Build Your Own Clone Message Board

Hi all,

I’ve been asked a couple of times by folks new to the board how to get images onto enclosures, so I thought I’d write it all out once and for all. These are just general suggestions and lessons learned, usually the hard way… Any tips you folks want to add, please do. I’ll skip painting tips, because everything I know about that I learned from stickys in this forum anyway…


Templates: First thing I do when a new kit shows up is make templates. Hold the enclosure upside down on a piece of paper and trace it. Color in the holes for knobs, jacks and switches, and trace the outline. Do a separate template for the top and any sides that will be decaled. The knob holes are never quite straight or even, even with Keith’s new CNC machines, and you want your labeling to line up with the knobs. Then scan your templates. Remember to “mirror” the images once scanned, and to check your measurements- sometimes things get rescaled in the scanning process. If you’re not sure, print them out and lay them on top of your enclosure: all your holes should line up and the border of your template should match the face of the enclosure.

Art: Google is your friend, especially Google Images. Once you have a basic idea of what you want, search for the images and download them. Be careful if you plan on selling them, avoid copyrighted images and trademarked items. Open your template images and set them as a level or background in whatever software you are using. I use a combination of PhotoShopPro and Publisher, but only because I have copies of each and am comfortable working with them. Any image editing and/or layout software should do the trick, in fact, I’m sure many programs would work better… Start resizing and lining up the image or images on your templates, and add any text labels you want.

Fonts: Once again, Google is your friend. There are several free font websites out there, with a lot of overlap between them. Once you find the perfect font, download, unzip, and install onto your PC. XP users, you do this in Control Panel. Keep in mind you have to install the fonts on ALL the computers involved: if you design at home, but go to Kinko’s to print, your fonts will be substituted with default, standard window’s fonts. In case you are wondering, Kinko’s won’t let you install a font onto their PCs… I tried…

Printing: I recommend laser printers, for a bunch of reasons, most importantly because laser decal paper is much easier to deal with then inkjet decal paper. Unlike inkjet paper, you do not have to clearcoat your decals before applying the laser decals, as the images won’t run when wet. Laser printers are pricier than the standard inkjet models, but they aren’t that bad. I’m sitting next to a Samsung CLP-510, bought at BJ’s for just under 200 bucks… Print your working image on regular paper, cut it out, lay it on top of your enclosure and use a pencil to push through all your knob and switch holes (I’m assuming full face decals). Everything line up? Pop your pots through the holes and drop the knobs on. Text line up right? Make sure the knobs aren’t covering your text. Make adjustments, print, and try again. Keep doing this until you are happy with the results.

Decals: There are two basic types, clear and white, both with advantages and disadvantages. First thing to remember is printers do not print white! Any image you send to a printer assumes white paper, and any white you see on the screen is the absence of color, not actually white. There is a printer that does white, called the ALPS printer, but it is rare, expensive, and adds other problems. I’ve never seen an ALPS printer, and I don’t expect to… So, white decal paper is probably the best for images, at least to get the color you see on the screen to reproduce correctly. That said, I’ve tried both and I don’t like white decal sheets. They tend to look like a sticker slapped onto the enclosure. If you want to see the paint, if you want the decal to look painted or silkscreened on, white won’t cut it. So that leaves us with clear decal sheets… If you want color reproduction to be spot on, you will have to use white paint on your enclosure. Kind of boring, but the best bet when using full color images. You can also use light colors, like tan or gray, and you won’t have much difference color wise. Dark colors are a problem. If you paint your pedal a dark color, it will affect the color of your decal (green + yellow = blue, etc.). Solutions?
Use black or grayscale images and text.

Adjust the tint of your image so when applied it gives the desired effect (even harder than it sounds, but works well with light color paint).

Or, stencil… lay a coat of white paint down on the area’s the image will cover. Also, you can cut out blank white decal paper in the size and shape of the image, apply, then ad the full face decal with the image and text on top.


Now, print your decals. Decal sheets are pricey, so try to fit as many copies of each side on one sheet. It may take multiple tries to get the decal on correctly, so extra copies ready to go is a big help.

