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Need Help Reproduction Glass/Acrylic panel - how to reproduce

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neevo

New Member
Ok, good to know. Let me talk to a few screen printers and see if anyone is keen on the job.

I’m actually not after 1, I’m after 10-15. Even with my old ones that were not good enough, I easily found people across the world that wanted a spare. Better to have a rubbish spare than no replacement at all.

So whilst I have no plans to sell them. I was going to make a batch with the hopes of helping out some people.
 
Notarealsignguy

Notarealsignguy

Arial - it's almost helvetica
ikarasu said:
We do lots of 1 ups for screens.

Sure, we love doing 1000, or 300,000 prints... But if the customer needs it and is willing to pay for the screen setup cost, well still do it.

Especially for the air industry - they don't stock parts... So we get a box of 5-10 items, some being 3" in size that they require us to screenprint. We could easily flatbed them... But they end up paying $2-300 per print just to get it screened. We've even told them it'll cost just as much to print 10 as it does 1... But they only want one at a time.

And depending on the shop... It's not much more work to print something so rectangular. We have screens that go up to 5x10 - throwing this on the tail end of a 4x8 screen and just blocking it out until you print it, or fitting it with a smaller print doesn't cost you much of anything.. and you still get a decent proffit off of it.

It's not economical to do a single screen print.. but if you're willing to pay, I'm sure some shops will do it. Most have a minimum price.. .so long as you pay that price.
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I agree that you can make money doing anything 1 time if you charge right but there's an opportunity cost. For a regular repeat customer you will do a lot of things. For the one off one time people, sometimes there's not enough money in the world that is worth the time that you have to take away from your regulars that makes it worthwhile. Setting up a one off decal that you can nest with some other crap is the sort of thing that makes sense to me. Pulling someone off of your regular workflow to do a one off screen setup, exposure, ink mix, screen cleaning etc can be a real loser, even for a lot of money after you factor in actual and unforseen costs, like pissing off another good regular customer. I'm just talking in the current stupid times where there is more work than time and labor available to complete. In a slower economy, things are different
 
Notarealsignguy

Notarealsignguy

Arial - it's almost helvetica
Browner said:
Does it need to have the textured laminate? Either way, we’d do this on our Gerber Edge.

If you didn’t need/want the textured feel to it, we would just reverse print onto clear vinyl, and you could stick that to your piece of glass - or acrylic - or whatever. Or We would cut the acrylic with a laser and mount the decal for you.

If you want the textured feel (though I can’t think of why you would), we would print it onto Lexan 8A35 for the same look and feel, than apply a laminate adhesive, and you’d mount that whole thing to your piece of clear. Only downside to the Lexan is its cost.
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Substance floor laminate looks and feels just like textured polycarbonate. Print on LSE vinyl and it's a pretty fair substitute for one offs that doesn't need a flatbed cutter or separate adhesive.
 
B

Browner

New Member
Notarealsignguy said:
Substance floor laminate looks and feels just like textured polycarbonate. Print on LSE vinyl and it's a pretty fair substitute for one offs that doesn't need a flatbed cutter or separate adhesive.
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I only mentioned the Lexan because that’s what we have on hand - print it all the time.
 
C

citysignshop

New Member
ikarasu said:
We do lots of 1 ups for screens.
..............
It's not economical to do a single screen print.. but if you're willing to pay, I'm sure some shops will do it. Most have a minimum price.. .so long as you pay that price.
Click to expand...
So if this is an old piece, sure, take it to a screen printer....any worth their salt can handle it ( not a T-shirt place!) I'm sure on the 'net there a McIntosh amp user group....post on there if anyone has done this. If the amp is a common production unit, there are probably a few guys out there with cracked or missing glass... cut and print 5 or 10 of them, (perhaps half on acrylic) and sell them to recoup your costs! :)
 
jfiscus

jfiscus

Rap Master
It is printed by a Gerber Edge (reverse print) with thermal foils onto clear polycarbonate. We do these all the time for generators, etc to protect them from scratches.
Do you need the actual glass/polycarb panel itself, or just the "graphic"?
 
S

signheremd

New Member
neevo said:
Hello everyone. I am an a long journey to refurbish an old 1960 McIntosh Tube Preamp. This item was far beyond saving and I am a long way in to a complete rebuild (happy to share pics if interested).

