[Retired]

Hi,
It's a while since I added anything to this thread so here's an update.

I've received a great deal of help from members who have very kindly supplied me graphics for use in producing water slide transfers and very much appreciate this.

I've been spending time searching for thinner gauge water slide transfer material and have found a site in America offering two gauges.

I hope the mods will allow this but I’ve been experimenting with a new approach to applying logos to cabinets. I was intrigued to learn Alps printers only print one colour per pass and as the paper is pulled back a new colour cartridge is selected. This got me thinking and I wondered if I could duplicate this action manually.

I lay awake in bed one night thinking about this and came up with the idea of rubber stamping. I had seen Bron many times use rubber stamps to add decoration to the cards she likes to make. I thought if I could find a way of applying colours individually; directly to the cabinet it would eliminate the need for both expensive printer and transfer paper; also the thickness of the transfer would no longer be a problem.

Radio Dave has been absolutely brilliant and supplied me three individual drawings of a Bush logo; these drawings are of the same logo but as the Bush logo has three colours each drawing was for a single colour and at my request David added a very accurate rectangle around each drawing for indexing purposes.

Unsure where to start I purchased two sheets of lino together with roller and lino cutting tools. I printed the easiest shape off first this being the tree and attached the paper drawing to a piece of lino using double sided tape then cut the shape out; rather crudely but at this point I only wished to try my theory out to see if it would actually work. The lino block was then attached to a lump of ¾” plywood using epoxy and once the epoxy had hardened I used my large bandsaw to bring the block to size then sanded the rough edges smooth.

I now had my first stamp and was keen to try it out. Bron kindly loaned me her ink pads and acrylic colours but although the basic idea worked the lino wouldn’t load with printing medium as I intended; the ink was taken up by the lino as little dots and the acrylic wasn’t much better. This was a disappointment but certainly not defeat; as a first attempt it was partially successful and I now needed to experiment a bit more.

A friend informed me that his brother made very precise rubber stamps using latex applied over a wax pattern. I’ve bought some latex but so far not used it.

Due to the dire weather I said enough is enough as I got fed up with being frozen all the time; I was going to and fro between the workshop and garage and each time would have to don my outdoor gear and shoes then get a soaking with snow and risk breaking my neck on sheet ice. I hope and pray global warming will eventually come our way.
My intention was to apply one colour at a time directly to the cabinet but do this with the aid of a jig; each stamp being made accurately could then be indexed as other colours were added building up the logo and letting each colour dry before applying another. The obvious benefit if this method worked would be the ability of adding any colour whatsoever without being tied to printer cartridges. The logo thus applied would add very little thickness thereby avoiding the thick edge associated with using a transfer.

This is my story to date and hope it is of interest; I enjoy trying out new ideas and have never heard of anyone trying this before. Over the top? Yes but it keeps me busy.

I wish to pursue both methods of water slide transfer and rubber stamping but no longer during arctic conditions.

Kind regards, Col.