Printing straight on fiberglass using your home printer

General Discussion
1

So I found this instructable:

Inkjet Printing on Fabric

I realized that it would work for fiberglass as well. Here’s a sample on some 2.3 oz

Some tips:

You don’t need to iron the freezer paper too long. Just a light “once-over” by the iron should do. You just want to get the freezer paper barely attached. Too much ironing, and the fiberglass and paper won’t come off.

Use a hard surface when ironing. My ironing board cover had some foam which made the fiberglass crinkle. I used some masonite and it helped keep everything flat.

Good Luck!

Rio

2

Nice! My brain is reeling with possibilities for my 11X17 ink jet!

It looks like a good quality print. No bleeding or blurring on the weave?

3

Hey Ira,

I’m using a laser jet printer so that might be different. With the laser jet, the print was pretty crisp and held details quite well. I’m actually curious if the ink jet would cause some bleeding. The video showed some good definition and no bleeding. I’m going to test a photoprinter and see if it bleeds. But yeah, possibilities are endless.

Post some pics if you try your ink jet.

Rio

4

Haha…I’m having so much fun with this. I can’t believe how easy it is. I just tried the photo printer and there were some bleeds but not too much. There’s also room to tweak the settings of the printer. I used the fast draft setting for the least amount of ink but didn’t mess with the paper type.

Here’s some pics. Not bad IMO.

HTH

Rio


5

Good to know it can be done on a small scale

I dont know if you saw this post.

http://www.swaylocks.com/forum/gforum.cgi?do=post_view_flat;post=261914;page=1;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;mh=25;

6

That is really great. BUT what is freezer paper? I’ve never met it before, but I live in Wales and we pretty primitive, only recently stopped wearing woad!

7

hmmm, maybe another way of doing the same thing would be to attach the cloth to some normal paper with a light dusting of tack spray, like super 77?

dunno if theres such thing as freezer paper over here?

nice trick!

8

KK

No idea either but on the right hand side was another link to “make your own frezzer paper”

http://www.instructables.com/id/SLUEN1QF0H63NTF/

looks like paper with a plastic coating, not sure how the fiber glass sticks to it though, static??

My ink jet it really shitty, sometimes I get bleads on my decal tissue so I think glass fabric would be worse. but worth a play at some point.

9

I think freezer paper is like wax paper although only one side is waxy so you lay the fiberglass down then you lay the freezer paper down over that wax side down. Then you run an iron over the unwaxed side which melts the wax a bit so it sticks to the fiberglass… Am I right Daklaw

I wonder it it would effect the bond between resin and fiberglass

10

Hi Keen,

Yeah that thread is what made me think that you could actually print on fiberglass. Those printers are just too expensive for the common backyarder. I can’t even imagine the cost of ink on those things. Awesome though.

Rio

11

Hey Rikds,

Freezer paper is basically butcher paper that has a thin coat of plastic on one side. When you use your iron, the plastic melts a little bit to stick on the fiberglass. You could try making it yourself or getting it from Amazon.com. HTH

Rio

12

sweet . . . you can also avoid having the slight rice paper border effect you get especially if doing colored lams or tints . . .

13

Great Idea!

Thanks,

D