Top Sheet graphics?

crunkasfuck

crunkasfuck

Member
I’m having trouble figure how to do graphics, I know you can screen print a piece of fabric and then layer it under a clear top sheet, but I would like something more preferential looking? Is there anyway you Can print directly on the top sheet? Like how do they take Eric P art work and create graphics from a piece of canvas?
 
sublimination or screen printing.

lindsay at snowboard materials can do topsheet graphics for you.
 
most big companies sublimate, but can you silk-screen a mirror image of the graphic on the bottom of the topsheet so it shows up properly when it's laid up? would this totally ruin the bond with the topsheet?
 
I think you would be surprised how many big companies silk screen. I know basically everything burton does is silk screen.

I know that cost wise, silk screen is cheaper as you get into the high production levels.

and I think you would want to silk screen the top.
 
the method i'll be using first is using rice paper (or photo paper, or similar; the key is to use the ink from a LASER printer, such as many home-printers like laserjet), same stuff you use on most surfboards. when you wet it with epoxy/riesen, the paper becomre pretty much 99 transparent and you can't see the parts that don't have printing on it. the sweet thing about it? you can run it through a laser printer, and the paper won't smudge or anything when you lay it up. i'm planning to just buy bulk rice paper, printing my graphics on, and then just putting my clear topsheet over it when i press.

also, my buddy and i are pretty artistic if you give us a can of spray paint. i think we're gonna try to make some designs straight from the can to the paper and lay it up under the topsheet. a few months down the road, i'll see if i can remember to post here and tell how it went.

other than that, putting graphics directly on the back of the topsheet costs a bit more money for other people/businesses to do it for you, and it's more of a hassle to do it yourself (or maybe i just really suck at screen-printing?). anyways, the rice paper is a good bet, and it's worth looking in to! it produces surprisingly clean results.

cheers.
 
I think they silk screen the top, but the bottom remains untouched and is the side that bonds.
 
ya, there is ink made for epoxy uses. im pretty sure QCM inks makes one. you definitely would not want to screen on top though. how do you know that Burton screens? From what I've seen, they sublimate. It wouldnt make sense to print all those colours using screens cause you need a different screen for every colour... their graphics are way to complicated to silk screen at their level of output, and keeping production cost effective. I think Kingswood screens his graphics, but he has really simple 2 colour, 1 screen images and has really low production.
 
hm. Its quite possible i guess. ive never had any that were, though. is there any sort of finish on top of the image? I just imagine that it would scratch easily; does it?
 
Watch it all here.

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Also, talking with graphic people, they have all said sublimination is only cheap for small runs and that as you get above 50 graphics they suggest silk screening to make it cheaper.
 
well, i stand corrected. but Im kinda glad that I didnt know what i was talking about cause thats the most complete factory building video ive seen, and ive been doing quite a bit of research for a while now. thanks. so i guess they print on top though right? and they do put something on after to protect it. anyone know what type of lacquer would be good for this?
 
Not sure what the rest of the process they do, and I bet it would be hard to find out from them.

I would search for people doing silk screening on-line and I am sure you can find something.
 
Why a laser printer? I know there was a thread on skibuilders at some point, but I forget the reason.

Im guessing it has to do with the ink not allowing the epoxy to bind, but what if only some of the graphics layer had graphics? Say only 10% of the graphics layer was covered in normal inkjet printer ink. Would that have enough of a bond?
 
inkjet bleeds a lot when it gets wet. some people tried it and the images were pretty blurry. I dont think it would affect the bond too much, but I'm not sure. If you were really careful not to spread the epoxy very much at all, it might work out, it'll just look better if you use laser. you could try getting a piece of scrap plastic, would, fiberglass, etc. and do a test to see if it will work for you.
 
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