Do you know if those print shops will make waterslide or those adhesive transfer decals? I need a cheaper way of getting logos onto my guitars than inlaying shell (which is an option but it will be an upgrade).
Local in Taiwan is not that cheap. Many people (and print shops too) have it done outside Taiwan. I seem lots of things printed in India and China which are cheaper, we had some items we needed done quickly and thus done locally at much higher cost.
Can you laser on the guitars or would that affect the acoustics?
I could but it would be dark print on dark wood, it would be hard to see. It might work if the headplate wood is light, which is really rare. I would only really laser on the labels and stuff as that can be done on a piece of plywood. The laser doesn’t really like cutting hard, dense wood as much.
This company does metallic stickers for me:
Gain How Printing Co. Ltd.
No. 16, Lane 11, Huacheng Rd.
Xinzhuang District, New Taipei City 242039, Taiwan
Tel: 02-6626-1958
http://www.gding.com.tw
Kevin Yu 0923-625-270
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Can you tell me what kind of products I should ask for? What I’m after is a decal that looks something like this:
It comes as a sheet of looking like this
So what products do I ask for if that is what I want?
Maybe HTV
Metalic color stickers, or actual metal? If metal,those would be inlay too then right? Dont you know a cnc shop? I assume the base needs cnc, so they can probably do the male side as well?
We have done some inset work in the past with a laser or CNC cut logo, filled with enamel paint, lightly sanded back to bring back the shape edges before lacquer.
Most print shops can do foil stickers or at least know where to get them made, but there is normally a minimum order.
another alternative is plot cut metallic vinyl or foil.
something like attached, I can’t find my foil swatch to hand
Yea I’m more looking at foil stickers. If they are just going to plot cut them I can cut it on my laser myself. The only challenge now is to somehow lift it off of the backing and onto the substrate.
The problem with laser engraved wood logo is that wood is porous, so if I try to fill it with paint the paint will also fill into the wood grain, causing bad results. So the headstock will have to be painted, but then the problem is clamping and positioning. I actually found a way to use laser to cut shell pieces that can then be inlaid, but shell is expensive.
We never cut foil on a laser due to the reflections
To do the transfer on something this small you need to cut the vinyl but not the backing paper,
then apply application tape to the font of the vinyl (low tack masking tape will do). squeegee on then remove the application tape.
Use wood primer and enamel paint for wood, use a fine brush for the primer and no need to soak the wood its not glue, (if your using glue for your shell this is a similar process).
If your cutting the head stock for the shell it’s the same for the paint, you could also use Pearl Acrylic Sheet its less than $10us for a 12" square sheet. Another option would be 400mic Pearl or metallic PVC sheets. all cheaper options.
but the cheapest and easiest is the foil applied then lacquered if you get them plot cut ask them to supply with application tape and get yourself a soft felt squeegee.
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I’m using CO2 lasers. At their wavelength the reflectivity of the foil is irrelevant, it will still cut. At least if they are mylar based foils and not actual metal foils. If you are using blue lasers it’s different.
we use verious laser/CNC and plot cutters You only want to cut the foil not the backing paper, so you have to make sure you get it flat and set your correct Z level and control the heat as not to burn the lining paper, that’s why we use plot cutters, its quicker and cheeper.
for application this video shows the basic principle
another work around for you could be to apply the foil then do the cut, but this is quite wasteful and you may singe the wood (if its dark wood you wouldn’t really see)
a bit like this below
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