Waterslide Finish Cracking???

[Guava]

I'm new to waterslides, having previously done the etching thing for a few pedals.  I'm getting a weird reaction between my waterslide paper (Blinggasm brand clear laser waterslide from Amazon, classy name) and Krylon clear coat.  I get spiderweb cracks throughout the decal as soon as I spray it, even with a light coat.

I tried spraying the decal after printing and before putting it in water, which resulted in some minor cracking and decal shrinkage.  So I reprinted and skipped the clear coat, which worked great.  Smooth decal, no shrinking--it looked fantastic.  I let it dry overnight and just sprayed the first coat of clear--cracks EVERYWHERE.

Has anybody had this experience before?  I've read what little I can find on the topic, but the advice seems to be don't spray the clear heavily.  I sprayed a light coat, so I'm at a loss.

[jimilee]

I've never had that happen or heard of it. I did switch to rustoleum glossy.


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[Guava]

Yeah I might just try another type of clear or do envirotex instead.  Time to sand this baby down.

[sarde]

I have the same decal paper. I also had severe cracking issues using rustoleum spray lacquer clear on it. I solved the problem by wiping on a thin coat of shellac (from home depot) on the printed decal paper, letting it dry, and then applying the decal to my pedals and final coating the pedal (with the same rattle can of rustoleum lacquer). It solved the problem for me.

[Guava]

Oh cool!  I'll try that then. The bullseye shellac?

[davent]

You can get that 'bullseye'  shellac in a spray can as well, handy way to evenly apply very little.

dave

[Guava]

Sarde did you clearcoat the pedal before applying the decal?  I painted, then one layer of clear, then decal over that last night without problems, but I'm thinking about taking the initial clearcoat out of the equation so there's no contact with the decal whatsoever.  So I'd be doing the following: paint, decal with shellac already applied, then a few coats of clear.  What do you think?

[Willybomb]

Different brand of clear needed.  Sometimes it just happens that way - one brand will react with the toner/ink badly ad one won't.

Sometimes it comes down to doing too thick a coat or not enough time between coats. 

But, when I find something that works, I stick with it!

[Guava]

It seems like it might be the solvents in the spray?  Out of curiosity, I tested a few scrap pieces of decal paper--sprayed with rustoleum clear enamel, rustoleum metallic gold, and some minwax polyurethane.  Same result with all three--after about 10 seconds the cracks start forming.  So I'm wondering if the shellac protects from the solvents?  And if that's why I was able to apply the decal over the dried clear coat?  Anyway, going to get a spray can of shellac later on this evening.

[AntKnee]

I use an automotive clear coat from pep boys. In my experience, Krylon and rustoleum are hard to work with and hard to get cosistently good results.

[bcalla]

I've never had that happen or heard of it. I did switch to rustoleum glossy.

I ruined 2 or 3 pedals with Krylon, had much better success with  Rustoleum.

[wgc]

One of the solvents in clear lacquer or enamel spray is acetone.  Most likely the plastic film the toner is printed on is reacting to that.  Shellac is alcohol based, so probably not going to react the same way. 

I'd probably just try a different brand of water slides.

[sarde]

Sarde did you clearcoat the pedal before applying the decal?  I painted, then one layer of clear, then decal over that last night without problems, but I'm thinking about taking the initial clearcoat out of the equation so there's no contact with the decal whatsoever.  So I'd be doing the following: paint, decal with shellac already applied, then a few coats of clear.  What do you think?

I apply my decal to a painted enclosure with no top coat. I figure I will be applying a clear coat anyway to why put it underneath. I am lazy and use pre-painted enclosure from tayda; but if you are painting your own as long as you let it dry throughly there should be no issues. As others have noted it appears to be acetone of some other ingredient in aerosolized clear coats that causes cracking with this particular brand of waterslide paper. BTW, I am using the laser clear decal paper.

My first few pedals came out cracked until i wiped on a thin coat of bullseye shellac to the decal before clear coating. Since then I have had no issues.

FYI, my process is laser print decal, shellac decal, let dry, apply decal to enclosure, let dry, as many clear coats as I want. Since you are painting your own enclosures as long as the paint coat is dry by the time you apply the shellaced decal you should be good to go. Hope that helps.

[Guava]

Awesome, thanks for the help.  I just got some shellac and tested a scrap piece of the waterslide (also using the laser kind) and no cracks!  So I'm going to let it dry and hit it with some clear to make sure I've got good coverage with my technique, then move to the real deal.

[Guava]

Man, back to the drawing board.  Shellac dried clear on my decal, but then developed some large white spots when drying on the enclosure after the water application. Out of the Blinggasm paper, so next move is to try some Papilio brand laser paper off eBay.