Homemade decals for faceplate

[Methow]

If you want to do a wood faceplate and make decals to label the knobs- read on. The process uses water-based polyurethane, FYI. You may be able to adapt this approach to other finishes, like organic solvent based poly, but I have only done the water-based. The water based is quick and doesn't smell, plus I know it works.

It's simple, quick, cheap, and good (four words that rarely go together).

Need: paper, packing tape, laser printer, pen knife, water based polyurethane, small artist's brush, brush for apply poly coats, computer file with word/images for the decals.

1. Apply packing tape (I used clear) to a piece of standard computer printer paper to "coat" the paper with a waterproof coating of tape. I did not run the tape all the way to the edges. Use as amny pieces of tape as you need to coat a large enough area. Make sure the tape is smooth. You may be able to use a piece of acetate instead of paper and tape. You will have to test out alternatives.
2. Paint a smooth, thin layer of water-based polyurethane (I used Varathane Gloss) on top of your packing tape-coating on the paper. The poly will become you decal material. Allow this to dry (an hour or two was sufficient for me). The thinner you make the poly the less visible the decal backing will be, but if you make it too thin the decals may be too delicate to handle. You may have to tape down the corners of your paper to keep it flat while the poly dries.
3. Place your "decal paper sheet" in you computer laser printer feed tray (ink jet or other printers may work, but if the ink is not waterproof it will run when you apply the decal. You may be able to seal a decal that will run using a spray crystal clear sealer. Haven't tried this myself). Make sure the paper is oriented correctly so the printer prints your image/type onto the poly.
4. Before you started all this , you should have created a computer file of the type or images you want to make decals of. Do a bunch of test printing on regular paper to make sure you have the size and spacing correct. Also, you can make numerous copies of the same words to give yourself many backup copies or for making multiple faceplates. I typed "Volume", "Treble" etc. numerous times on the same page.
5. Once you have the laser paper in the laser printer and your computer file ready to print, print out you fist copy. It should come through OK. I had one of my first attempts jam because the poly layer was too thick. Otherwise, my HP LaserJet handled it fine.
6. You now have laser-printed decals.
7. To apply the decals: first apply a couple coats of water based poly to your faceplate. Follow manufacturer's instructions. Once you are satisfied that you have a smooth, dry base coat on the wood you can apply your decals. Use a sharp penknife to carefully cut out a decal (I did one word at a time). You want to cut through the poly, but not the packing tape and paper underneath. Use the point of the penknife to carefully peel the decal off the backing paper. The decals are thin and somewhat stretchy. Using a small brush (as in small artist's brush) paint some poly in the area on the faceplate where you want to apply the decal. Carefully lay the decal into the wet poly on the faceplate. Use the brush to coat more poly over the decal, and to coax out any air bubbles that may be underneath. Get everything as smooth as possible, but don't overwork it. Subsequent coats of poly will help smooth things out. Once all the decals have been applied in this manner, allow them to dry (an hour or two is probably sufficient), and then coat the whole faceplate with several more coats of poly. Carefully sand in between coats to smooth things out. If all goes well, you will have laser-printed decals where you can hardly see the decal background. It pretty much melts into the poly coatings.

I made sure to apply my poly coats and decals within the time frame specified by the manufacturer for re-coating. If you do so, each coat, including you decals, "melts" into the previous coat. If you look closely, your laser-printed words will appear to be floating in the middle of your poly finish.

All in all, this takes very little time to do, is easy, and provides very nice results. You may end up experimenting a little bit to get the decal paper preparation right for your printer.

greg

[Big Jim]

Thanks for sharing! It would be worth trying just to see the look on the wifes face when she see's me running a poly coated sheet through the printer.

[dorrisant]

Looks very nice.

Tony

[Structo]

That is a neat trick.

I have used waterslide paper but the material is thick enough to be hard to hide.

[Methow]

If I get up very close to the faceplate and look at the decals at the right angle, I can barely see the outline of the decal. I just cut mine in rectangular shapes. I guess more fanatical hobbyists will carefully cut around the image or letters to minimize the decal background. I could have made my decals a little bit thinner, and then the backing would have been really hard to see, but as it is, nobody would ever notice unless they were looking for it.