KeithHowell Posted December 30, 2002 Report Share Posted December 30, 2002 Here's a method I've worked out which makes great decals without having to go to a printing house to get it made. All you need is access to a Laser Printer, some Self adhesive label backing paper (the waxed paper stuff that is left over once you have removed the labels, stiffie disk labels work great) and some clear adhesive tape. The following is basically a minor modification to using the label backing to make printed circuit boards. 1) Design your logo and print it out onto paper on the laser printer. Before printing mark a corner of the page you will be printing on so that you can reinsert the page into the printer with the same orientation. 2) Cut a piece of label backing big enough to cover the printed logo on the paper. Allow a decent margin around the edge. 3) Using one of the paper labels, cut a strip and stick the label backing onto your printed paper page making sure that the waxy part is up and the paper label doesn't cover any part of the logo. DO NOT use the clear cellophane tape it WILL jam your printer. The paper labels and glue are designed to go through laser printers. Make sure the end of the label backing you have stuck down is the leading edge as it moves through the printer. 4) Place the page. with the stuck on label backing back into the printer making sure it is orientated as per your original mark you made before the first print. 5) Print your logo again. This time it will be printed onto the waxy surface of the label backing. 6) Take a piece of the clear self adhesive tape and stick it down over the newly printed logo. Rub it down with a blunt object ,like the back of a pencil, making sure all the all the printing is covered. 7) Carefully pull the tape off the backing and you should have one neatly printed logo on the tape which you can now stick wherever you like, preferably on your guitar, and then finish over the top of it. Just be aware that the solvents in your finish might disolve the ink or the the clear film you have used so try it first on your test piece you used before starting on your guitar. Keith Howell Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveK Posted December 30, 2002 Report Share Posted December 30, 2002 Will this method work with an Inkjet printer as well??? Dave K Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeremywills Posted December 30, 2002 Report Share Posted December 30, 2002 sadly no, its just like a photocopied document, the tape will pick up the print off the page just like a laser printer because they are basically the same type of print method, but the inkjet print method doesnt burn the text or logo into the paper, it sprays it on and the paper soaks it up instead of it being burned into it, its kinda hard to explain, but to sum it up no it wouldnt work. so sorry scotch tape should do the trick with laser printer, only drawback is most likely you will only have a black label. For an inkjet, I get sheets of water transfer decal from a hobby shop, I used to build scratch kit models and make my own decals, I did the same thing with my fender strat project, I got creative with the jpg's off of fender.com and used photoshop to resize off the jpg's to the approx real size, then whited out the yellowed areas of the maple around the text and sphaghetti "fender" and printed it out on the inkjet and the model decal sheets, they are easy to get ahold of. The small amount of yellow that I could not get too didn't really show up too bad since the necks yellowed maple, its obvious up close its a computer rendered logo and not real but at first glance its convincing. If I ever sell it, yea right Ill get some steel wool and take it off. Never Never try to pass off a clone fender as a real fender, its just not right. Thats my opinion. Good luck. Jeremy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KeithHowell Posted December 31, 2002 Author Report Share Posted December 31, 2002 Jeremy's correct. Don't even bother trying it with an ink jet printer, the ink won't even stick properly onto the label backing. Laser jet and photo copier toner is basically plastic which is melted when it passes through the hot rollers of the machine. This is why it works so well if you use the same technique to make printed circuit boards. (instead of the scotch tape you iron it onto your copper of the board, remelting the plastic and making it cling to the copper where it will resist the chemical etching process) It will work with a photcopy machine as well, but in my experience, from the pc board angle, a laser printer does a better job. It puts out a crisper and more dense image. Or maybe its just our copy machine at the office thats not so great. The newer digital type seem to have a much crisper image. Photocopying of course will allow you to do designs by hand on paper without having a computer! (Does anybody do this anymore! The reason I build guitars is because I get enough hitech all day long. I'm a software engineer). Keith Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GEdwardJones Posted December 31, 2002 Report Share Posted December 31, 2002 Photocopying of course will allow you to do designs by hand on paper without having a computer! (Does anybody do this anymore! The reason I build guitars is because I get enough hitech all day long. I'm a software engineer). Keith I wanted an art tablet for my PC, but I just use paper. I'm a QA engineer myself. Sometimes I get tired of sitting in front of a monitor, but I still like my photoshop. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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