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15" Small Engine Turned Gold?

Does anyone have a good source for thermal printable 15" punched small engine turned gold? I'm looking for RTape VinylEFX or something similar in the 5 year outdoor rating category, not SignGold. Thanks!
 

SignManiac

New Member
I was under the impression you were doing real gold leaf by hand with brush? Are you strictly vinyl on your fire trucks?
 
I was under the impression you were doing real gold leaf by hand with brush? Are you strictly vinyl on your fire trucks?

No I am doing both, whatever the customer asks for. I do the small real gold jobs myself, but for now I'm sending the bigger jobs out while I fine tune my
gilding skills. All the real gold I do is hand laid/Edge printed, I haven't really done much completely by hand. I use a lot of the small engine turn vinyl for car tags, most people won't pay for real gold on something that is going to get beat up on the road anyways.
 

Gino

Premium Subscriber
No I am doing both, whatever the customer asks for. I do the small real gold jobs myself, but for now I'm sending the bigger jobs out while I fine tune my
gilding skills. All the real gold I do is hand laid/Edge printed, I haven't really done much completely by hand. I use a lot of the small engine turn vinyl for car tags, most people won't pay for real gold on something that is going to get beat up on the road anyways.


All the real gold I do is hand laid/Edge printed......... I guess I'm dumb, but what does this mean ??


My next question is, do you use any real quick/slow size [or even egg white] in your gold work ?? Not a trick question..... just a question.
 
It's nothing fancy, I use a layered process that basically encapsulates the gold under a layer of clear vinyl. The shadows and outlines are printed on a Gerber Edge. I have used a rebranded OneShot fast size, but I switched to Rolco quick size. You've got me stumped on the egg whites though. I have a feeling I'm about to learn something...
 

Billct2

Active Member
An egg white size (egg white & water) is liberally brushed on the background to be gilded. The gold size is then applied, then the leaf and when done the egg size is washed off with water & a cotton ball. It prevents gold from sticking where it doesn't belong. I knew guys that used to use a raw potato rubbed on the background to so the same thing, but the egg whites always worked fine for me. Some use talc, but I never liked that, it gets grit in the gold size.
 
That's some great information, thanks for sharing. I haven't been lucky enough to have an experienced person locally to watch and learn from, so I've had to resort to books and trial and error, but mostly error. I was actually about to order some Kaolin from Letterhead, but I will try the egg white trick first and see how that works!
 

Chriswagner92

New Member
The last time I went to order turned gold vinyl the sales guy said the the small engine turned was discontinued... but you can get the large engine turned. We got ours through southeast sign supply
 

jfiscus

Rap Master
How "small" of a turn are you looking for?
We use Leo's Gold Lion products and products from FirehouseDecals.com.
Both work well for Edge printing, and we go through a lot.
 
How "small" of a turn are you looking for?
We use Leo's Gold Lion products and products from FirehouseDecals.com.
Both work well for Edge printing, and we go through a lot.

I use the 1/4" turn for most car tags. I've been meaning to call and talk with Leo's Gold Lion anyways so I'll go ahead and check with them today.
 
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