Placing Decals on Printed Plastic

I bought my self a DSO138 Oscilloscope and made a box for it.

I wanted to put some text and icons on it to show the functions of the switches and buttons.

This is how I did it. It's best to watch the video first then I will do a recap.

Video Recap

If you didn't understand my Yorkshire accent, haha.

The first thing to do is design and print a preview of the decals.

Here is an example file I have made: DSO138_Osciloscope_Front_Text.svg

I have exported the file to SVG format so that it can be opened with most vector graphic applications.

When you print the image, it must be Mirrored.

Notes!

• It is best to keep the design less the A5 in size, if you want to do bigger, brake it down into small pieces. the way a laser printer works, it uses static electricity to transfer the toner to the paper. The more paper, the more static electricity it needs.
• As we will be adding a sheet of magazine paper on top of the preview paper we print, this increases the overall thickness of the paper, increasing the amount of static charge needed. We can tell the printer to give more electric charge by altering the setting to heavy satin/matt paper. Some laser printers may give more control and allow increasing the amount of toner.
• Most Laser Printer are designed for printing text, when you start to add large areas of black, some may get patchy.
• One good thing about modern laser printers, is: When you replace the toner, you are also replacing all the other important bits.

Once you are happy with your design, attach some Magazine Paper (cut slightly over size) over the Preview Print.

Send it through the printer again to print the image onto the Magazine Paper.

Cut the magazine paper to the size of the project.

This gives edges that can be used to help align the Decals.

Then cut this into smaller manageable pieces.

Not a lot of acetone is required.

I have not tried it with neat Acetone, I use Nail Polish Remover.

I don't know if any of the other chemicals in the Nail Polish Remover do anything to aid this process, so if it does not work with other brands please leave a comment, or if it does work with other brands for that matter.

The mix = 2:1

2x Nail polish remover.

1x water.

To apply the mix to the decal, I use a small 1mL syringe.

For this project I mixed 2mL Nail polish remover and 1mL of water and it was enough.

There is a stronger version of this nail polish remover, but using strong stuff just melts the Decal.

This bit should become easy with practise.

The file I attached also has some "Test" text under my project decals. It is good practice to do a few test samples before doing your main project.

Its best to watch the video, I have done some screen shots to jog the memory.

• Be sure you have an area of the Magazine that can be held in place.

• Align and hold/fix the Decal in place.

• Apply a few drops of acetone (watered nail polish remover) until the paper becomes opaque/transparent.

• Rub lightly over the top of the Decal, in a direction away from where it is held so that it does not move.

• When the paper is no longer opaque/transparent and feels dry to the touch, lift of the paper.
• The Acetone will have evaporated but the water will remain.

• Press firmly over the Decal with a tissue to dry it off.

• If there are remnants of the original ink from the Magazine Paper, add a little acetone (watered nail polish remover) and wipe it away, trying not to wipe over the Decal.

• This is how mine turned out.

Obviously refinement and practice will improve the end result.

If you like the box I made for the DSO138 Oscilloscope Details of the box are here: Tim's Blog Place: DSO138 Oscilloscope Case (timsblogplace.blogspot.com)