Learn what silvering is and how to minimize the occurrence of this problem.
Read more »Damar Varnish Recipe
Artists and sign makers have used Damar Varnish for various applications, including encaustic wax painting, varnishing oil paintings and glass gilding. In this story, Jim Hingst provides a Damar Varnish recipe and explains how to use it. Read more »
Gold Beating: How Gold Leaf is Made
Dating back to the days of the pharaohs, 5000 years ago, men have hammered strips of gold into thin sheets of gold leaf in a manufacturing process known as gold beating. While the tools have changed through the centuries, the basic process remains the same. In the days of the ancient Egyptians, gold beaters used stones. […] Read more »
Go Coreless!
NEPATA UA770 30″ CORELESS REWINDER The NEPATA UA770 Coreless is a 30″ high performance rewinder engineered to support rewinds with or without a paper core. Read more »
What You Must Know When Plotter Cutting Heat Transfer Vinyl and Flock Films
Heat transfer materials are comprised of either polyurethane, vinyl or flock facestocks coated with a heat-activated adhesive, and laminated to a plastic release liner or carrier film. Using a plotter cutter to cut heat transfer vinyl is a little different than cutting pressure sensitive vinyl. Some problems have resulted from using a dull blade. Other […] Read more »
Intercoat Adhesion
Intercoat adhesion refers to either the bond of a primer coat to a substrate, or to the adhesion of one coating to another. In many cases, a primer or top coat bonds to the primer or another coating mechanically. Although you may not see microscopic imperfections on a surface, a primer or paint will grip […] Read more »
Surface Gilding
The first time that I saw the gilding process, I was visiting the sign shop in Disneyland in Santa Ana, California. The craftsmen were refurbishing the carved wooden horses for a carousel that dated back to the early days in the park’s history. That day they were gilding some of these antique horses, which had […] Read more »
Painting Aluminum Composite Panels
I had asked an old sign painter what primers and paints he used when painting MDO. “Why would anyone today use MDO, when you could paint on Dibond® or Polymetal™?” he responded brusquely. Read more »
What You Need to Know About Air Purifying Respirators
Identifying Airborne Health Hazards Depending on the type of products that you manufacture, you and your employees can encounter a variety of airborne hazards. Most of us know that we should wear some type of air respirator in many of our work environments. What can be difficult is identifying the particular hazards and determining what […] Read more »
What You Should Know About Heat Pressing on Dye Sublimated Fabrics
What is Dye Sublimation? Most polyester fabrics, such as many of the popular “Performance Garments”, are dyed using a sublimation process. The dye sublimation process uses high heat to permanently fuse the colorant into a polyester fabric. Heat serves two critical functions in this dying process. First, the heat causes the pores of the polyester fabric to open up, so the material […] Read more »
