Hi guys,
I don't usually post here, but thought someone amongst you might be able to help me.
I've started making bicycle frames (full-size ones), and additionally am restoring a really old racing bicycle. Both tasks require me to make water slide decals to decorate the frames. In the case of my own frames, I have a lot of latitude as to what I do, but in the case of the restoration I'm trying to duplicate the original transfers as accurately as possible.
I read everything I could find on the net about making decals, and decided to go with a screen printing process, as I've never in my life seen an Alps printer, and need to be able to print white (not to mention being sceptical about the ability of inkjet inks and laser toners to survive in the sunlight for any appreciable time).
My first try is a four colour transfer for a track racing frame I've recently built. See
The screens I'm using are all 77T, except for the last colour (black outlining) for which I bought a 100T screen. I bought sheets of decal paper from Bel Decal. I asked for decal paper suitable for silkscreening, and they sent ink-jet decal paper.
I coated the screens with emulsion (Ulano LX660 dual cure diazo photopolymer), left them for 24 dours to dry, and then exposed them with my artwork and washed out the unexposed emulsion. So far so good, though I did have a few areas on the screens where the emulsion was thicker which dried with a sort of wrinkled appearance.
I left them overnight to dry, then tried a test print, with just one colour and my finest screen. I used "artists acrylic", which I bought from the local artists supply shop, with "printing gell", as recommended by them for silk screening.
My first print, on paper, worked ok (though was fairly light). I tried a second print on the decal paper, and that's when the wheels fell off. The decal paper adhered itself to my screen with astonishing veracity. When I tried to remove it, the decal film seperated from the backing, and some of the emulsion came adrift from the screen. The print was terrible. there wasn't nearly enough ink where there was supposed to be ink, and fine lines didn't come out at all.
So what am I doing wrong? Is the water based paint causing the adhesive on the decals to go? Is it an issue with humidity (it's been very humid in Sydney the last couple of weeks)? Should I use enamels rather than acrylics?
Regards,
Suzy