WARNING- This sometimes kills printers! Decal paper is available from many different sources, from hobby shops to the internet, and they all seem different, also some printers, even the same make and model, are fussier then others. I recommend setting the printer to “cardstock”, and print when the printer is cool. If the printer is set for something thinner, or is too hot, the decal paper can wrap around the transfer drum and fuse to it. I’ve so far managed to kill one $200 printer in my kitchen, and put Kinko’s big multi grand printer out of commission. I’m really not welcome at Kinko’s anymore…

Decal application: They don’t call them waterslide for nothing… Cut to fit, soak in lukewarm water until decal starts to lift from backing paper, and slide it onto your enclosure. After positioning, squeegee out any bubbles or water underneath by blotting with a tissue. If you screw up, peel it off before it sets and try again. If you don’t want the decal to show, use full face (even when labeling the sides) and use Micro-Sol or anther decal “softening” agent. This stuff is great, and will make your decal look melted onto the paint. Got tiny bubbles? Use a pin or X-acto to pierce them, press out the water or air, and brush some Micro-Sol on… Let it set overnight, then throw on a couple coats of clear to protect your work. If you used the paint stencil or white cutout method, you may be able to see height difference due to the thickness of the paint/decal. Throw on several coats of clear, even the matte finish style, and wet sand with 1000 or 2000 grit. Repeat until the surface is level. Depending on the product and your environment, the clear coat can take forever to cure. Either wait days or weeks before final assembly, or bake the whole thing. I picked up an old toaster oven, and my track record is about 50/50: half the time it worked fine, and the rest of time something, either the paint, the decal, or the clear, bubbled up, requiring a chemical strip back to bare aluminum and a complete do-over… Not fun. Keep your temp below 200 F for safest results.


Usually, I won’t order a kit until I have an idea for the artwork. I’ll gather images and fonts and do a basic layout while waiting for the UPS man. When the kit is in my hands, I’ll do the templates, then work on the final decal prints in between paint coats. For noobs, I’d recommend starting with clear decals on a white box: you can get really good results easily, and when you have enough white pedals and start to get bored, move on to the darker colors and hybrid techniques.

-Subba

Thank you very much for sharing your knowledge, Mr. Culture. Need it be said, that Subby does some of the finest work (one man's opinion) seen, here at BYOC, and for him to share is truly in the spirit of this great forum! Fantastic.

Sticky?

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This is great stuff! Thanks a lot.

Very good of you to share, sir.

Folks, this is a free master class. Take notes.

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TightCamera - Gear Reviews

Yeah good stuff. Your pedals are some of the best looking. The "kill your printer" part scares me some. Hope i never see that. I have a bunch of designs i will do soon. Waiting to paint when it's warm out. I got a few boxes from PPPlus that are almond color (cooler than white). My designs look good on it. The powder coat is great. Can't scratch it.

Thought it would be cool to add some ideas on design. Making the design is my favorite part. And yes, Google is great for getting pics to work with. Always try and search the extra large and large pics first. Maybe PhotoShop is great at resizing. I don't know. I've only used Paint Shop Pro. Small pics get grainy if you have to enlarge them too much.

Here's a few examples of my favorites i've done.
And some design hints i though could be useful. Not close to the quality of this guy here, though. I'm not that patient.

Designs that need white might look ok on the unpainted silver box. Anything white will just be silver. The smoke effect below had alot of white but looks ok.

Some colors might be ok on a darker painted box. Below the lettering was bright red. It turned out darker, but ok. MAKE SURE YOUR DRILLS ARE DONE BEFORE ADDING DECAL! You can see around the LED bezel, that i had to re-drill a bit. Te decal got a bit messed.

When I have a full, solid image for the top i've been adding a border to make it easier to cut out and apply. With the FUZZ below and with other designs I have, I wish I rounded out the border corners. Looks a bit to stickery with the sharp corners.

Simple design? No border. Looks great. The decal disappears at the edges.


Thought i'd just add some cool info if you don't mind.
The Camel pedal is my favorite.

Good stuff, Focal, keep the tips rolling...