I have had to fabricate a number of different parts as the model is no longer supported and reproduction pieces are not available (for the most part). 1 specific item is the glass front panel which was half missing on my machine. I did buy a repro panel and it’s brilliant quality, but does not fit my exact model.

I have spent hours and a fair chunk of money to reproduce the artwork which I have ready to go, but unfortunately I just cannot get a printer to reproduce the panels as I need.

The design:

28ba9e792d273bb00a2dc401e6f5b6aa.jpg


My production plan: print the black and white text. Leave everything else see through. I plan on gilding the gold with gold leaf afterwards.

Currently done CMYK digital print on acrylic and glass panels and whilst the print has been brilliant, there are 2 key issues which I need to resolve:

1. The black that was printed is not black. It’s grainy and grey in areas and I need a solid black.
2. The black is supposed to 100% block light whereas the white is supposed to allow the text to be back lit. The supplier cannot get the black to block much light at all.

This is the original glass:
59afb0ca8e58af86de04fc1b9bc405b2.jpg


This is the reproduction (test panel from that run):
f9c3215e39e41c35ecabf3ca33845a1e.jpg


I am really struggling to find anyone in Sydney to help me. I have tried acrylic printers and spoke to a sublimation printer today (only does fabric) who recommended a printer that does film printing on to glass. I am a bit lost on how to make this and who I can search out to help me with the production.

Anyone here can give me some direction?
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We print like this all the time. There are different "blacks" - that is the black you assign will have a certain formula when converted to ink. What we do use a rich black (in our system CMYK C80, M70, Y70, B100). We would pint black and the color (yellow?), overprint white with 2-4 hits, and then print the black again. That will cause the black to be solid. We use a flatbed UV printer.
 
N

neevo

New Member
jfiscus said:
It is printed by a Gerber Edge (reverse print) with thermal foils onto clear polycarbonate. We do these all the time for generators, etc to protect them from scratches.
Do you need the actual glass/polycarb panel itself, or just the "graphic"?
Click to expand...

I am after the full panel ideally. However I have places where I can get the plastic or glass cut to supply whoever prints.

Let me Google that process and see what it is.

Edit: wow just googled and it came up straight away with gold foil. Something I have been told was not possible. Something else to add to the search.
 
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jfiscus

jfiscus

Rap Master
neevo said:
So can I confirm my options to search for in Australia:

1. Screen print
2. UV flatbed
3. Thermal Foil
Click to expand...
Look for a printer who has a Gerber Edge. Should be an easy job without any "screens setup" and the quality will be better and more consistent than a flatbed.
 
N

neevo

New Member
jfiscus said:
Yes, it can print any color you'd like as a solid. They would print Black, Gold, White flood (Arctic White) in this instance.
Click to expand...

Thanks very much everyone for the help. I feel a bit more confident I can get it done now. Have found someone locally that does thermal foil. Will let you all know how I go.
 
N

neevo

New Member
jfiscus said:
Yes, it can print any color you'd like as a solid. They would print Black, Gold, White flood (Arctic White) in this instance.
Click to expand...

Would the white allow some light to bleed through to the front? The panel is backlit and the white text should illuminate on the front.
 
N

neevo

New Member
Found someone to quote me. $1600.00 AUD for 1 panel. Either I need to manage my expectations or maybe that’s the “don’t need the work” quote?
 
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N

netsol

Active Member
consider another method
send it out to "fracture" they print on glass.
one of my clients just showed me art from a trade show he just had done
the quality was amazing

IF

the glass is NOT tempered (youwould have to ask them)

you can cut on a fletcher 3100 with glass cutting head

you can drill with a tungsten twist bit (40 years ago, my partner showed the guys from the local machine shop that it WAS POSSIBLE to drill a hole in a light bulb, without cracking it. he won $100 & a round of drinks for the entire bar)

you lubricate the hole with a drop of turpentine as you are drilling.
 
jfiscus

jfiscus

Rap Master
I would call this distributor and see who they can refer you to locally to have it printed. That quote is just a "go away" quote and in no way reasonable.

Spandex

shop.spandex.com shop.spandex.com
 
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