white art on pedals?

[add4]

Hello guys ..
I see some DIY people making pedals with white writing and art on them .. do you have any idea how it's done?
I know about silkscreening, but it's not doable for one shot pedals so... is there any other methods?
I'm currently using the good'ol laser printed decal method..

Any advice would be appreciated as i've been looking for that information for a loooooong time.

THanks

[stallik]

A couple of thoughts. I'll presume that you want to see the colour of a pre painted box through the areas which are not white text.

The obvious way is to use a printer that is capable of printing white ink. The best of these use UV curable ink and are flatbed devices so not the kind of thing you would have at home. Your local digital signage company may have such a device so it's worth checking their charges for small images.
If you decide to try this route, there are 3 ways to get the print done.
1. Print direct to the box. Only possible with certain UV flatbed printers and likely to be expensive due to the alignment issues
2. Print onto the top of a clear self adhesive vinyl then laminate it for protection
3. Print onto a clear film in reverse then use a clear double sided adhesive to apply it to your box
In all cases, check first that the quality of print is good enough for your purposes, these printers are designed to make massive images and don't always perform on the tiny prints we use for our boxes.

I've read on these pages of transfer material being used. I believe this is the same kind of thing that's used for T shirt printing and can use white. Not tried it but it's worth a search

Letraset. If you can still get it

Vinyl lettering. Sign shop again. Tricky with tiny text

Hand paint. There are white ink (and metallic ) pens available

Stencil. Get your local sign shop to cut a stencil out of vinyl. Again, tricky if it's fine text and you'll need to get your head around how to apply it with application tape. Then spray over with white & remove the stencil. Incidentally, this is what I use for an etching mask

Chose a different colour

[alparent]

Any links to pedals you are talking about? Just so we don't over complicate our explanations.

[danielzink]

Or find yourself an Alps printer.

They can actually print white.



Dan

[italianguy63]

Since this subject came up, I need some guidance.

I will try to do this nicely, and site friendly.

A certain vendor has had my enclosure order since early December.  I still don't have my product.  They have been slow, horrible about communication, and lack any urgency regarding my order.  Maybe I am just small potatos to them.

The order was ultimately messed up, and miss-printed a few weeks ago.  The vendor blamed the error on me.  But, I questioned the work before I even made the order, and they obviously did not check the proofs I sent them or they would have caught it before doing the entire production run.

I am pretty certain the vendor will get no future business from me (nor accolades, even though they did prior work which was outstanding (but slow also)).  I am sure they wish to end their relationship with me as a client as well. 

Anyway-- can anyone direct me to vendors that do printing or laser etching of powdercoated enclosures.  Or, to companys that would do clear/color label overlays?  I need a new vendor.  Generally I just do text and basic graphic designs.  I am NOT a graphic artist, so "vectored" graphic requirements are a negative for me.

Thanks!
MC

[duck_arse]

add4, you could paint he BOX white, then get a coloured label printed on clear film and use as a mask. perhaps.

[mth5044]

I've wondered if places liked FedEx Kinkos would print out white onto the clear labels.

[Pojo]

italianguy, Pedal Parts Plus does printing. I think they recently switched from screen printing to a similar digital method that doesn't require screen setups. I work for as designer a graphics shop and can make vinyl decals if that sort of thing interests you. That's what I've been doing for my pedals because it's so easy for me mainly.

[Mark Hammer]

The hackerspace my son belongs to recently acquired a laser cutter.  I wonder if those can be used to produce suitable plastic stencils for spraying legending onto boxes with.  Obviously, one would be limited in the scope of fonts or art, but it would be re-usable, and wouldn't be the sort of thing one would have to do a "run" of.  You could simply pull the stencil out when you needed to prep "one of those boxes".

[italianguy63]

Mark-- actually a stencil for the "missing order" would be perfect.  It is a military theme.  Red on olive drab... It would be cool to have that stenciled look....

