Printing to vinyl

[Dorsetmike]

I need to print some coach sides to self adhesive vinyl; for normal printing I usually use an OKI colour laser, however methinks the fuser would probably melt the vinyl, which would not do the fuser much good either; so I bought a cheap HP ink jet. Just tried printing to the vinyl and find that the ink remains wet and thus liable to smear; any ideas or suggestions, or will the ink dry given time. If it does dry will it need varnishing?

[RailGooner]

Mike, I've laser printed on vinyl before without any issues.

[Dorsetmike]

Just checked Lapel Planet and they do self adhesive clear polyester for lasers which should should work just as well as vinyl, so I've ordered some. Fingers crossed!

[themadhippy]

what type of vinyl do you want?
https://www.mdpsupplies.co.uk/laservinyl.aspx

[Adam1701D]

I used to use an Epson inkjet with their permanent ink on printable vinyl, which you can get from eBay. Never had any problems at all.

[Dorsetmike]

Got the laser printable clear polyester; thinking back to DIY decals if you used transparent decals it was necessary to paint the surface white before applying the decal otherwise llight/pale colours would not show up properly.

Does the same hold for clear plastic?

[chrism]

Got the laser printable clear polyester; thinking back to DIY decals if you used transparent decals it was necessary to paint the surface white before applying the decal otherwise llight/pale colours would not show up properly.

Does the same hold for clear plastic?

Very possibly - laser printing is like inkjet printing in that the image is laid down as an array of dots, so lighter shades may possibly have some of the array not printed to make it lighter than if all the dots were printed, if you see what I mean.

Since the degree of it may vary between printers, experimentation will be the best way of checking I reckon.

[Malc]

Don't forget that printing white with your OKI is not an option.

[Adam1701D]

If you are printing on clear film, the model would need to be white, as the vinyl will be translucent.

The Electra vinyls are professionally printed on clear film by a complex and expensive vinyl printer that lays down a layer of white first and then applies the colour over the top. It's not cheap but the results are amazing.

[Dorsetmike]

Thanks Adam, I thought that would be the case; my main reason for trying transparent is 'cos I won't have to spend hours cutting windows from paper or card sides!