Can you silk screen directly onto your cloth? I was thinking about doing a multi-colored screen print directly onto a piece of 4oz glass for the deck. Would the ink on the cloth impede the flow of resin when I glass it or screw it up somehow? Thanks.
Howzit Bubba, I think the problem with this will be the texture of the glass will cause some blurring of the design. You need a flat surface to get a clean print,how about trying it on the foam instead.Aloha,Kokua
Why don’t you silk-screen on silk and then do a fabric inlay with that screen?
Thanks guys. Kokua, I hadn’t thought about the fact that the amount of space between the fibers of the cloth would blur the design, but I think you’re right. I wanted the deck patch for added strength, though, so printing directly onto the blank would defeat that purpose. Also not sure how well it would work.
What would be the process and cautions for painting or screening on silk to be used as an inlay? I would guess that if there is too much paint buildup, then it would create a barrier to the resin working down to contact the foam. Also, what type of silk? tight weave, loose weave, satin finish, matte finish, thread count? Are not most of the fabric inlays cotton? Would silk provide any structural support? If any one out there has experimented I’m hoping not to reinvent the wheel.
Tom
I have used a 2oz. silk backed with plastic to print on with an inkjet printer. It was a pretty tight weave, but laminated all right: RR epoxy pre-heated in a bucket of hot tap water. A sample I ran through a laser printer didn’t let the resin through in the dark areas, so you might think about laying down a thin layer of resin under the logo if you paint it thick enough to fill the weave or with something that dries non-porous. I can post pics tomorrow, they are on my work PC, not at home.
As far as sthrength, I would expect that silk would add some strength. It has great material properties: there’s a reason it is used for parachutes. I haven’t done any tests; I do have some more of this cloth that would be fun to do a weight to weight comparison with fiberglass.
Matt
Most surfboard laminates are silk-screened onto rice paper. Well-proven, and well documented.
Just screen print onto rice paper. You can get it at any local art store in rolls or sheets. Prints incredibly well with screenprinting techniques, and the rice paper goes clear with resin.
I’m not sure if they use water-based inks or the standard Plastisols for the lams though.
Here is a pic of a test print I did for LordBoots, laminated on a scrap of 1lb EPS with 5min epoxy in a tube; it was printed on 2oz backed silk in an epson desktop printer (the image is ~7in wide). LordBoots may have used the samples I mailed him, I haven’t heard back. Pigmented inks are essential for good light fastness. I have used the same process to print on glass (taped it to paper and fed through printer). If you do this, the tighter the weave, the better it will look.
Here is a test I did on a junk board to try the idea out big:
Same 2oz backed silk, printed on a designjet 5500 and laminated with RR epoxy over the previous glass. The tight weave was a bit tricky for a novice laminator like myself, but the result was very satisfactory.
Matt
