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Old 03-24-2018, 06:15 PM
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Miles Linnabery Miles Linnabery is offline
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Can one print on plastic?

Dear Friends:
Currently working of Aaron's Swift boat, Got thinking about Evergreen Plastic sheets and shapes, Some of that must be the thickness and flexibility of card stock. Can this stuff be run through an ink jet printer? would have to use the special plastic glue and would have to seal the ink but then a motor and R/C stuff could be put in it. Or print just cut lines build up detail and paint?
Has any one tried this?
Miles
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Old 03-24-2018, 06:51 PM
Burning Beard Burning Beard is offline
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The inkjet ink would probably not dry on plastic and just wipe off. You could possibly print it out on a laser printer if it is not to hot for the plastic.

Beard
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Old 03-24-2018, 07:26 PM
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I have absolutely no experience with the stuff, but there are products out there to let you print your own inkjet waterslide decals.

They key for successful printing (so I am told) is the special "inkjet bonding agent" included with the kit (the kit usually has a spray can of the bonding agent and a few white decal sheets and a few clear decal sheets).

This bonding agent allows the inkjet ink to stick to the sheet and dry, a second coating seals the sheet and prevents the image from dissolving when you place the decal in water for application...

You could always try the bonding agent on styrene, I think Testors sells it separate from the kit.

Allegedly (again, so I am told), Krylon clear spray will accomplish the same thing.

This is the Testors spray: https://www.hobbylobby.com/Crafts-Ho...l-Spray/p/1157

You might try scuffing the plastic with very fine steel wool prior to printing to give the plastic some "tooth" for the ink to stick to.

Don't know if you have "overhead transparency" as a print setting or not, you might try that. (Although, usually transparencies that you could print on were specifically manufactured as such, and does anyone actually use overhead projectors any more?)

One thing that has been on my "someday I'll try that" list for a long time is to try laser printing onto the backing paper from adhesive labels, carefully placing plastic on top of this, and then running the whole thing through a laminator to fuse the toner to the plastic. (I have used something called toner reactive foil in the past if you're wondering how the heck I ever came up with the idea.)

Having said all that, if you want something to put R/C gear in and use as an actual watercraft, why not look into waterproofing the paper model once it's built?
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Old 03-25-2018, 06:45 AM
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Another thing you can try is building it out of paper, then spraying the hull with plasti-dip. Or that spray they advertise that supposedly can seal the holes in the bottom of a row boat.
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Old 03-25-2018, 07:11 AM
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Don't try to put plastic through a laser printer. Only overhead transparencies specially manufactured for copier use can be printed on.

If you put plasticard through it will wreck the fuser unit.
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Old 03-25-2018, 02:48 PM
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A compromise option may be to use the paper parts as templates for plastic parts and then painting and detailing the final product as one might do with a more basic vacform kit...
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Old 03-25-2018, 03:04 PM
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That reminds me, you can glue paper nicely to plastic with liquid polystyrene cement if you are careful.

So you could laminate plasticard with paper.
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Old 03-25-2018, 03:44 PM
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Or:

KrylonŽ Easy-Tack Repositionable Adhesive

Print your pattern on paper, temporarily glue to plastic for cutting, remove when done.
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Old 03-25-2018, 03:54 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Miles Linnabery View Post
Dear Friends:
Currently working of Aaron's Swift boat, Got thinking about Evergreen Plastic sheets and shapes, Some of that must be the thickness and flexibility of card stock. Can this stuff be run through an ink jet printer? would have to use the special plastic glue and would have to seal the ink but then a motor and R/C stuff could be put in it. Or print just cut lines build up detail and paint?
Has any one tried this?
Miles
Wunwinglow [Tim Perry] provided a great tutorial on printing layout lines on styrene sheet plastic here.

-Gil
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Old 03-25-2018, 08:32 PM
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I would just build the paper model, then fiberglass it. Clear acrylic spray paint to seal the paper first. Then resin only on the outside and resin and cloth on the inside.
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