[italianguy63]

Pojo-- I would be interested.  With the bad taste in my mouth from this last batch of pedals, I would rather just do the drilling myself-- I could easily get the powdercoating equipment at Harbor Freight.  Then I wouldn't have to be at somebody else's mercy.  I'm sure my lovely wife will love me for baking powdered plastic in her oven!     I only have a couple builds I have been doing.  They are simple one color graphics, namely text.  So, lettering could work.  What would be a quantity to make it price effective?  i.e. less than a couple dollars per?  The work would be for 125B or 1590BB size....  You can PM me.  Mark.

[Mark Hammer]

I hope I didn't convey that a) I was willing to make such a stencil, or that b) I knew how.  Rather, I was just suggesting that perhaps there is such a service in your vicinity that you could make use of.

[italianguy63]

Not a problem.. But if you could make a stencil or had the ability, I would be interested.   

[Pojo]

Pojo-- I would be interested.  With the bad taste in my mouth from this last batch of pedals, I would rather just do the drilling myself-- I could easily get the powdercoating equipment at Harbor Freight.  Then I wouldn't have to be at somebody else's mercy.  I'm sure my lovely wife will love me for baking powdered plastic in her oven!     I only have a couple builds I have been doing.  They are simple one color graphics, namely text.  So, lettering could work.  What would be a quantity to make it price effective?  i.e. less than a couple dollars per?  The work would be for 125B or 1590BB size....  You can PM me.  Mark.

Cost would depend on the material used, and also how many decals would fit on a square foot. We have our thick material that we use for motorsports graphics (21 mil total) at $12/sq ft. and thinner stuff which is more for general sticker making (6 mil total) at $8/sq ft. Those costs include color usage as long as you're not going with any mirrored metallic colors (chrome, gold, platinum)....those add $2 per sq ft. The thick material is available in either white or clear vinyl base, we only stock thin in white. Everything is cut on a precision flatbed CAD table, so they can be cut to the enclosure shape with holes made for pots, switches, etc. Design services are available also if needed.

Hope it doesn't come off as too spammish and sorry for OT as well...just thought some might be interested in this as an option.

[italianguy63]

OK-- thinking aloud.  A 125B is about 2.5" (.208 ft) by 4.5"(.375 ft)... so you could fit about 12 in a square foot.  Thin stock would be better... so $8 a foot^2, is $.67 each.  Very reasonable.  So, can a design be made for lettering (in place) with mostly negative space?  i.e. can it have a carrier, to hold all the text where it goes, stick it down and pull the carrier off?  If so, I'm ready to do an order!  Would a .pdf of the work size (2.5" x 4.5") be what you need?  Then you could place as many on the raw material as will fit?  MC

[italianguy63]

I am assuming die cut vinyl.  If you are doing color printing on clear-- is that dry or wet application or either?  MC

[Pojo]

PM sent.

OK-- thinking aloud.  A 125B is about 2.5" (.208 ft) by 4.5"(.375 ft)... so you could fit about 12 in a square foot.  Thin stock would be better... so $8 a foot^2, is $.67 each.  Very reasonable.  So, can a design be made for lettering (in place) with mostly negative space?  i.e. can it have a carrier, to hold all the text where it goes, stick it down and pull the carrier off?  If so, I'm ready to do an order!  Would a .pdf of the work size (2.5" x 4.5") be what you need?  Then you could place as many on the raw material as will fit?  MC

This is very tricky and tedious to do, we've done this kind of thing for window decals before. And it really only works out for cutting out letters over a certain size. For pedals, the lettering would be very small and the cutter would cause the material to buckle during sharper angled cuts. Best bet would be using clear base with thin laminate and printing white. I'd need to check on price, I'd imagine it would be somewhere between the thick and thin prices since we're combining the two.

I am assuming die cut vinyl.  If you are doing color printing on clear-- is that dry or wet application or either?  MC

Yep, it's actually thermal transfer printing using spot colors. In our line of work, it's necessary to ensure colors match bike brands and what-not (ie Honda red, Kawasaki green, etc). The chromes come out real nice also! On clear, everything gets printed on top of a white primer.