Farrell
Senior Heliman
Location: Orange, CA
| Hello,
I have a vinyl cutter (Roland SX-8) that I bought off eBay and it came with a bunch of vinyl and a 60 yard roll of transfer tape. I've had some good success with using the transfer tape, but it seems to do a very poor job on anything over mildly bending surfaces. I want to try airbrushing the Airtronics logo into my windscreen area, but I know the tape won't let me apply the mask cleanly by any stretch of the imagination.
The roll of transfer tape I have looks and feels like its just a wide roll of masking tape. Is there anything better? Something with some flexibility and stretchiness... is anything like that made? Is is reasonably priced for someone like me who is doing this on a hobby level?
Lastly, I painted another canopy this past weekend, and it turned out fairly well with only a few spots where paint creped past the fine line and masking tape (my fault.) But I am perpetually having problems with the clear coat having very small dimples and mounds.
I'm using a water trap, shoot at roughly 75F with low humidity (Southern California weather) and I always clean the canopy with soap and water in between coats and let dry thoroughly. I suspect the majority of my problem is that I'm shooting in my garage, and its a little dusty. Due to restrictions beyond my control I can't make a mini paint booth in the garage or house. Has anyone tried shooting clear outside? Is it worth attempting?
I'm using Virtus high solids two-part clear coat, 2:1 ratio, and approximately 15% HoK RU-311 reducer added to it. I have used the clear a few times in the past, and have the same problems. No fogging or peeling though, so I'm doing well in that department. Sticks incredibly well, and 30% nitro hasn't causing any harm or yellowing.
To clarify, the canopy pictured above was not masked with my vinyl/transfer tape, it was done freehand with tape. My questions are not connected to each other.
-Farrell |
I know how to solve that, in fact Bill is the one who clued me in, replying to one of my earlier posts on this forum. The problem is that I couldn't even lay it onto the surface cleanly because the transfer tape I have just folds and wrinkles when you try to lay it down on a curved surface.