Stenciling: Print your top image on regular paper, laminate it, then cut out the image areas with an X-acto. Make sure you have a couple of reference points, like the led hole and one of the knob holes, so that the stencil lines up exactly where the decal will be. Tape to your painted enclosure, and hit it with some white paint. Now your clear decal will show the colors correctly.
Bonus tips: After painting your enclosure, hit it with a couple coats of clear before stenciling. After you lay down the white paint with the stencil, you can wet sand the edges to get rid of any paint that got under the stencil or any mistakes you made cutting it out. The paint is just sitting on top of the clearcoat, so sanding will only remove the white, not your base color. If the white seems too high or adds too much depth for your liking, clear coat the whole pedal before decaling and sand until it is all the same height...

When you cut, cut inside your image, not right on the edge. Ideally, you want to hide the fact that you used white paint at all. A black edge on your image helps, but as you can see, sometimes the decal shrinks a tiny bit, so err on the side of caution...


-Subba

Mantas posted this a couple of posts down, so I stole it! Thanks, Mantas. Great advice for those that use inkjet decals:



"The way I do my decals, and I've had a lot of luck with this technique, is I print them with my best inkjet printer using the highest quality print setting the printer has. Then I let them dry for AT LEAST 12 hours. After lightly going over the printed decal with a tack cloth, I then spray a very light mist of Testor's Decal Bonder. I let this dry for 3 to 4 hours, then I do another coat of the decal bonder. With this pass I do a slightly heavier coat. I let this dry for about 3 to 4 hours as well. Then I do 2 medium coats of 'Duplicolor Truck, Van, & SUV Clear Coat' with about 1 to 2 hours of drying time between coats. I like to let this dry for about 12 hours before using the decals. The one thing you want to do before you use your decals is make sure the surface you're going to apply them to is clean. Decals don't stick very well to dirty surfaces plus, tiny little particles of dust, and other boogers, can get trapped underneath the decal making your box look quite like shite. To clean it, I just go over it with a slightly damp eyeglass cleaning cloth and buff it dry. Make sure you use luke warm water as well. You can use cold water, but it will take longer for the decal material to come off of the backing, increasing the potential for tearing the decal. Hot water will make the decals a bit gooey, also increasing the chances of damaging the decal in process. Just good 'ole luke warm water works best. Also, do not use Micro Set or Micro Sol on inkjet decals. They will make the ink run and ruin the decals. Most decal setting solutions are for laser printed decals. If anyone knows of any decal setting solution that you can use for inkjet decals, let me know about it and I'll try it. Applying the decals isn't as hard as you might think. You just cut them out as close to the edge of the printed material as you can. When you put them in the water, only put in one decal at a time. When you leave the decals in the water too long, they can slip off of the backing while immersed, thus ruining them. The way I soak mine is I put ONE decal in, and leave it in the water for 30 seconds. Hell, I even use my watch to time it - LOL. Also, if it curls up, don't worry, that's normal. It will come uncurled a bit while it's soaking. Anyway, while it's soaking, I take a small artist's paint brush, and put a very light amount of water where I'm going to put the decal. This makes it easier to move the decal around while you're trying to straighten it, and also discourages bubbles from forming underneath it. If the decal is pretty small, you can use tweezers to take it out of the water. For the bigger ones, I just used my hands. After you get it out of the water, very carefully slide just a little bit of the decal off of the backing. Now lay the decal, backing and all, flatly on the surface area where you want it to go. Now gently hold down the part of the decal we moved off of the backing, and gently pull the other end of the backing out from underneath the decal. This is sort of like the trick where you pull the tablecloth out from underneath a fully set dinner table - LOL. Just make sure you pull the backing out very slow - LOL. Now, hold down the decal on one end (I use a finger with a lense cleaning cloth) and gently smooth out the decal and try remove any excess water while you're at it (Some folks like to use a decal squeegee. I haven't tried one as of yet). I repeat this process as much as I need to. Before the decal sets, and they can set pretty quickly, put a light source above it and check very carefully for bubbles. If you see any, very quickly smoothe them out with the lense-cloth-around-the-finger trick. If it's starting to set, and won't smoothe out, you put a drop or two of water on it to loosen it up a bit. If the bubble is real stubborn, you can take the tip of a straight pin and pop it, and then carefully smooth it out. You will not be able to see the pin prick once you get some clear coat over it. Once I've got all of my decals on, I let the box dry for about four hours. I always air dry them, as some light sources used to dry them will make the decals bubble up and ruin them. After they dry, I gently tack-cloth the box to remove any dust or dirt particles that may have fallen on it during the drying time. If any water stains are present, take an ever so slightly damp lense cloth and wipe them off, being very wary not to disturbe the decals. Now you ready to clear coat it. For the first coat, I just put on a light mist of 'Duplicolor Truck, Van, & SUV Clear Coat' (I've had the most luck with this particular brand of clear cloat. It drys very fast and doesn't run as much as other brands). I then put on two more medium coats with an hour of drying time between coats. After that, I let it dry for 12 to 24 hours. After it's dry, I very gently wet sand it with 2000 grit wet or dry sandpaper. This flattens and evens up the clear coat. I then clean it again, and apply about 4 or five more coats with an hour of drying time between them. At the end of each hour, I also wet sand it with 2000 grit sandpapaper. Once again, make sure that you clean and thoroughly dry the enclosure after each wet sanding, and tack off all dust particles. After the final coat, I DO NOT wet sand. I let the enclosure dry for at least 48 hours before building inside of it. After it's completely dry, I clean and polish it using the Novus #1 and #2 plastic polishing process. This stuff is available at Sam Ash music (It's about $20 for both bottles of the stuff, but it's worth it). The Novus process wil make your enclosure so shiny that it will literally look wet, but bone dry to the touch. It also puts a microscopic coating down that deters dust or any other bits of dirt from sticking. Now you're ready to build. My favorite thing to rest my enclosure while building is this type of dark gray foam rubber that has a raised pyramid-type surface (You know, the stuff that a lot of guys use to line to equipment cases). This stuff is great for protecting your enclosure from getting scratched during your build. Plus, any clippings or bits of solder...etc...will fall into the vallelys between the pyramid bumps, thus keeping them from rolling underneath your enclosure and scratching it. I know there are a lot of steps to this process, and lots of drying time too, but this process works for me every time I use it. The bottom line is to excercise great patience and keep your enclosure clean during, and between, every step of the process. It took me almost a year to perfect this process, and I cussed A LOT while getting it down - LOL " -Mantas68

