Water Transfer Printing?...anyone here doing?

[Screenanator]

I've seen this on youtube and some carbon fiber parts in person. It's results are AWESOME. Just curious if anyone here is doing it and what the set up cost them to get going.

http://www.watertransferprinting.com/Home.html

Here's a wheel in carbon fiber....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZC3D1_uSCs

 

[S'N'S]

isn't it, I've seen helmets done that way too.
Here's a good one showing the process http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6gjArwuIWE&feature=related

 

[Sticker Dude]

I do all dash pieces for my cousins stereo shop
but my tank is all homemade not the expensive ones I can only dip up to 50" long

 

[VizualVoice]

Oooh, ooohh!! Pick me, pick me!!! I've been doing it since about April of this year.

We actually purchased all our equipment and supplies, and most importantly got our training from TWN, the ones you've linked to.
I'm not 100% sure how much we're into it currently (my partner handles all the book keeping for that business) but I want to say it was somewhere between 8 and 10 grand to get us started, not including the space.

In addition to the tank (really not all that complicated. I think it was in the 6k range if memory serves) you'll need a good spray gun to dedicate for the activator, a spray booth or other space to base paint & top coat your parts and another spray gun for that. A compressor (obviously), a cutting surface for your film, a rinse station for after you do the dipping, somewhere to hang & dry parts, and an airbrush for touchups.

Oh, and you're going to go through a ton of masking tape.

There's a good bit of "science" & technology to it, but there's a lot of art in it as well. I would definitely suggest you go for the training if at all possible. It was well worth the money!

We are continually getting better at it of course, and I look back at some of the practice pieces I did when we were starting out and laugh at myself to be sure. It definitely takes a good bit of practice and it'll be a while before you're ready to sell the service. You have to be able to figure out the best angles to dip your piece so as to not trap air pockets and get complete coverage, but you also have to make sure that you don't let the water break the film before it covers the entire surface or you'll have voids in your prints. Many things can be done in 1 wrapped around dip with careful planning, but some of the extremely complex pieces have to be split into 2 or occasionally more dips. The majority of our work is firearms at this point, though we have done some fun stuff like SCUBA tanks, baseball bats & helmets, and even some juggling pins.


Hopefully this won't be considered self promotion, (if so mods feel free to delete this part), but if you would like to see some of the stuff we've done, you can take a peek at our gallery here: http://www.hydroprintservices.com/gallery.html


If you have any other specific questions, just ask away!

 

[toodark]

I am in the process of deciding wich company to go with. TWN or a local company Liquid Print. I have been to Liquid Print and saw the process and some of the display items. I am looking around the first of the year for the purchase. VizualVoice do you have any regrets?

 

[BadAss]

We've been doing it for about 5 years now. Buy from both LP and TWN. We have the largest custom made tank in South West. We do full hoods, Rhinos, and are doing fenders right now for COP 4x4. It's is not as easy as they make seem. Takes awhile to get the hang of printing so that you don't get blow-outs and washes, you also need to be proficient at painting as everything has to be clear coated once the print is done. Not to mention being able to airbrush to fix slight inperfections that occur in the process...But we like it....

 

[BadAss]

Also, they usually won't tell you that you will need to get your permits from the city as you will be needing to spray and the city will want you to install an up to code paint booth and have storage facility for chemicals. Just something that you need to be aware of. But if your just a backyard guy then I guess city stuff doesn't matter...

 

[vinylbarry]

Has anybody tried it with say a sheet of diebond 3mill ??

 

[Sticker Dude]

ok to what VizualVoice said-- If you are a full blown business like you are yes you need all that space and equipment For me I started with a 55 gal square drum all primer, paint and clear was in my garage (but I am only doing little dash pieces)I use the $15 spray gun from harbor freight for the activator never had a problem yet. Now I have a resturant style double sink that the center was cut out an moved to the end about 4" from the end for the catch all. Wash out booth is not need for me I use the garden hose air dry for 24 hours then clear. You are right about ALOT of masking tape tape off ALL holes you do not want the print to seep through it will stretch designs. One thing I found is Liquid Print will not sell to people that did not buy their equipment. it is fun actually I am typing on my keyboard that I did in snake skin

 

[toodark]

What size tanks is everyone using?

