Sunnyscopa Film-Free Laser Jet Waterslide Notes for New GW1-PRO Glue

M

MattG

Well-known member
Edit: see the great, more comprehensive tutorial on these waterslide decals by @Guardians of the analog (GOTA): The 2026 revised film free decal tutorial. What follows isn't intended to be a tutorial, but more of a living notes document, particularly with regards to using Sunnyscopa's new GW1-PRO Glue (aka transfer agent).

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:
  1. Clean and dry enclosure
    • I've found that a very light acetone wipe seems to improve transfer for finished/powder-coated enclosures (spot-check first, and be gentle, as you could easily ruin the factory finish)
    • Consider using painter's or masking tape on the sides to make it easier to clean up excess glue.
    • I've had the best/most consistent results with raw/unfinished enclosures
  2. Wet decal in warm water for 10-30 seconds, then pat dry, and let sit for about a minute
    • From GOTA's tutorial: "I use tap water for this, depending on your water conditions you may want to use distilled water. I recommend using Luke warm water, since cold water has given me adhesion issues and hot water can make the film swell and distort your design."
    • Experience has taught me that you really want the decal to be dry - the water is just to make it possible to remove the backing, but you do not want to dilute the glue/transfer agent
  3. Use a brush to apply a light coat of GW1-Pro glue directly to the damp decal (do notapply to the enclosure - it should be clean and dry)
    • I'm not sure about what's best here. I've tried applying to the decal only, to the enclosure only, to both surfaces, minimal glue, too much glue, etc, and never determined what is optimal
    • You definitely don't want too much transfer agent: it's more work to clean up, and can burn during the heat soak
    • Intuitively, you want as little glue as possible to still get a complete transfer - but I haven't figured out how to consistently determine that amount
  4. Apply decal, remove backing, squeegee away all excess
  5. Try to remove any excess than runs down the sides
    • It can be tricky to do this neatly without perturbing the decal itself, but...
    • You really want to clean up all excess glue now, because after the drying stage, it gets much harder to remove, and you really don't want excess glue during the heat curing stage
  6. Drying Stage: bake for 10 minutes at 225F
  7. After the enclosure has cooled, remove the film. From GOTA's tutorial: "It's important to let it fully cool because if the glue is warm and pliable, you might pull the glue and toner off the enclosure when you remove the film."
  8. Do not apply any extra glue if you are doing to do a heat cure (see below)
  9. Clean off any residual glue/transfer agent
    • Per Sunnyscopa's GW1-Pro instructions, the heat curing is fairly high temp (I use 375F). This will burn and "carmelize" any excess glue; it smells bad and looks bad
    • I find acetone is the only thing that reliably removes excess glue after the drying stage - but you have to be very careful with factory painted/powder-coated enclosures, as the acetone can remove the factory finish
  10. Heat Curing Stage: bake for 20 minutes at 375F
  11. Remove from heat, let cool off
  12. 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)
  13. 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!
 

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Hey, – I really appreciate this. I work with film free a lot and I noticed about a year ago that the glue was somewhat different in that it only took half the time to cure in the oven and any longer would cause something like – but not exactly like – the glue burning issue you had. The glue would set really hard and it was nearly impossible to get the film off after the initial bake. I did also experience some of the same glue burning in small spots (rather than evaporating like I’m used to) if I left it in too long. Finally, where you used to be able to clear off excess glue with alcohol after the initial bake, I found that it was impossible to clean off if I had baked at my normal initial bake time of 15 minutes.

I still have an opened pack from the last batch I bought (which I got off Amazon a year or so ago at the time it was showing up there and then disappearing and then showing up again). It’s still labeled the glue as W1+ but it is obviously different than the W1+ from two years ago – perhaps it is a transitional formula between “old W1+” and this new GW1-Pro glue.

So I am bookmarking this thread for whenever I have to start dealing with the new glue – and for anyone who happens to buy a package that still has the W1+, I’d recommend using the old method Matt mentioned above (applying to the enclosure and squeegeeing off, rather than the new method of applying directly to the decal) but definitely only do the first bake for 10 minutes or less and the second bake for 20 minutes or less, same as Matt indicates with the new glue. (I had seen the instructions for the new glue that said to apply it to the decal rather than the surface but when I tried that with the W1+, it did not adhere properly – so I think the “apply to the decal, not the surface” method is specific to the new glue.)

Thanks again!

Mike
 
This has got me really confused. Do you have to print in reverse ? How when you peel off the film does the ink not come with it, if that’s the side it’s on ?
 
ac30irons said:
This has got me really confused. Do you have to print in reverse ? How when you peel off the film does the ink not come with it, if that’s the side it’s on ?
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Yes, you have to set your printer to print the image as a mirror image (reversed). The side of the decal that the LaserJet prints on is the side that will go face down on the surface of the enclosure.

