Printing White With An Inkjet - A Possible Solution?

[Robert Darwent]

On a different tack I'm leaning towards your actual silk screen printing -

http://www.reuels.com/reuels/Silk-Screen...tions.html

- the photo emulsion method - section 4 on the web page.

All the materials seem to be readily available at Amazon (and not prohibitively expensive) so I might give this a shot.

Hi John,

I've looked into this before and eventually dismissed the method for several reasons.

The materials certainly are readily available, but to initially purchase and gather all that would be required is not going to be that cheap. That set up cost weighed against the number of times you will use the method to make a reproduction dial will prove prohibitively expensive I believe.

As you say, to use the method to reproduce something as finely detailed as a dial then you will have to go down the 'Photo Emulsion' route. This method is much more expensive and requires a great deal of experience and skill to achieve an acceptable end result. Quoting a couple of paragraphs from the website link you gave;

"Photographic images can also be accurately screen printed. However, because of the half-tones (or continuous tones) which are in all photographs, a special type of "positive" must be prepared. This must be done by someone with photographic expertise and who has the necessary equipment."

Assuming the above can be surmounted and you have produced an acceptable set of screens (one for each colour the dial uses), then the problem of accurately colour-matching the reproduction to the original dial arises.

"Fine art half-tone screen printing involves a posterization process whereby a series of selected positives are produced through a process camera. With filters, the process camera can selectively identify specific colors in the original art. These are then, sequentially prepared for color registry. This is a highly technical procedure and should be attempted only by experienced printers."

From my previous efforts in making back-lit Ekco A22 dials, I can tell you this is no simple task. Even when using an inkjet to subtly 'tweak' the colours required, it takes many attempts and hours of work to get everything acceptably close to the original, never mind exact. I really dread to think what it would be like hand mixing the colours, applying to the various screens, waiting for them to dry, only to find that the colour-match is still way off!

Taking everything into consideration, for me personally, the method is a non-starter for producing the occasional radio dial. Nevertheless, good luck with it if you do decide to give it a try.

Regards

(NOTE: My reply was being wrote as Gary was posting his above)

[Geaney]

Taking everything into consideration, for me personally, the method is a non-starter for producing the occasional radio dial. Nevertheless, good luck with it if you do decide to give it a try.

Regards

(NOTE: My reply was being wrote as Gary was posting his above)

Hi Robert, well I like to think age brings a little wisdom so if you and others have evaluated this and rejected it then I won't repeat work that has been done before. Anyway, my new batch of Lazertran water slide transfer/decal paper just arrived so I'll play around with that some more.
Based on what I've read so far it seems unlikely that there is an easy system that works for the individual so some sort of collective approach is probably required where we all chip in to have a 'dial reproduction service' for everyone!
Cheers, John

[Robert Darwent]

Hi John,

Hi Robert, well I like to think age brings a little wisdom so if you and others have evaluated this and rejected it then I won't repeat work that has been done before.

Well my comments, and I believe the similar ones from Gary, are just personal opinions. It is definitely possible to screen print your own dials at home if you're determined enough to surmount all the difficulties. Please don't let me put you off if you want to give it a try. I just wanted to make you aware of the issues involved so you knew what you were getting into, that was all.

Anyway, my new batch of Lazertran water slide transfer/decal paper just arrived so I'll play around with that some more.

Mine has been despatched but I'm still waiting for its delivery. Have you bought the same 'Lazertran' paper that I have ordered? I am aware they also make the standard decal paper that needs to be oversprayed to make it waterproof.

If you have the type that goes clear after applying an oil based varnish, I would be interested to know just how transparent it becomes. Obviously its usefulness for making the type of dial were are interested in solely rests on its final transparency.

Regards

[Geaney]

If you have the type that goes clear after applying an oil based varnish, I would be interested to know just how transparent it becomes. Obviously its usefulness for making the type of dial were are interested in solely rests on its final transparency.

Regards

Hi Robert, it does make it just about totally transparent. I used it to make a new dial for one of my PYE P53's. The downside however is that it also tends to make the opaque colours a bit translucent. Next time I will make a mask to make sure only the 'white' areas get the varnish. Last time I just sprayed the whole thing with varnish and discovered that the black was much more translucent afterwards. Lesson learned.

Cheers, John

[Robert Darwent]

Hi John,

Hi Robert, it does make it just about totally transparent.

Thanks for confirming that. My order of decal paper arrived here about a hour ago so I can get started later today.

The downside however is that it also tends to make the opaque colours a bit translucent. Next time I will make a mask to make sure only the 'white' areas get the varnish.

I guessed as much that there would be a trade-off between the transparency of the background versus the opaqueness of the dark colours. To get around the problem I was thinking of layering the decals. I intend to just print the white legend detail on the paper that has the varnish applied to it and the darker detail on standard decal paper that already has a clear background.

Anyhow we'll see how it goes!

Regards

[pwdrive]

Excuse my lack of knowledge but:

For glass tuning scales what was the original method(s) of getting the detail on to the glass (pointer behind the scale)

For metal tuning scales what was the method(s) (pointer in front of the scale)

For any other type of tuning scale material what was the method(s)

Ignoring printed paper tuning scales.

Just trying to get an idea.

Lawrence.

[Radio Fixer]

Silk screening for almost everything. Common practice back then and the screen cost wouldnt matter when making thousands.

In the 60's at the company I was with we had a model shop that was all setup (material, UV light boxes, frames and roller presses + experience) to do silk screens. It was considered no problem and they would run off pre-production runs of PCB's with the component ID's almost within days of being given the artwork.

Gary