 

[VizualVoice]

@toodark: no regrets so far, though I have a feeling we may wind up buying a bigger tank at some point next year. We have the 48"x24" tank. So far everything has fit into our tank, but I've had a lot of people ask about vehicle parts. Most are tire kickers though, 'specially when we get down to the $.

We just got a contract to do a thousand pieces each of some stainless water bottles and some knives. It looks like it'll likely be an ongoing thing, so I expect that we'll start actually making some money pretty shortly here. The bigger tank would allow us to do larger batches of those things as well as bigger items.


@StickerDude: I find it very interesting that you're using the HF spray gun for your activator. They were quite emphatic that it wouldn't be a good one, so we had to shell out $$$ for a nice DeVilbiss one. We do use the HF guns for the painting and topcoating though and they do a nice job. I just bought a spare last week when they were on sale for $10.99 that I haven't used yet. Maybe I'll dump some activator in it and give it a try for grins. Care to share what fluid & pressure settings you're using with it?

That's pretty cool to me that you're able to make it work on a low budget.

Our washout booth is homebuilt from a big stainless sink that my partner got cheap, some PVC and a drill press, blue poly barrel for reservoir and a pump that I picked up for 40 or 50 bucks from HF. Total cost was under 300 bucks I'd guess.

I think getting the spray booth set up was probably our biggest expense. Since the shop is in the city we had to at least have the appearance of doing it right.

@vinylbarry: never tried it, but I don't see why it wouldn't work. As long as you can get paint to stick to something and it's a relatively rigid substrate it should be able to be dipped. Slightly flexible stuff like rubber recoil pads on guns we've tried, but it'll crack with use. The paint isn't quite as flexible as the rubber. It still sticks, but has lots of cracks and doesn't look that good, so we just tell customers that we need a rigid surface.

 

[toodark]

@toodark: no regrets so far, though I have a feeling we may wind up buying a bigger tank at some point next year. We have the 48"x24" tank. So far everything has fit into our tank, but I've had a lot of people ask about vehicle parts. Most are tire kickers though, 'specially when we get down to the $.

Have you had anyone want ATV fenders or golf cart fenders done? Would you be able to fit them in your tank?

 

[VizualVoice]

Haven't had any requests for those yet, but then again we're not actively marketing to that group yet either. One of my 2 partners owns a retail gun shop and all 3 of us are active in the shooting community so most of our efforts have been there so far. It would be a tight fit for the cart parts and I'm not sure how big ATV pieces are, so....?

 

[pgettys]

we have a 4x8 tank and are dipping rhinos and golf carts but something we are plying with is working on a contract with energy drinks dipping the metal canisters. we have been dipping allot of bug shields and rain guards and dashes just a little bit of everything really we find stupid stuff everyday.
if we can't dip it we Wrap it and vice versa

 

[toodark]

what company did you get your tank from? I have been hearing that TWN is one of the better companies to go through. I can not get Liquid Print to get back to me (guess they do not want to sell tanks)

 

[pgettys]

we built our tank and bought everything we needed from the pool place and harbor freight

works like a champ,i'm an e engineer and can't see spending 9000 on a water tank sorry couldn't justify it.

 

[toodark]

Do you get your film from either of them?

 

[pgettys]

twn mainly and alsa corp i can get it from LPO but they are a pain in the ARSE if you didn't buy your tank from them .just got to work the system, read the FAQ on the website and enforce the issue and you won't have any problems.
I buy from el paso powder coating also .

Is anyone making there on Activator i am thinking about it i hear alot of people are.