>Home>Craft Ideas>Decals>Curing Waterslide Decals

Home "Curing" Waterslide Decals

Home-Curing Waterslide Decals onto Ceramics, Glass or Metal

Both Original Lazertran and Lazertran Inkjet waterslide decals can be baked onto ceramics, glass or metal using your home oven.

Properly baked, the image will be shiny, waterproof and quite scratch resistant, similar to a glazed item. However the image is not truly cured.The toner or ink will be baked onto the surface; not actually fused into the substrate as are oxide glazes fired in a kiln.

Images to be heat-cured are usually printed in reverse and applied upside down. This method is used so that the mucilage on the underside of the decal can be thoroughly washed off, both before and after baking.

Mucilage turns brown when baked and would ruin your image if trapped in place. If on the surface, it can be removed with a wet soapy soft cloth or sponge after baking.

Your printer has an option to print in reverse or to print a mirror image. You already know about this if you have ever done t-shirt transfers. If not, get out your printer’s manual or just poke around the printer setup menus until you find such an option.

On ocassion, I have forgotten to print in reverse but went ahead and used the decal image anyway. I just take extra care to remove all the mucilage before positioning and baking.

When heat is applied, the toner or ink molecules melt and attach themselves to the ceramic, glass or metal. They do not fuse into the substrate (as I mentioned above) but are melted onto the surface.

Home-Curing Original Lazertran Waterslide Decals

Print your artwork in reverse onto the shiny side of a sheet of the waterslide decal. Pass a heat gun back and forth above the surface until the colors turn bright and shiny. This dries the toners and removes any air bubbles that would mar your design.

The toners can be dried in a hot oven as well; but it’s trickier to time the process. Check every 30 seconds.

Trim away excess from your design. Consider how you plan to finish your item to determine how to trim.

Soak the waterslide decal in lukewarm water until the backing paper loosens. Lift the decal with backing paper still attached from the water. Position the decal face down on your object and slide the backing paper away. Smooth with your fingertips to force out any air bubbles.

Wash away the gooey mucilage with a damp sponge. Any traces will turn brown when baked. The browned glue can be removed after baking with hot soapy water; but it’s easier to do a good job beforehand.

Check again for air bubbles and gently force out any that you find. If the item has a curved surface, heat gently with a heat gun or blow dryer and stretch the film over the surface contours.

Place on the bottom rack of your oven preheated to 250 degrees F. Bake for one hour.

Turn the oven to 300 degrees for another 15 minutes; then to 350 for 15 minutes; and to 400 for 15 minutes. If your oven’s thermostat is accurate, you should notice the decal has become quite shiny. Watch for the sheen before proceeding.

If you want to remove the film so there will be an absolutely smooth surface, with no decal edges remaining, remove your item from the oven and allow to cool. Wipe the surface with pure turpentine to dissolve the film layer. [If you have one of the newer desktop laser printers which uses a different formulation of toners, turpentine won’t work. You need to use isopropyl alcohol to remove the decal film. Several applications will be required.]

If you want to leave the protective film in place, raise the oven temperature to 450 degrees for a final 15 minutes. The last 50 degrees hardens the decal film making it even more scratch resistant.

Home-Curing Lazertran Inkjet Waterslide Decals

To make this mouse pad, I changed a 12 by 12-inch Digital Scrapbook Layout I had made about our trip to Hawaii to fit a ceramic tile, printed it onto a Lazertran Inkjet decal and baked it onto the tile as described below.

Print your artwork in reverse onto the creamy side of a sheet of the Lazertran Inkjet waterslide decal. Let the ink dry for at least an hour at which point it will be waterproof; or heat set with a heat gun held at least 6” away for about 30 seconds.

Too little drying time and the ink will run when you soak the decal.

Cut to size.

Soak the waterslide decal in lukewarm water until the paper releases, about 30 seconds. The paper will curl up before flattening out. Wait for the paper to uncurl.

Slide the decal face down onto the surface and carefully position it. Wipe away the mucilege with a soft wet sponge or cloth. This will also help to smooth out bubbles.

Check for more air bubbles and use your fingertips to smooth out any that you find.

Place on the bottom rack of your oven preheated to 250 degrees F for one hour.

Some bubbles which appear at this point are due to steam buildup. These will resolve on their own.

Turn the oven to 300 degrees for another 15 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool slightly.

[Note that Lazetran Inkjet decals cannot be heated to the higher temperatures used for Original Lazertran above. The inkjet colors start to darken above 300 degrees. For this reason as well, the inkjet version does not reach as high a degree of durability.]

As soon as you can safely touch the cooling item, use a pin to carefully poke any bubbles and flatten them with your fingertip.

I've been using the mouse pad on my desk for about a month now with nary a scratch.

For more in depth applications and projects, Lazertran has created an 80-page workshop CD titled How to Transfer Designs.

  |Top | Decals | Crafts | Home |