inkjet graphic transfer

[danwelsh]

Hi everyone. I have a question that hopefully someone can answer......has anyone tried using wax paper for inkjet transferring images on to an enclosure....what I mean is the waxy paper from a sticker sheet when the stickers are removed

[Ettore_M]

I haven't heard of it again. Is this technique known to be working?

Hector

[danwelsh]

Ive seen it done on youtube.....trasferring a graphic to a paper bag(the image was first printed on the shiny paper using inkjet printer).....it seems as it would work as an alternative to waterslide decals as the ink doent soak in or dry on the backing paper

[Ettore_M]

That sounds cool! The "wax", is it transparent? or it is white?

Hector

[danwelsh]

Its a backing page that stickers are stuck to.

[davent]

I've been doing toner transfers rather then waterslide decals for the last year or so. Haven't tried inkjet transfers but came home from the library today with the book "The Collage Workbook' and it breifly  describes a method that uses transparencies to do inkjet transfers.

Print the 'art' to transparency film.
Coat your receiving surface (enclosure?) with gloss acrylic medium, lay your art into the wet medium, smooth with a bone folder or back of a spoon, wait a few seconds then lift a corner of the transparecy to set if transfer is taking place. I suppose if it hasn't happened yet you lay it back down, smooth, wait and peek again.

Going to take some trial and error to get the knack.

For toner transfer you just print to regular paper then use an acrylic medium to stick your art to the enclosure, let it dry then wet and rub the paper away with your fingers. Takes a few dry/wet/rub cycles to get all the paper off but with a bit of patience it goes.

First attempt, just kept throwing new printouts onto the enclosure to see what was possible with the technique. The 'typewriter' font i was using is a very distressed version and the transfer is a true representation.

Compressor detail

dave

[Ettore_M]

Dave, that's great! I've seen several builds of yours on the DIYSB forum! (I think?) You're truly an artist! Your finishing technique is really complicated for me, though!
I suppose you used the second one from the two techniques you refer to. What do you mean by "acrylic medium"? And does the toner transfer happen without any heat needed (the usual iron)?

Hector

[davent]

Hi Hector, thanks!

Acrylic medium is just the clear substance that pigments are added to, to give us acrylic paint. Available in various viscosities from thick gels to almost water thin. You can in fact just use acrylic paint to glue down your toner art in this method of transfering if the paint is going work with the colour of your enclosure. I work with a clear, fairly watery medium called GAC200 made by Golden, a company that produces a huge range of acrylic paints and mediums. No idea whether that brand is available in Greece  but there are lots of different brands out there. And... no heat what-so-ever is needed to do the transfers.

This video does a great job of explaining the technique.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7DFuJt3mvw

http://www.goldenpaints.com/technicaldata/gac100s.php
dave

[Ettore_M]

Hi Hector, thanks!

Acrylic medium is just the clear substance that pigments are added to, to give us acrylic paint. Available in various viscosities from thick gels to almost water thin. You can in fact just use acrylic paint to glue down your toner art in this method of transfering if the paint is going work with the colour of your enclosure. I work with a clear, fairly watery medium called GAC200 made by Golden, a company that produces a huge range of acrylic paints and mediums. No idea whether that brand is available in Greece  but there are lots of different brands out there. And... no heat what-so-ever is needed to do the transfers.

This video does a great job of explaining the technique.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7DFuJt3mvw

http://www.goldenpaints.com/technicaldata/gac100s.php
dave

Hey, Dave! That's totally awesome! Thanks a lot! Having seen your results, it's a sure thing I'm gonna try this method.. If I find the acrylic medium first..
However, I have a couple of questions. Can you apply the acrylic medium on bare enclosures or painted enclosures? And if you could, does it need any special preparation?
Also, the acrylic medium the guy in the video uses, is matte. I guess gloss medium exists too. Is it hard enough not to peel off with use and not to need any clearcoat? (supposing you can spray clearcoat on the acrylic medium)

Sorry for all the questions, but I'm really interested in learning to use that!
Thanks!

Hector

[danwelsh]

This is the video I'm talking about that's on youtube. Didn't know if i could put links to youtube vids but everyone else is so i must be able to.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3AhszEmqOE

[davent]

...
Can you apply the acrylic medium on bare enclosures or painted enclosures? And if you could, does it need any special preparation?
Also, the acrylic medium the guy in the video uses, is matte. I guess gloss medium exists too. Is it hard enough not to peel off with use and not to need any clearcoat? (supposing you can spray clearcoat on the acrylic medium)

Sorry for all the questions, but I'm really interested in learning to use that!
Thanks!

