Water slide decals, oh how I hate thee

[Pointy]

You can safely buy from this link : ...

I don't want to discourage ordering from that ebay seller, but I do want to make it clear that there's a difference between the plain water-slide laser decal paper, and the bake-on water-slide laser decal paper. I don't know what happens if you try to bake the ordinary stuff, but I bet it wouldn't be a pretty sight.

The bake-on paper from Papilio explicitly says that on the packaging.

[pedalman]

That bake-on stuff is for ceramics. I never used it on a pedal. Its usually a little bit hazy till you bake it and it comes out super vivid and nice demention

[Pointy]

Well it definitely works on pedals, though it's probably prudent to bake the bottom lid of the pedal first if it's a painted surface, just to see if the paint will melt or ignite

[rullywowr]

Iv'e had pretty good results with the decalpaper.com stuff.  It seems to hold up pretty well although you have to be careful with it.  I am using a color laser printer which I picked up of of Craigslist for $50.

A good trick is to let is soak for a while then slip about 1/4" of the decal backing down.  I like to then put the overhanging decal on the enclosure and carefully hold it while slipping the backing off.  If you soaked it enough, it shouldn't stretch much.

I also like the "Micro Sol" and "Micro Set" fluids which you can find for a few bucks.  The Micro Sol softens the decal and really makes it melt into the enclosure nicely.

The toughest thing I have encountered lately is trying to bake the clear powdercoat over the decal.  Sometimes it works great and other times it browns.  Lately, I have been powdercoating my own enclosures, applying decal, then just clear coating with a rattle can to avoid any issues.

[aeroemi]

I also like the "Micro Sol" and "Micro Set" fluids which you can find for a few bucks.  The Micro Sol softens the decal and really makes it melt into the enclosure nicely.

Where do get these Micro Sol and Micro Set fluids?

[stevie1556]

I gave up on them very quickly. I find they either browned in the oven with a powder coat clear, or cracked under the clear. I used the laser ones in the hope they would withstand the heat but still no luck.

Thankfully I've found a place that does laser engraving, and after a lot of teething problems, my boxes finally look good!

Sent from my thumbs using Tapatalk!

[bcalla]

Where do get these Micro Sol and Micro Set fluids?

Not sure where to get these 2 products, but check with hobby suppliers (plastic model ships, cars, airplanes, etc.).  I worked in a hobby shop in high school & college & we carried them.  I use a similar product called Solvaset which is available from Walthers model railroad catalog.

[zilla]

I have generally had good luck with water slides. I had one time when it just plain wouldn't stick to the enclosure.

One trick that I learned (I think it was from someone on fsb), when you have the decal applied, I put a soft cloth over the decal and then put the enclosure base on top on it to make sure there is a little bit of pressure on it as it dries.

[alanp]

One of the things that scares me about trying water slides (or stickers, come to that) is learning how to use the Gimp beyond just resize, rotate, crop, and MS-paint style wiring diagrams. That's part of why impressive graphics impress me so much

[zilla]

i stopped using Gimp/Photoshop and learned how to use InkScape, which is a free version of Illustrator.  It's much more suited to doing pedal layouts IMHO.

as an aside, you can download an older version of photoshop (3.0 i think) from adobe for free now.  It's great for doing simple graphics and then you can import them into inkscape for the layouts.

There are also pedal hardware vector packs that are floating around that have accurate representations of different types and colours of knobs, switches, etc.

I know there is a vector pack out there for the Hammond enclosures, but i've only found a pdf file of it, not the .svg.

[bcalla]

I know there is a vector pack out there for the Hammond enclosures, but i've only found a pdf file of it, not the .svg.

The Pedal Vectorpack pdf file that's floating around has 5 Hammond sizes:
1590A/1090NS
1590B
125B
1590BB
1790NS
Even though it is a pdf, you can import the page with the enclosure you need into Inkscape & ungroup to get a useable object.

[zilla]

cool!  i'll give it a shot.