Added: If you use automotive clearcoat, DO NOT put it in the toaster oven. It seem to bubble with even light heat. As always, YMMV, and please post success stories....

-Subba

+1 on hte whole thing - Subba's work, the huge thanks for sharing, and making this a sticky!!

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Definitely needs a sticky. I'll be doing my first decal in a day or so - am applying the clear coat tonight so this is very handy.

I also can't help but think that there should be a BYOC wiki for this kind of information, then we could keep all the best info in one place, and modify it and improve it as time goes on (this cant be done on forum stickies) and also it would be a good place to point people (especially noobs like myself) when we ask a question thats been asked a thousand times!

I'm a programmer so I'd be willing to help set one up if necessary.

~ J

Wiki's are great, good idea...

Bonus tips:
Here are jpeg saves of the Publisher decal sheets for FunkenBerry...





When cutting out images, don't print a border first, just eyeball it. If your scissors go through printed colors, some of the toner will flake off. A little bit of clear edge prevents this, and if you use a decal softener like Micro-Sol, you can even overlap the edge of the enclosure a bit and you'll be fine.

When dealing with holes, like jack and pot holes, don't precut them before applying decal. For instance, when you slap the top face decal on, give it a few minutes to adhere to surface, then poke through the center of your enclosure's holes with an X-acto or very sharp, very small knife. Go slow. Brush on some Micro-Sol, and you will see it pool up a bit in the holes and "melt" the rest of the image onto the flat surfaces. When you have good adhesion and are sure the decal wont move on you, run your blade around the inside of the holes. By now that part of the decal should be brittle and easy to cut out. Use the handle of your X-acto or something similar to push and roll any jagged edge through the hole, and apply more Micro-Sol to melt the edges some more, especially if you are using small knobs which don't hide much...

-Subba

Wow! That's awesome!!! Got any other cool sheets you wanna share? Anybody on this page really good at graphics and want to do some for me for money???? PM me.

Great tips....Thanks all

I was thinking of adding some decal stuff on a guitar, like stickers, but I'm not gonna clear coat the guitar. How would that end up? Is it a bad idea?