Hector

Hi Hector, no problem.
Haven't tried a bare enclosure but doubt it would work very well as it's tough to get anything to really bond well with the enclosure outside of powdercoat. I use self-etching primer as the first layer then progress through a couple others before laying in acrylic colours. After the colours i'll go with the medium to do the toner transfer. The GAC200 medium i use is gloss but because it dries in contact with paper when you remove the dried paper the medium left has a slightly textured surface so even though it was gloss medium it will show as a matt.

The acrylic paints and mediums won't stand up to much abuse so they do have to be clearcoated. If you use a great deal of water in removing the paper,  the medium will absorb a bit of water and turn milky looking again but you just let it re-dry  and it clears up fine. I use waterbased lacquer for clearcoating but the pictured Bazz Fuss was clearcoated with Varathane which is a waterbased brushing varnish sold for finishing wood projects, works well but it never totally loses the milky veil.  Except for the self-etching primer, spraycan,  i brush, splatter or airbrush all the other finishes/paints.

This is the video I'm talking about that's on youtube. Didn't know if i could put links to youtube vids but everyone else is so i must be able to.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3AhszEmqOE

Hi Dan,
All this is pure speculation on my part, have no experience with this process so...

Don't think it would work, as is, going onto an enclosure. The ink from the waxed paper (i'm thinking that it's actually a plastic coating on the paper,,, like freezer paper) needs something to bite into for it to move off of that paper. An enclosure would need a coating on it that would absorb the ink pulling it from the transfer surface. Golden make a couple mediums that might give you the necessary bite, Acrylic Grounds for Pastel i've used to allow using pencil crayons and charcoal over top of slick acrylic painting, this just is a grittier surface that catched the dust deposited from the pencil or whatever. Then there's Digital Grounds for Non-Porous Surfaces, i've read that it's been used to coat aluminum foil and put through a printer and given good results. Maybe coating the enclosure with that medium would  give enough of something for the ink to grab onto and transfer to an enclosure.  Just thinking out loud.

Info on the Digital Grounds:    http://www.goldenpaints.com/justpaint/jp20article1.php

Other companies no doubt have similar products but Golden is the suff stocked most widely around here.

Take care
dave

[Ettore_M]

Hi Hector, no problem.
Haven't tried a bare enclosure but doubt it would work very well as it's tough to get anything to really bond well with the enclosure outside of powdercoat. I use self-etching primer as the first layer then progress through a couple others before laying in acrylic colours. After the colours i'll go with the medium to do the toner transfer. The GAC200 medium i use is gloss but because it dries in contact with paper when you remove the dried paper the medium left has a slightly textured surface so even though it was gloss medium it will show as a matt.

The acrylic paints and mediums won't stand up to much abuse so they do have to be clearcoated. If you use a great deal of water in removing the paper,  the medium will absorb a bit of water and turn milky looking again but you just let it re-dry  and it clears up fine. I use waterbased lacquer for clearcoating but the pictured Bazz Fuss was clearcoated with Varathane which is a waterbased brushing varnish sold for finishing wood projects, works well but it never totally loses the milky veil.  Except for the self-etching primer, spraycan,  i brush, splatter or airbrush all the other finishes/paints.

Thanks again, Dave, for all the information! I've heard again for the self-etching primer, but I haven't used any. It's supposed to bond a lot better with the aluminium enclosure, right? I guess I'll have to buy a spray can to try on my own.
But can I ask something? Do you have to use acrylic colours or you can use the usual spray can colours we use for metal? I don't know if they are acrylic. Won't it bond with the acrylic medium?

Hector

[davent]

Hi Hector,
I do as much as possible with waterbased paints  and stuff as the other solvents make me sick with much exposure so haven't tried this with regular sparycan  paints. As long as the acrylic medium will stick to the spraycan paint, should be no problems with this technique. The issue i've had in the past is that some of the clear spraycan lacquers i used to use haven't worked well over acrylic paints. They go on fine and look great but after a period time, months, the clear ends up all checked and cracked, not an issue in itself but pretty dissappointing to see after all the time that went into getting a nice finish.

I haven't tried it but lots of people get great looking, very protective clear for their pedals using Envirotex which is a pourable epoxy product.

Information in the link here is what spurred me on to see if there was a less toxic way to do transfers. Here they use Damar varnish as the medium and they are using it to transfer toner as well as inkjet images/art to bare medal.

http://www.engravingschool.com/private/transfers.htm
dave

[stevie1556]

Davent - just a couple of questions. Would this method work on powder coated enclosures? And would you still recommend they were clear coated afterwards?

Also, is matte of gloss better in terms of results, if you have tried both. Its just you say you use gloss, the video you linked to uses matte, so I was just wondering if there was much difference between them.

Sent from my thumbs using Tapatalk!