I recently commented on Sunnyscopa film-free laser jet waterslide decals in this thread: Waterslide paper suggestion. There it was mentioned that there is new/different glue that now comes with these waterslide decals, and that it's process is different than the old glue/aka transfer agent.
Here's a quick overview of my process with the new GW1-Pro glue and Top Coat W1:
Note: I've only so far done one successful application with the above method, I'll probably refine these steps after I've done a few more.
I recently ran out of my original batch of Sunnyscopa waterslide decals that I ordered in February, 2022. I got the "W1+" glue with that original batch. I tersely described my process for that glue here. My process was based on a super comprehensive tutorial that used to be on this forum, but has since been deleted.
The new batch I ordered directly from the Korean site. I got 50 papers, the new GW1-Pro glue, the Top Coat W1, a brush and the squeegee. Total with shipping to Chicago area was about $100. Call it $2/paper, and I can easily do four pedals per paper, so $0.50/pedal.
I did a test run with the new glue on an unfinished enclosure in case of problems, and the first try was indeed problematic. The gist is, it looks lie you want to use the absolute bare minimum amount of the new glue you can get away with. With the old glue, I would use a pretty liberal amount, squeegee out all the excess, then use a hair dryer on it for 10 minutes. I would let the enclosure cool, remove the film, apply another coat of glue, and run the hair dryer until the glue was dry. I'd generally do three or four coats of glue like this, then I'd bake the pedal in an old toaster oven for an hour at 300F.
The first time I tried the new glue, I tried to use extra glue as I did with the old glue. Specifically, after drying and removing the film, I applied another layer of glue. I then put it in the toaster oven at 500F (because the directions suggest 180-250°C / 356-682°F). Around 5-10 minutes in, I saw the side corners start to brown, and after 10-15 minutes, the whole face of the pedal was turning brown (like a tea stain). And there was a pretty obvious burning smell (that my family did not appreciate!). See picture.
I grabbed a second unfinished enclosure to try again. This time I followed the steps as written above. Note that I still had a little bit of browning on the side edges from the heat curing stage, i.e. where the excess glue had dripped down the sides after being squeegeed out. (And I also lowered the temperature down to the lower end of the suggested range.) I should have spent some time trying to remove that excess glue, either before the drying stage, or definitely before the heat cure stage. The good news is the decal transfer appears to be very tough: I had to use sandpaper and some non-trivial elbow grease to remove the browning from the sides. As you can see in the picture, I started to hand-sand the botched enclosure, but it was just too much work - I'm going to use the belt sander. With the heat cure and top coat, I'd expect these decals to outlast the owner's life!
Hope this helps others using these decals!
Here's a quick overview of my process with the new GW1-Pro glue and Top Coat W1:
- Clean and dry enclosure
- Wet decal in warm water for 10-30 seconds, then pat dry, and let sit for about a minute
- Use a brush to apply a very light coat of GW1-Pro glue directly to the damp decal (do not apply to the enclosure - it should be clean and dry)
- Apply decal, remove backing, squeegee away all excess
- Try to remove any excess than runs down the sides (tricky to do this neatly without perturbing the decal itself)
- Drying Stage: bake for 10 minutes at 225F
- After the enclosure has cooled, remove the film
- Do not apply any extra glue if you are doing to do a heat cure (see below)
- Heat Curing Stage: bake for 20 minutes at 375F
- Remove from heat, let cool off
- Use brush to apply a thin, even coat of Top Coat W1, and let air dry (10-60 minutes per the docs, took my pedal 10-20 minutes)
- Top Coat Heat Curing: bake for 30 minutes at 300F
Note: I've only so far done one successful application with the above method, I'll probably refine these steps after I've done a few more.
I recently ran out of my original batch of Sunnyscopa waterslide decals that I ordered in February, 2022. I got the "W1+" glue with that original batch. I tersely described my process for that glue here. My process was based on a super comprehensive tutorial that used to be on this forum, but has since been deleted.
The new batch I ordered directly from the Korean site. I got 50 papers, the new GW1-Pro glue, the Top Coat W1, a brush and the squeegee. Total with shipping to Chicago area was about $100. Call it $2/paper, and I can easily do four pedals per paper, so $0.50/pedal.
I did a test run with the new glue on an unfinished enclosure in case of problems, and the first try was indeed problematic. The gist is, it looks lie you want to use the absolute bare minimum amount of the new glue you can get away with. With the old glue, I would use a pretty liberal amount, squeegee out all the excess, then use a hair dryer on it for 10 minutes. I would let the enclosure cool, remove the film, apply another coat of glue, and run the hair dryer until the glue was dry. I'd generally do three or four coats of glue like this, then I'd bake the pedal in an old toaster oven for an hour at 300F.
The first time I tried the new glue, I tried to use extra glue as I did with the old glue. Specifically, after drying and removing the film, I applied another layer of glue. I then put it in the toaster oven at 500F (because the directions suggest 180-250°C / 356-682°F). Around 5-10 minutes in, I saw the side corners start to brown, and after 10-15 minutes, the whole face of the pedal was turning brown (like a tea stain). And there was a pretty obvious burning smell (that my family did not appreciate!). See picture.
I grabbed a second unfinished enclosure to try again. This time I followed the steps as written above. Note that I still had a little bit of browning on the side edges from the heat curing stage, i.e. where the excess glue had dripped down the sides after being squeegeed out. (And I also lowered the temperature down to the lower end of the suggested range.) I should have spent some time trying to remove that excess glue, either before the drying stage, or definitely before the heat cure stage. The good news is the decal transfer appears to be very tough: I had to use sandpaper and some non-trivial elbow grease to remove the browning from the sides. As you can see in the picture, I started to hand-sand the botched enclosure, but it was just too much work - I'm going to use the belt sander. With the heat cure and top coat, I'd expect these decals to outlast the owner's life!
Hope this helps others using these decals!
