Date: Tue,
18 Jul 2000From: Tom & Sheila Oswald
Subject: [Frame] Re: Alps printer for decals
List-Id: Amateur and professional bicycle frame building
First I bought a recondidtioned Alps MD-1000 from the Alps web site for $150, which was quite a deal, considering it came with a full warranty and they normally go for $300 to $350. I don't think they have any more of these right now, but it might be worth checking, or inquiring via e-mail.
So far I have been printing on clear adhesive mylar sheets (I buy it at Kinkos). On my first try I printed up a sheet and tested the durability of the ink and the mylar. The mylar is good, really tough stuff, although its adhesive is not super strong --- un-clearcoated decals can start to peel up at the edges after some wear and repeated bike washings.
The ink, though, at least on this mylar stuff, is not so good. It can be scratched off with just a fingernail. And it is attacked and dissolved by many kinds of chain lube and degreaser. And when I tried to spray a clear coat over as a protectant, the ink got all cracked and crazed (this was just clear urethane out of a spray can, but now that I have a real spray gun, I'll try some "real" clear).
So I have been solving that problem by laminating the decal with another layer of the clear mylar. This works, but it is time consuming, and the end product is fairly thick. Automotive clear goes over it fine, but it would take many clear coats with sanding in between to really bury the decal and have no bumps.
The overall print quality is pretty good, but the one thing I don't like about it is that you can often see striations (that's a fancy word for "lines") where there was a slight overlap of passes by the print head. These lines are oriented horizontally on the page, so the effect is minimized in images less than 7 1/2 inches long, which you can print "portrait" style. But things that are longer, like downtube decals, must be set up "landscape" style and they end up with many tiny vertical striations (there's that word again). The result is not completely awful, but is something less than professional. And it's more noticable with some colors than others. From the demo I saw, the MD-5000 model is quite a bit better about this, but it runs $500+.
The cool part about the whole thing is that you can print up one-offs or or small batches of anything your heart desires. And you can print in metallic colors (silver, gold, cyan and magenta), which look pretty neat. You can also print in white, although it's not perfectly opaque. I've tried printing a double layer to get less show-through, but the second layer of ink rarely goes down right. I suspect this is because my media (the mylar and its backing paper) is too thick.
So that's about where I am. Has anyone else has success printing multiple layers? Any recommendations on other "papers" to try? Had any luck clear coating directly over the ink?