Jump to content
When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.
  • Current Donation Goals

Decals print dials


Bart Cordell

Recommended Posts

  • 4 weeks later...

For those interested in printing their own dial, Microcenter has the printer that prints up to 9600 dpi on sale for $39.99. I recently upgraded my old Canon printer, also 9600 dpi, to this one. You'd need to dial it back and find the best setting for your project because at the highest dpi setting it makes puddles of ink. 

Link:

Canon MX922 at Microcenter $39.99

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 7 months later...
  • 3 weeks later...

Hi,

After a little break from reps, I thought I’d give dial printing a go and I’m running into a little problem with print quality that I can’t quite figure out and was hoping someone might have a few pointers for troubleshooting.

Basically, the dial text is quite blurry and looks kind of too small for the dial. No where near as crisp as what I’ve seen in some of the pictures in this thread.

I’m working with the 6610 template that Bart so graciously donated to the forum.

What I’m doing to print is as follows:
1. Open dial template is Photoshop
2. Create a new 4x6 document at a resolution of 2400. Its glossy photo paper and I picked that resolution as that appears to be the resolution of the dial template.
3. Copy and paste the dial template into the new document repeatedly arrange them in a grid.
4. Print the newly created document of dials. I’ve tried a variety of print settings for print quality from “normal” to “super fine”. Only difference I can see is the black is much smoother and darker under “super fine” than the Lowe settings.

Printer specs show it supports 9600x2400 for color printing and 600x600 for black and white. Only thing I can think of is that I’m getting limited by the black and white printing resolution.

Thanks,

Andy


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My first decal dial. On its third coat of gloss, I decided to let the dial dry on a cold metal table.. this was the result! For anyone wishing to produce a spider dial, now you know how NEgd6.jpg&key=da2ed0c54caece4468b9be4e9f3aa9a552dd5319d42e53b82a2e055e8f3af957
 
Lucky guy !!!
I've tried that truck for my Fat-Lady GMT II dial and it didn't worked.
Possibly my varnish is too good quality.
I will try again and ... fingers crossed.

Envoyé de mon Moto G (5) Plus en utilisant Tapatalk

Link to comment
Share on other sites

37 minutes ago, manodeoro said:

Lucky guy !!!
I've tried that truck for my Fat-Lady GMT II dial and it didn't worked.
Possibly my varnish is too good quality.
I will try again and ... fingers crossed.

Envoyé de mon Moto G (5) Plus en utilisant Tapatalk
 

I used Krylon Crystal Clear and sprayed the dial sitting directly on a cold metal table at close to 0°C and left it outside. I think this result should be reproducible, although it wasn't desired in my case.

 

On 12/13/2018 at 6:40 PM, spazthecat said:

Hi,

After a little break from reps, I thought I’d give dial printing a go and I’m running into a little problem with print quality that I can’t quite figure out and was hoping someone might have a few pointers for troubleshooting.

Basically, the dial text is quite blurry and looks kind of too small for the dial. No where near as crisp as what I’ve seen in some of the pictures in this thread.

I’m working with the 6610 template that Bart so graciously donated to the forum.

What I’m doing to print is as follows:
1. Open dial template is Photoshop
2. Create a new 4x6 document at a resolution of 2400. Its glossy photo paper and I picked that resolution as that appears to be the resolution of the dial template.
3. Copy and paste the dial template into the new document repeatedly arrange them in a grid.
4. Print the newly created document of dials. I’ve tried a variety of print settings for print quality from “normal” to “super fine”. Only difference I can see is the black is much smoother and darker under “super fine” than the Lowe settings.

Printer specs show it supports 9600x2400 for color printing and 600x600 for black and white. Only thing I can think of is that I’m getting limited by the black and white printing resolution.

Thanks,

Andy


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I'm able to get good detail at 1200dpi, which is the max horizontal on my Canon printer. I noticed a big improvement when I set the paper type to High-Resolution Paper, even though I'm using decal paper. I didn't notice much of a difference when setting to print color vs black and white. Sounds like you're doing everything else right, might want to try scaling down to 1200 dpi. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 12/16/2018 at 12:26 AM, jimcon11 said:

I used Krylon Crystal Clear and sprayed the dial sitting directly on a cold metal table at close to 0°C and left it outside. I think this result should be reproducible, although it wasn't desired in my case.

Thanks ... I will try to proceed like this and see what I get.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, I figured out what the issue is and though I’d share it as it might be helpful to others.

It did turn out to be the printers black and white printer resolution.

I ended up making a basic dial in Illustrator. Just a chapter ring and hour markers. Printing a black dial looks like crap but changing the dial color to blue turned out great.

So, I guess I’ll try fooling around with the dial color. I think I could go with a really dark navy blue and would be able to get it to look black. Either that or just buy a new printer...

Thanks,
Andy

Hi,

After a little break from reps, I thought I’d give dial printing a go and I’m running into a little problem with print quality that I can’t quite figure out and was hoping someone might have a few pointers for troubleshooting.

Basically, the dial text is quite blurry and looks kind of too small for the dial. No where near as crisp as what I’ve seen in some of the pictures in this thread.

I’m working with the 6610 template that Bart so graciously donated to the forum.

What I’m doing to print is as follows:
1. Open dial template is Photoshop
2. Create a new 4x6 document at a resolution of 2400. Its glossy photo paper and I picked that resolution as that appears to be the resolution of the dial template.
3. Copy and paste the dial template into the new document repeatedly arrange them in a grid.
4. Print the newly created document of dials. I’ve tried a variety of print settings for print quality from “normal” to “super fine”. Only difference I can see is the black is much smoother and darker under “super fine” than the Lowe settings.

Printer specs show it supports 9600x2400 for color printing and 600x600 for black and white. Only thing I can think of is that I’m getting limited by the black and white printing resolution.

Thanks,

Andy


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk




Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...
Please Sign In or Sign Up