:wave: Greetings All & Happy Holiday,Merry Xmas,Chanukah, Kwanzaa & festivus;



We need a new computer printer.What is the Best for making decals ?


Thanx, Neal :dude:

Good question Neal. Can't wait to see the suggestions. Happy Holidays to you and all the board members. If you're traveling, please be careful and watch out for the other guy.

rr

Funny you should say this, but mine crapped out on me too. I sent it on the "long ride" to printer heaven with the garbage man last week. I have been told that a real "LASER" (shades of Dr Evil) printer is what works best?? Don't know if that's true. What I do know is that they are WAY outta my price range and the ones I saw were huge. I'm looking into an inkjet printer/scanner combo with high resolution. I found a local printer who'll print on my paper for a few bucks a sheet. It's more convevient at home, but I can't see all the extra $$$. I used him after I found my inkjet decals came out crummy most of the time. If you find a smaller cheaper "LASER" printer... let me know. tjd

Guys.......

I looked into this a long time ago,but still havent acted on it.I have like 19 projects all going on right now on my work bench as I type this.

A buddy of mine is BIG on N scale model railroading.He scratch builds a lot of his rolling stock,and prints his own decals.

He says the be all end all printer for decals is an Alps printer.SOmething about the fact that its the only printer that can print the color white,amongst other things.

Do a Google for "alps printer decals" like I just did.A bunch of results there if you care to look.

Oh,and if one of you guys decide to get one,remember where you heard it and HOOK ME UP WITH SOME DECALS DUDE(lol)!!!!!! :wave:

ALPS is the top of the heap. I just did a little looking and found lots of hits during a simple search. The link below (to me) is one of the best written explanations I've ever run across. BUT, from reading a bunch of other posts by other modelers, the problem with the ALPS stuff seems to be availability and serviceability. A lot of posts describe limited service being available and although online stores have supplies for now, some posts I've seen hint that these supplies are not going to be around forever. :freak: Yikes! ... buy a printer that nobody can fix and if you do find someone to fix it... can you imagine then not being able to get the ink cartriges for it?? :freak: :freak: Double yikes!! I believe Claus has/had an ALPS. Claus? Are you out there? Do you still use one of these or have you changed to another machine? dave

http://www.starshipmodeler.com/EVENTS/wfest2k2/Making_Your_Own_Decals.doc

Dave - Thanks for this post. The article was very informative. I did not realize that the inkjet decals contained fragile pockets of ink. This explains prior disasters that I thought were related to the clear coat process.
Jim

Doesnt Roger(Corrie)make his own decals??????

Hey Roger,ya out there???????????

Mike

ALPS is the top of the heap. I just did a little looking and found lots of hits during a simple search. The link below (to me) is one of the best written explanations I've ever run across. BUT, from reading a bunch of other posts by other modelers, the problem with the ALPS stuff seems to be availability and serviceability. A lot of posts describe limited service being available and although online stores have supplies for now, some posts I've seen hint that these supplies are not going to be around forever. :freak: Yikes! ... buy a printer that nobody can fix and if you do find someone to fix it... can you imagine then not being able to get the ink cartriges for it?? :freak: :freak: Double yikes!! I believe Claus has/had an ALPS. Claus? Are you out there? Do you still use one of these or have you changed to another machine? dave

Hi Dave and Neal and all others thinking about printing waterslide decals!

ALPS printers really are - or were... :cry: - the only professional way to go. It´s a shame, but ALPS has not only stopped printer production some time ago (the only "new" printers still available occasionally are/were refurbished ones!), even the production of the ink cartridges will end sometime in 2007! So buying an ALPS (no matter if it´s a refurbished or a used one) doesn´t seem to make much sense any more.

I bought a used one on feePay about 2 years ago, found additional cartridges for reasonable prices back then and was able to make really nice DIY decals for a couple of months. Unfortunately the print head died much too soon (which is a common problem with used ALPS/OKI/Citizen printers)! I really can´t recommend buying a used printer - you never know when the print head will die (but it definitely will)!

Color laser printers have become quite affordable over the last years, but considering they can´t print in white (or fancy colors like gold and silver like ALPS printers can) and the fact the color refills for a laser are almost as expensive as a new machine (they usually come only with a "starter kit"!) I can´t convince myself to this kind of "hobby investment"! BTW: Roger Corrie does his decals with a laser printer - haven´t had any of his decals in my hands so far, but from his photos they look fine!

I have a good inkjet printer at home now. You can make quite nice decals with it, too (but you´re limited to printing CMY and white decals need wite decal paper!!!), but the result will never be as brilliant and crisp as an ALPS or laser printed decal!

I´m wondering what that handful of professional decal printing services (and vendors like Patto) will do after the ALPS supply will be history?!?!? Will there be any manufacturer ready to fill this gap? I really hope so!!!

Best regards and greetings from Germany,

Claus

www.c-jet500.de.vu

I use an Alps printer now but I also have used my HP deskjet 6540 for making decals. The alps have the advantage of being a micro-dry thermal printer so you don't have to spray clearcoat over the decals and let it dry before use like with an inkjet printer. You can take them straight from the printer and use them immediately.

It seems that everyone selling custom decals are using an Alps printer, and they are very good for decal printing.

It appears that white ink technology is entering the sophisticated printing market. Oce (volume printer) is rolling out its white ink model. Photographers are pushing to get truer black and white imaging which adds pressure to get white ink capability. Hopefully, this technology will filter its way down to us in a couple of years. The Oce costs $40k.
Jim

Just get your orders in to Patto's now, lol.