Waterslide Transfers - Guitar Building Tricks and Tips

RE: Waterslide Transfers

Robin — Sun, 06 Dec 2020 12:19:33 +0000

An update on my waterslide transfers. I had applied over Danish Oil then sprayed a clearcoat of Plastikote gloss lacquer. I could see the different finish through the border of the transfer, so it all had to come off again. So this time I put on three coats of lacquer to give me a nice smooth shiny surface to apply the tranfers. After another 12 coats of lacquer, flattening down after every 3, the border and edges of the tranfer disappeared. I'm happy with the result now.

3408

RE: Waterslide Transfers

Robin — Tue, 24 Nov 2020 17:54:43 +0000

Iv'e just had another learning opportunity. I sprayed a clear lacquer onto my headstock / truss rod cover and some areas of the decals fizzed up

Iv'e been to Toolstation and got a can of Plastikote quick drying clear gloss lacquer. So far so good, I've put three coats onto a new sheet of decals to seal them with no ill effects.

RE: Waterslide Transfers

Robin — Sun, 22 Nov 2020 17:35:27 +0000

Iv'e just had another learning opportunity. I sprayed a clear lacquer onto my headstock / truss rod cover and some areas of the decals fizzed up. I had tried a test piece and it seemed okay, but after I had sprayed the real thing, the test piece fizzed up. I don't think it's an incompatibility issue as I'd already sprayed the sheet of transfers with the same lacquer to seal the ink. Maybe I had just sprayed it on too thick, or maybe too cold to flash off. It's scraped off and sanded now and ready to try again.

3147 3148

RE: Waterslide Transfers

Robin — Sun, 22 Nov 2020 09:58:23 +0000

@tv101

the headstock is as big as it needs to be, and no bigger.

I might have to add a little bump on the end to have room for my logo, I hadn't really thought that one through.

RE: Waterslide Transfers

tv1 — Sun, 22 Nov 2020 03:59:25 +0000

This is headstock style I'm using in my next build, the strings don't get much straighter than that.

That is definitely pretty straight!!

Very functional too - the headstock is as big as it needs to be, and no bigger. That appeals to my efficiency OCD-ness.

RE: Waterslide Transfers

Russ — Sat, 21 Nov 2020 23:24:03 +0000

@robin Cheers Robin. I might give it a go.

🎶🎸🙏🙂

RE: Waterslide Transfers

Robin — Sat, 21 Nov 2020 22:57:37 +0000

@boo

Are you going to seal them in with some clear coat?

Yes I'll be spraying the face of the headstock and the truss rod cover with a clear coat. Hopefully that should make the surround of the transfer disappear. There's already a coat of clear on the tranfers before they were applied.

RE: Waterslide Transfers

Robin — Sat, 21 Nov 2020 22:50:42 +0000

@russ

Did you make the transfers yourself

I bought the waterslide paper and used Windows Paint to draw the logos, then printed on an inkjet printer. You have to spray them with a clear coat before you apply the transfers, or the ink just washes off. I found that out the hard way.

RE: Waterslide Transfers

Robin — Sat, 21 Nov 2020 22:44:05 +0000

@tv101

I designed it with the aim of keeping the strings as straight as sensibly possible

This is headstock style I'm using in my next build, the strings don't get much straighter than that.

3145

RE: Waterslide Transfers

Boo — Sat, 21 Nov 2020 21:54:15 +0000

this is the headstock design that I generally use.

@tv101 Nice headstocks Tony, nice and simple, and elegant. 👍