With a normal waterslide decal the backing paper is on the underside of the decal when you apply it to the enclosure – i.e., you slide the backing paper out from under the decal when you apply it to the enclosure. It’s the opposite with the film free – you are actually sliding the backing off the top of the decal when you are applying the decal to the enclosure.
 
mkstewartesq said:
Yes, you have to set your printer to print the image as a mirror image (reversed). The side of the decal that the LaserJet prints on is the side that will go face down on the surface of the enclosure.

With a normal waterslide decal the backing paper is on the underside of the decal when you apply it to the enclosure – i.e., you slide the backing paper out from under the decal when you apply it to the enclosure. It’s the opposite with the film free – you are actually sliding the backing off the top of the decal when you are applying the decal to the enclosure.
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I thought I was loosing my mind as to how it works. I am out of the UK at the moment but as soon as I am home I am going to price it up properly (there site is converting to Moroccan Dhirims)
 
The last few times I used the film-free decals, I went to FedEx Office and used their laser printer/copier. I've had to experiment with the paper thickness settings to get it right. Also, I've been using Mod Podge Dishwasher safe glue since I ran out of the included Sunnyscopa glue. I hold a blow dryer very close and move very slowly for about 7 minutes to transfer the image. I've been using Tayda powder coated enclosures, so I only heat to about 240 degrees Fahrenheit for 30 minutes in a dedicated toaster oven for the final setting.
 
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Just an update. I don't have this process fully fool-proof yet. I used the new glue on two more enclosures, see attached photo. For the pink enclosure, I got most of the image to transfer. But you can see bits of the border didn't transfer, and some of the button labels.

For the green enclosure, this picture is the second try. On the first try, the border was really the only thing that transferred, and a few dots from the interior graphics. I don't know what went wrong.

I used acetone to remove what did get transferred, then tried again. This time, I spent more time squeegeeing the heck out of the decal. I'd dip the squeegee in water to "lubricate" it, so it glided smoothly across the decal. I squeegeed it for a good couple minutes, until it seemed pretty dry.

On the second try, I got like 99% transfer (basically the exact opposite of what happened on the first try). I should have re-did the pink enclosure as well, but I got lazy.

After the drying phase (step 6 in my notes above), I let the enclosures cool down to room temperature, then cleaned off all the excess glue on the sides with acetone. Then I did the heat curing step, and only a few really small spots of excess glue (that I missed during cleanup) got "caramelized" (i.e. burned/turned brown).
 

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I am questioning is film free worth the haste - it’s so expensive to buy plus potential failure rates ? I think I will give metallic film a shot !
 
Another update: still not getting 100% transfer on the first try on the green enclosures. Thus far I've done:
  • Three bare aluminum (unfinished) enclosures - all transferred perfectly on the first try
  • One pink enclosure (see above) - transferred perfectly on first try
  • Two green enclosures - both took two tries

I don't know for sure that it's color-related, it's a very small sample size. My best guess at this point is that the green enclosures have some finish that makes the GW1-Pro transfer glue mostly ineffective. When I've had these failures, I do wipe off what little did transfer with acetone (nail polish remover). A tiny bit of the factory green finish comes off when I use the acetone. So my working hunch is that the second transfer works because the acetone has removed whatever coating initially prevented the transfer.

Curiously, I had a small bit of trouble with getting a good transfer when I using the old glue (see my Andromeda Deluxe build report). But even that was probably at least 90% transfer, enough that I didn't want to re-do it.
 
Would lightly sanding the enclosure with something like 1200 grit (which can easily be clearcoated back into perfection) be an option of getting the new glue to stick?

I bought the new glue as well, as I had to order the whole batch of things from Korea anyway. Looks like I'll have to do a few practice rounds before moving on to my well-prepared enclosures.
 
tegendemuur said:
Would lightly sanding the enclosure with something like 1200 grit (which can easily be clearcoated back into perfection) be an option of getting the new glue to stick?
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It might, but I can only guess. My hypothesis with the light acetone wipe is that there is some residue or possibly even deliberate coating on finished enclosures that isn't particularly compatible with the GW1-Pro glue. What inspired this thinking is that I had some really bad transfers that I completely wiped away with acetone. After wiping away the botched transfer, the second transfer has always come out better.

So if indeed there is some factory coating or finish residue that's essentially incompatible with the GW1-Pro glue, I would assume light sanding would also remove it.

But there are also a number of other variables in this process, too, so the "incompatible finish" idea could be completely bogus.
 
MattG said:
It might, but I can only guess. My hypothesis with the light acetone wipe is that there is some residue or possibly even deliberate coating on finished enclosures that isn't particularly compatible with the GW1-Pro glue. What inspired this thinking is that I had some really bad transfers that I completely wiped away with acetone. After wiping away the botched transfer, the second transfer has always come out better.

So if indeed there is some factory coating or finish residue that's essentially incompatible with the GW1-Pro glue, I would assume light sanding would also remove it.

But there are also a number of other variables in this process, too, so the "incompatible finish" idea could be completely bogus.
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Yeah, looks like I'm going to have to join you soon and figure this thing out :) Thankfully I now know this thread exist!
 
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