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Manic, I think it would stick ok, especially to a poly finished guitar, but without clearcoat it wouldn't last. Would probably be a very punk look, though. Go sniff around Fender's site, and check out the stencil and sticker kits for the Joe Strummer tribute tele for some ideas...

Anyone have any experience decaling a guitar?

-Subba

Subba, I could give the guitar a thin spray of acrylic clear coat, if that'll help. I just don't wanna give it a thick layer of clear coat, because it's an acoustic guitar. That's unless you guys think it's a good idea to give it a good layer(?)

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Shouldn't take much. Do some Googling and search over at the telecaster forum, a lot of guys have experience decaling wood from doing headstock decals for DIY guitars.

-Subba

Worst thing about clearcoating a guitar is deadening the sound by choking off the woodgrain. If you only clearcoat where the decals are down the rest of the wood can still 'breathe' the way it was before the decaling. Then it just comes down to whether you can hear the difference in tone. I doubt it, but I've also been to a LOT of live shows with no earplugs (hence my username )

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With respect to Subby, Mantas, and all who contributed, this is offically a sticky. Nice to have it available. Thanks guys.

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Cool. I love getting sticky and a makin' a sexy time with some American Va-Jeen - LOL

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Hi guys iv'e send this pm to subba but i saw that he hasn't been online since mars 28 so i figured iv'e post it here to if someone could help with this.

Hi Iv'e reed your decal tips and i could use some confirmation that i got it right.

1. Paint the enclosure with the paint i am using.
2. Shall i spray it with clearcoat here and after or only after?
3. You say to set the printer to “cardstock”. don't know what that meens. Is it like thick paper.
4. You also mention that the printer shouldn't be so warm but my laser printer warms up before it prints. Could that be a problem?
5. Apply the decal.
6. Shall i let the decal dry or put on micro-sol directly. And shall i apply micro-sol to the whole decal or only att the edges and the knob holes. (What does micro-sol actually do?)
7. Clear coat the hell out of it.

forgot one thing can i use this paper or does anyone know if it's any good
http://www.beldecal.com/model_decals.cfm

Have i missed anything. Would really apreciate if you could help me with this?

Hi, I'll try and answer a couple of these.


Might wanna give the enclosure a sand, and a wash down with soapy water and put some primer on before your main coat. You probably know this but wanted to make sure.


I would say only after, seems to be the most popular method. Although adding a coat before you put the decals on might not be a bad idea as it could smooth out the surface if you have some uneven/mottled/matte paint. You definitely need some after you put the decals on though to protect both the decals and the paint.


Yeah let the decal dry - at least overnight. Try to get the bubbles out with a cloth when you put it on, its often hard to see the bubbles when it is wet, but you may see some when it is dry. Panic not, as subba said, just use a pin to burst them and apply some micro sol. Micro sol sort of melts the decal paper a bit so that it is becomes more flexible and moulds itself to the surface below it. It is actually used for scale modelling on, so people would apply decals on little cars, which might go around some 3 object like a wheel arch so the micro sol allows you to melt the decal onto the object below it (makes decal'ing a pedal seem easy huh?).


Yes, but WARNING do not put too much clear coat on in each coating. Lots of thin layers are best. I was coating two enclosures and I ruined them because I put too much on and it dried all crinkly and ruined the decal underneath and I had to sand 'em both back to the enclosure and start again. It is heartbreaking.

Hope that helps - best of luck, am sure someone else will help you out with your other questions.

p.s. Don't forget to post the finished thing in the show of our complete build thread!

Thanks alot. Subba answered my pm so i think i got it but i will be posting it in the finsih build forum

Koffelito, be sure to post any lessons learned here as well.

-Subba

Good source for bulk packs of decal sheets, laser and inkjet...


http://www.kustomrides.com/kustom/decal-paper/


-Subba

Here's another thing I just remembered about INKJET decals. When you cut them out, DO NOT use an Exacto knife or the like. Use scissors! Using an Exacto knife will weaken the edge of the decal and make it crinkle as it dries. It also will cause the ink to come off near the edge when you soak, rub out the bubbles, and flatten the decal. This is especially true with white decal paper. As clumsy and awkward as they can be to use, scissors are the best way to cut decals out.

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