Great Idea . . .

Thanks for sharing.

Dry transfers

What timing. Last weekend I too broke out my dry transfer collection which is coming up on being 20 years old. Like yours, they were dry and crumbly. My LHS had plenty of fresh Woodland Scenic transfers on the hook. $18 later I was back in business.

Scary running that combination through your printer. Generally, printers don't respond well to that sort of thing. Glad it worked for you. The end result looks good.

Gutsy move

It's nice to know that this is possible, but wouldn't it be easier (and less likely to knock your printer out of calibration) to print a decal? 

Dave Smith

Model Builders Program & Signs

about inkjet printers

Inkjet printers are not the delicate finicky devices most people picture.  Apart from the magic of positioning millions of tiny ink dots in exactly the right places, they are just paper movers with motors and rollers, etc.  They are so simple that they are so cheap that most manufacturers clearly make their money on the ink not the printer.  My wife is an artist who prints on fabrics of all kinds, uses gallons of ink, and has yet to break or wear out a printer.  A crumpled mess and ink on the (cleanable) rollers is the worst case.

If you are thinking of trying some 'gutsy' printing here are a couple of tips:

Inkjet printers use two different kinds of liquid ink.  The first ones, and many of the present cheapest ones, use dye base inks that are transparent, and usually water based (food coloring).  If you use these keep your models dry, or coat them with some spray after printing.  Only slightly more expensive printers, often the ones sold as photographic or archival, use pigment base inks that are waterproof paints.  I recommend using this type.  Ours are made by Epson, but the more popular and available HP line has pigment ink printers as well.

And remember that with liquid ink the surface must absorb, or at least 'hold' the ink, not cause it to bead up.  There are many coatings available for hard smooth materials that create the right kind of surface for inkjet printing.  Google 'InkAid' if you are getting more curious and adventurous.

Laser printers use 'toner' which is extremely fine plastic pellets which are fused, meaning melted, onto the surface by high heat. Don't try this on a plastic object! It probably would be fine on wood, certainly on card stock. The clear media made for laser printers must have a high melting point.  I have never used a laser printer for these purposes and have no advice about them.

Running wood through printers...

I have succesfully run wood veneer through both injet and laser printers, using it to make business cards for my woodworking endeavors. It was quite thin, around 1/64th", but it survived.

I think a guide might be to see if the printer can handle cardstock. Some printers have and almost straight through paper path available for thick stock, feeding in from the back, while others only pick up from a bottom tray and force the paper to do a 180degree wrap around a roller. That bottom feed style might be tough on styrene siding, etc. 

But, "learn by doing" right?! Printing signs, logos, heralds, maybe rivet and nail details sounds cool!

-Eric

CD printing

You have got me thinking. My printer can print on to CD/DVDs, so in theory I can put a similar thickness item in that way.

It also has a lazy L feeder which takes envelopes, the same as yours I presume. I have already put card and thin plastic sheet through it so thin wood is quite possible.

Mike Ruby

printing layouts

So, what I am hearing is:  I could do window, door, and wall layouts, or even textures, on computer (CAD, or other program), and print the results to the sheet wood or styrene.  That'll sure be a time saver.

lots of possibilities

Yes the possibilities seem endless.  I'm looking forward to reports on what people have tried, and I have some more ideas myself.  There have been several recent articles in the MR press about using card stock for these kinds of projects.  Trying other materials will likely come next.

Be careful with styrene!  It will need some surface treatment to hold/absorb ink and prevent beading.  I have not yet experimented with this but would try simply painting with a matte surface paint, a clear matte spray, brushed matte medium, and the commercial products made for this purpose.  And do not even think about styrene in a laser printer!!  It is not likely that you can clean melted plastic out of the inside of your printer.

Ken Z

Printing on styrene

I have printed on styrene quite successfully.  I used no surface treatment before hand.  I did find that it was easy to smear the print, although for my purposes that was not a problem.  Letting the ink dry for a day or two or sealing it with a light clear coat protected the ink very well.

I would probably not print on styrene for a finished sign, as the OP did (though it might work and be worth trying in the right case).  I find it very useful for printing a drawing onto the styrene as a guide for cutting and gluing.  When combined with a CAD program, it is easy to make parts very accurately to scale, without having to measure and transfer dimensions.

Two items

First, what was the thickness of the styrene. I figure at some point a printer will not print and bind up or the styrene could break or stress.

Second, besides all of the Rail CAD programs, DraftSight and Sketchup are free and can have items drawn to scale or drawn 1:1 and scaled down. If you are looking at buying a CAD program at an office store, try DraftSight first. I use it in a professional capacity at work, and it stands up against the $2k packages.

InkJet & Wood

One thing to keep in mind is that like paper, wood can wick the ink. This can be a good thing if you're looking for a very weathered effect. Not so good if you are looking for crisp lines.

I don't know, but I suspect the softer woods will have more wicking.

A source for more information and results

Check out the Modelers Annual from Westlake Publishing, this technique has been reviewed over the last couple of issues with interesting results for rolling stock and structures by printing on card stock.  

