Applying Transparent Vinyl

[Tony Rome]

I don't have much experience with this at all, but I have to lay a sign that is 128" wide x 42" high.
I have the material and the acrylic. It is going in a light box that the customer already has. All I need to do is print/mount and drop off the piece for him to put in.
So here are a few questions maybe you can help me with...
It is a full color logo so I am printing it on my versacamm and will double hit (?) I think i know how to do that.
1. Does the whole sign get covered in the material, in other words I don't contour cut the logo the excess non printed part still gets applied like one big rectangular decal?
2. The one time I applied a rather large graphic to a piece of glass, I had such a hard time laying it without bubbles, what is the easiest, best, smartest way to lay this to avoid bubbles.
3. Wet is not an option, correct?

Thinking Big Squegee or just slowly by hand?

I am laminating it, and it is not clear acrylic it is the milky finish.

Thanks!!!!

JUST ATTACHED A DESIGN SIMILAR TO WHAT THIS WOULD LOOK LIKE.

 

[jtinker]

We had an application like that and used a facemount run through the laminator.
Though we had a completely clear piece of material and mounted it on the back.
You could essentially use the same technique and mount it on the front.
Run the back of the material with the facemount then mount it like a normal sign
on the rigid material. Thats how I would do it since we could not print direct to the board.
There may and probably is a better way but thats my 2 cents.

edit: we used a backlit film for the print not translucent vinyl.

 

[Tony Rome]

Thanks, that option would not work for me.
I am wondering now if I should just contour cut the logo or if I print and apply the whole piece.

 

[jtinker]

Do you have a large format laminator. Can you just apply a bit of premask over the already cut logo and run it through like this.

https://youtu.be/CtoBUN3KrVI?t=6m49s

Thats a sure way to get it on no bubbles. save a ton of time especially if you dont have to hand mount 120+ inches.

 

[Tony Rome]

That just scares me, I would not be very comfortable doing that.

 

[Chasez]

We would print/cut/mask the logo then apply it wet using a rapid tac/water solution (50/50 mix). Then just leave it to dry out for a day or 2 and its good to go. Easiest way as when applying wet you can move it around into position before squeegeeing the solution out.

Chaz

 

[Tony Rome]

So wet is an option?
OK, well if it is, do I contour cut that logo rather than just apply a huge rectangle decal?

 

[GVP]

Double-hitting the print may be problematic - whenever we've done it on reasonably long prints, there always seems to be a bit of mis-alignment towards the end - I think the vinyl stretches (or shrinks) during the first pass?

 

[Andy D]

Is your print laminated?

90% of what we do here is backlit and I can tell you
if I can't do a dry mount through the laminator I would put this down wet as one square piece.
We either use a professional application fluid, or a mix of baby shampoo and water works well too.
I would
1. clean the plastic real well with alcohol and then go back over it with a tack rag.
2. put the vinyl with the print side down on another table and peel the whole backing.
3. spray both plastic and print with app fluid or mix, rubbing both with my hand to make sure there wasn't any dry spots.
4. pick it up and flip it onto the plastic with someones help.
6. wet down the printed side with app fluid, this is real important.
5. first go over it with a WINDOW SQUEEGEE (we get ours from the dollar tree, use them about 10-20 times and toss them)
6. go back over with a hard squeegee.

If your print isn't laminated and your using transfer tape, this won't work.

 

[Gino]

Let's make this easy.

You flood the substrate with whatever weaselp!ss of your liking, apply some to the back of a full print and just float the vinyl on and strong strokes with your squeegee to get ALL of the liquids out. Once dry, trim an 1/8" all around the face so there's no edge tension to deal with later on.

 

[Tony Rome]

OK, this is great, so wet it is.
Gino do you agree with laying a whole piece rather than contour cutting just the printed area?
and do you guys agree to double hit, I am sure I can find that in versaworks.
I think it is setting overprint to 2? (recommend this?)

 

[jtinker]

Yeah it is overprint

Printer Controls > General Section > Use Custom Settings> Overprint: 2 (Times)
We also bump up the contrast in the color controls as well.

Some poeple do double sided prints with the reverse image on the other side, we never had to go to those lenghts to get a decent print though, just another suggestion.

 

[Gino]

Yes to the second print and soak the livin' sh!t out of it. Just make sure you get all the water out from under it before you consider it done.

You also might want to consider laminating it. We usually do the whole thing as the vinyl will stop about 20% of the light, so to keep it consistent, we almost always do the whole area. With your colors, you might be able to get away with contour cutting, but why make life harder ??

 

[Andy D]

I'm not recommending you do this, but so that it doesn't look too dark during the day with a double strike or washed out at night with a
single strike, the only way to get a image that looks right during the day and night is color - white - color.
In this case I would print two prints at single strike, put one print down then apply white diffuser ( if you can't print white ), then register
the second print to the first.....

 

[Andy D]

Also, looking at your art work, one thing to watch for is with a double strike print, the "flames " over the black arm
might appear black during the day... I would do a sized down test print first.

 

[Tony Rome]

Thanks for all the help guys, will let you know how it goes!

 

[Tony Rome]

OK, so I am about to print and I am using Avery MPI2050 there is no profile for versacamm, so I was going to use TCVR, translucent calendered vinyl (Matte)
it says 91 min on standard with 2 passes, is that normal, thought there was a lot of white that is not being printed.
Thanks.
Is that the best profile?

 

[Tony Rome]

All done and thanks so much to the help here it went VERY smoothly.
Thanks for the specific directions!

 

[Z SIGNS]

Let's Make this even eaiser

There is not much that needs to be printed here.
Do the black with cut vynull.
Print the small flamey whatever it is, print on your laminate and stick it on.
Collect your check then
Shoot the designer

 

[Tony Rome]

There is not much that needs to be printed here.
Do the black with cut vynull.
Print the small flamey whatever it is, print on your laminate and stick it on.
Collect your check then
Shoot the designer

Well, as I said, it is already done, the guys gave me great advice and as it states the image was not the actual logo.
But...thanks.