Waterslide Decals and hundreds of tiny bubbles

Creative Arts
#1

Folks, this is my very first time attempting a waterslide decal. (Stacy acts like I should know this from doing temporary tattoos…nope. :stuck_out_tongue:) It came out pretty good for the most part, except for a whole bunch of tiny bubbles you can see, especially evident in the black area, that look smaller than the kind you could easily prick with a pin. They aren’t really visible from the reverse, though, only from this obverse side.

Details: Waterslide applied to a thin sheet of acrylic cleaned with rubbing alcohol and a paper towel, then swept off paper towel dust with a fine brush. Used Rolurious clear waterslide decal paper for inkjets; printer set to Best Quality photo paper, looked good after printing.

Are there techniques I could perform to avoid this in the future and get a nice smooth finish (besides just printing it mirrored and flipping it over)?

First Waterslide

(It still looks better than what was there originally!)

1 Like
#2

When you apply, are you sort of squeegeeing out the air bubbles? Like on small ones (like coin size), you can sorta start at one side and just roll your thumb across it, but large ones, use a tool to start at one side and slide across to squeeze out air bubbles and excess water?

#3

Right after I applied the decal, I tried sliding my fingers across, or my fingers covered with paper or cloth, and generally it just wanted to bunch up the decal and wrinkle it. I was thinking about finding a small rolling pin-like device to smush all these little bubbles out, but Stacy advised against it… Might be worth a shot anyway, especially now that it’s definitely dry.

#4

I don’t think it would be helpful to roll after its dry. The bubble void would have already dried unadhered. You want the bubbles to squish out while it’s wet so everything sticks down.

Re rolling pin you mentioned
There’s little rolling pin thingies (technical term) used in printmaking to smoosh stuff down without distortion

@Hardsuit could help on the specifics on the print making roller thingy if you want to try it

Re probably better tool
They make squeegee items for water decals (there’s specialty websites)

Fwiw: my water decal background comes from years of putting thousands of decals on china to be fired in kiln as part of our family business. So if what you’re doing is a bit different, ymmv. But I do know it’s critical to squish bubbles out while wet or when things are fired, the lifted bits will just burn off leaving holes in the image.

#5

I found this by googling “water decal squeegee” and there were a lot of hits, plus some sites with tips on applying. Looked like there might be some helpful info for you to dig into. This is just a screenshot from one of many hits, but this is what I’m talking about. And I think this tool would be better than a roller because you can finesse things easier. And I meant to mention, on large decals, start at center and work outward on bubbles.

image
image.png640×960 137 KB

3 Likes
#6

I agree with @kyrithia, I wouldn’t wait for the decal to be dry.
The little roller thingie she was thinking about is called a brayer (printmaking tools- transparent box- CA).
The decal squeegee seems like the way to go though… You can probably find one a similar one at Daiso.

1 Like
#7

I do mine in a bowl of very lightly soapy water. Therefor no air to make bubbles. But only works with small items and things that can be submerged in water of course.

1 Like
#8

What you need is Solvaset! It’s a scale-modeling thing, but I think it would help in this situation too.

ETA: Scale modelers also airbrush Future floor finish (the acrylic stuff) before applying decals to reduce silvering. It might yellow over time on a clear part, though…
This will start you down the rabbit-hole: https://sites.google.com/site/donsairbrushtips/future-floor-polish

3 Likes
#9

Thanks for all the suggestions, y’all!

My main concern against dipping into a water bath is that it could possibly run the ink (which did seem to happen a bit right at the end when I got a bit too excited about flinging water on the last part). Most of these parts are similar in area to the palm of my hand (though many are long and skinny, like ~6" x 2"). I have large enough vessels, but will just need to see if the colors run (maybe this is where laser would be better than inkjet).

As for a squeegee, I guess it might take a bit of practice and refinement of touch to get the white specks out without pressing so hard that I wrinkle the decal and push it around. Plus, I’m wondering how well acrylic such as Future Finish will set onto other acrylic. :wink: I’ll try decal setting solvent (or perhaps plain soap) along with a squeegee first, and then write back with how it goes.

#10

You can seal the image to the decal paper using a clear spray. The manufacturer of the paper should have some recommendations online or packaged with the decal paper as to what to use to seal them. It could be as simple as clear lacquer. Just make sure you use paper that is appropriate for your printer (“inkjet” decal paper or “laser” decal paper).

There are several threads on RCGroups.com about waterslide decals.

#11

The waterset decals look like an awesome thing for pinball plastics, but does anyone have a white overlay that can be put on top of them to fill in the white areas and to help keep the light from washing out the look?

#12

They make decal film in clear and white. Not sure how opaque the white is when backlit.

#13

Here are some links on creating and applying waterslide decals relating to pinball.

https://pinballrehab.com/1-articles/pinball-restoration/tutorials-and-techniques/191-creating-and-applying-water-slide-decals

3 Likes