Styrene and CAD

I've had good results with .010".  I think .015" would work, but that's as far as I would go.

I use QCAD, because it is free, works well, and is available for a variety of platforms.  Any decent CAD package has a steep learning curve, so I try to stick with one as much as possible.  The ability to move between platforms (I use both Linux and Windows) is a REALLY handy feature.

QCAD?

A new program to me. I will have to look at it further. What format does it save files in? Learning curve, yes CAD does have a learning curve and some are longer than others. DraftSight is not too hard, as it is very similar to AutoCAD, which I learned back in high school. On the other hand, I had CADKey in college and we still have seats at work. Never really learned it, and thankfully it is a dead program.

DraftSight has versions in Windows, Mac OS X, Ubuntu, Fedora, Suse, and Mandriva. Only a 2D CAD, but not many 3D CAD modelers that span multiple OS's. I think some companies have actually left the Linux/Unix theater.

QCAD

It uses the good old standard DXF.  If you are interested, you can check out their web site, but you won't find the open source release.  For some reason, they don't advertise that they made a free version.  Search for something like "QCAD free download", and you should find it fairly easily.  It's an official GNU release, not some black marked cracked copy.  I cannot say whether it is any better or worse than any other CAD package, but it works for me.

More on printer tricks

Some printers are designed to handle printing on CDs.  They generally have a carriage for this.  If so, it can be rigged to handle stiff materials.  All inkjet printers need a surface the ink can adhere to.  Even glossy paper is treated.  Therefore you need to be careful about surfaces that are to shiny or the ink will smear.  If the material is too porous, it will bleed.  Canon makes a printer that puts down a lacquer before printing at fine resolutions to create a better surface before printing.  You can do this yourself using any of several products.  Art stores sell clear sprays with different finishes ranging from matt to gloss.  If you have a printed surface with a different gloss that the rest of the surface (some printing can look flat on a gloss background), you can use these products to get the correct surface finish.

Toner is a bit more forgiving and you can print on plastic, at least higher temperature plastic.  Remember overhead projector presentations?  Those were frequently laser printed.  I use clear film to make the labels for lighted buttons but it should work equally well for printing on store windows.  Colors are limited for clear film.  No one offers a white tonner or ink that I am aware of.

Mike

printing tricks

We have been experimenting with printing on different surfaces for several years. All the information posted here is pretty accurate. Most Inkjet printers will print on heavy  and thick material. there are even printers for cake decorating.

As a company who specializes in printed building materials, we so only one drawback to printing on wood and thats the generally yellow color of the wood. That is however a completely subjective and if the color shift is acceptable to you, have at it. Only two points we feel strongly about.

1 attach the dimensional piece to a paper carrier sheet. This will help the printer avoid feeder problems.

2 use a printer with a straight pass through. they are common

Wile we still prefer and recommend card stock, The spirit of experimentation has always had a place modeling

Clever models llc

http://www.clevermodels.net

Thom M

Plastic through printers

You are one very lucky fellow. I have repaired numerous printers and I would never put a piece of plastic (let alone blue masking tape) through any type of printer...that is asking for trouble. Your results are awesome; so I'm glad it worked out for you. BTW: I don't recommend you repeat the procedure.

Ray

printing details.

Model Railroader has a very good article this month about printing for building. Since the scribed siding used in this thread was already a pretty low relief detail it could even be entirely replaced with a scan of the siding with the letters added. Actual photos of buildings can be printed out and replace all the fabricated details on structures with low relief details and thicker details can be added by printing another copy of the details and adding them to the original photo. 

Another trick, instead of putting a double thickness item through a printer, you can always cut out a matching section out of a cardstock sheet. You can tape the siding or plastic part into the opening so it doesn't shift while printing and be only single thickness.

injet printing

For windows I print on transparency film

Also, for printing on fabric, fabric can be ironed onto freezer paper (shiny side), cut to 81/2 x 11.  Be sure that edges are ironed down tight and their should not be a problem.

Dick T.

freezer paper

My wife has used the freezer paper technique with many types of cloth for years as a part of her art.  This is one reason I was confident that the printer could handle thick and unconventional materials.

Ken Ziebarth

Plastic through printers

I agree, that there is a potential problem using plastics at least for the printer that I have.  It is not a through printer but has to make a turn of 180 deg. and comes out the same side above the feed.  I don't think that the plastic will make the turn.  And, I have a printer (HP6500A Plus) that prints on 2 sides.  If I take the device off the back of the printer that allows the 2 sided print, the printer won't work.  The, apparently there is a power interlock that prevents it form printing.

Len

Canon printers

Some of Canon's really high-end printers will print on just about anything you can pass through them. They have a nearly straight printing path, and I've seen people print on fabric (non-treated), corrugated cardboard, wrinkled tissue -- you name it. But, those printers are a bit pricey.

Epson may also have some printers that will handle a huge range of stocks. For more "mundane" materials, such as thing plastic sheets, look at their NX305 all-in-one. It's got a nearly straight paper path, but at a price almost anyone can afford. I use one with MB and other programs to print "textures", and get great results.