop through.

Mike, the scratches I was getting were all the way through the ink down to where the silver paper was showing through. I did let these sit until the ink was fairly dry and did not see any improvement. I can understand how some very small scratches might seep back together on the longer drying inks. But on mine, even 24 hours later the scratches were still obvious.

Mostly guys I was hoping to hear from someone who says "I use brand X, model y and I don't get the scratches". And I was hoping the printer they were using would be under $100. I understand you get what you pay for, but there are a lot of inexpensive photo quality printers out there and I am just trying to find one that doesn't come in contact with the printed sheet after the ink is placed on the paper. I may just have to buy one, try it and see. Then do the return, try again thing till I find one that will work?

As always, thanks to all for the info. The wealth of knowledge here is fantastic! Tight lines!
Jeff.

Most of the standard office type text printers (which still do a great job with photos and graphics) are only about $90 to $100 these days. I think I paid $85 for the C88.

You don't need a "photo quality" printer to do this or much of anything else.

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Is anone using an inkjet printer with a straight through paper feed path - one different than the 180 return angle? If so brand name and model please - thanks

Epson - all models.

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My Lexmark has a straight through path, and I don't see the wheel marks you guys are referring to. If you don't mind the coverage.

I'm using a Canon MP620 that has a straight path feed from the back. It's a photo quality printer that prints the decals beautifully.

For anyone looking for a printer, I'd suggest you check out www.slickdeals.net. For those not familiar, it's a site with a forum that list bargains from on line and brick and mortar stores. I picked up my MP620 for $50 at Best Buy (retail is $149 and average sell price is $99) after learning about it at Slick Deals. You can click on the "printer" button in Hot Deals at the bottom of the page to filter all printer deals.