Was so frustrated and considered buying a pad printer but after watching your videos things are improving. keep up the good work and the videos are great.
Really enjoying your watch dial decal project. I will be a good imitator of your process. I also remember using micro sol and micro set many years ago putting decal on model planes.
@@WatchComplications No exaggeration, I find all your videos helpful. I know this might be a silly worthless test, but if you can work in a test of various laser ink colors on a dark dial to see what shows up the best, if any, that would be great. I am very interested in your future videos on what happens to dials with applied indices and lume when you bake them in the oven to set the waterslide decals. Thanks again for your vids!
@@WatchComplications Perfect! I just bought a watch on AliExpress to use as my base to start my modding journey. It has a black dial, so I’m very interested in this test. And since it’s AliExpress and won’t arrive for another month, you have at least until March to get this video out 😉👍.
Wow! This is great! I really appreciate all the work you put into figuring out this process and communicating it clearly. What kind of clear coat do you use afterwards?
Depends on the final look I’m going for...matte or glossy, but I often use a Krylon UV-resistant matte clear coat. It’s non-yellowing and looks pretty good
Hello. I am a watch maker. I was looking for a way to produce a watch dial with decal stickers. I would like to test it many times by myself from now on. Your videos are great. I would like to upload my own watch making video too.
Hey mate, just got a new subscriber... this content is gold! I know this is an old video but hope you still monitor the comments. You mentioned either on this video or another that you had played around with printer settings, software and resolution resstings etc... what did you find work for gettinf the best prints? Also do you paint these dials yourself or buy them prefinished? Would be interested to know your process here.. Great work mate
hello and thanks for watching. I try to use as high a resolution as possible and my printer is a laser printer, and use vector based graphics. I painted the dials in this video myself but I sometimes I will use factory painted dials, just depends on the project and dial finishing.
@WatchComplications thanks mate, yeah I'll be working in illustrator. Have you done any bold colour designs? I really want to build a Mickey style watch on an NH platform but dials are impossible to find so am thinking this might be a decent compromise... but would require colours to come.out nice and bold...
@WatchComplications yep the vector side of things is all sorted. Roger re the copyright...These aren't for sale... just a personal watch. May not even be a mickey watch but something quirky like a mickey watch or your Monty Python watch... whatever I can find the hands for.
Excellent video, they came out much better than I expected them to. I might even give this a go. I'm curious about the difference between laser and inkjet, is there much of a difference, or does it depend on the quality of your dial image, the dpi maybe? I guess keeping it to 300 dpi, or even maybe 600, would make a difference, and your print settings at maximum quality...anyway, great job.
Yeah, they turn out pretty good. Laser is typically going to be able to produce a sharper image. You do want a good vector based format and as high of a dpi as possible for the smoothest look. Make note that there is a specific paper for inkjet and a specific type for laser.
Could you do an experiment with more professional printers, such as taking it to Office Max or a local print shop, to see if you can eliminate the scale issues?
Not sure if I’d go that route or not, in future experiments. Would take a lot of time and testing, thus money. The laser printer I use is 2400x600 DPI. I’m not sure if the time and energy would be worth it. At some point the cost would run into that of pad printing, which will always be better.
I like your video, and I have been doing this for quite a while. I am using paper type A with W1 glue and the Sunnyscopa squeegy. Your method seems extremely circuitous. You may say, well it gets me results, but it you are missing out on a few nice properties of this printing method the way you work with it now. For one, you expose the substrate quite long in a wet state for dust particles to enter between the toner and substrate. What I do is prep a very clean spot under a tray on my desk, and dip the decal in water and then it curls up towards the printed side. So I lay the printed side down on the cleaned surface. Then I dip a pair of tweezers in the W1 glue and apply some on the cleaned dial surface and immediately place the decal, with the paper still on. Splitting it upfront like you do is unnecessarily fiddly. Then once placed slide the paper away, and then slide the decal further in place, use the squeegy to further slide the fluid out that is underneath the material. I have found it helps to make sure there is at least some water on top for the squeegy to slide nicely. Then, once it is all nicely adhered, use a heat gun from about a foot away to allow the W1 glue to dry. I am obviously using a wood dial holder (a slab of wood that I drilled a few holes in myself for the dial feet) When air bubbles occur, use a small piece of cardboard (a business card is really ideal) to push down on the surface. Then let the dial cool down completely, and you should be able to peel down the film. When you notice some toner is peeled away with it, just apply a drop of new W1 before fully removing the film (to keep it's position) and heat it again, let it cool. Usually this is not necessary, but it is nice to have the option to fix any faults that may occur during the film removal. Then when the film is removed, I keep the dial face down (to prevent dust from entering the surface) and apply heat with a mini blowtorch for a few seconds from the back. Painted dials can usually handle this heat for a brief moment, but it can be a good idea to try on a dial blank first. When using fully blank dials, you can also opt for a heat resistant paint, such as header paint or engine block paint. The blowtorch baking makes the toner melt and flow very nicely smooth and will help making it very rugged as well. When you scratch it? Just heat it again and usually the scratch will just vanish due to the toner melting again. A fun thing to know is you can stack several decal prints this way and even produce relief! There is a video in my channel showing an example of this, of a Grand Seiko homage with a guilloche effect done this way.
Then your printer. Even though it might work well in practise, it is pretty much on the limit of it's capabilities in terms of paper weight. Sunnyscopa paper is about 120-185 grams paper and your printer is specced max 160 grams. This may not look like a big deal, but be aware that the power of the led module inside that printer is not very high, and to get such thick paper hot enough to adhere the toner properly takes a lot of power. You may experience not so very vibrant results. An indication of this may be that the performance increases when making a few prints right after eachother. Say you place five sheets of cheap paper, and one decal sheet, and print the same image six times, and now compare that to making just one print from a standstill (cooled down) when your six in a row shows a better result at the sixth print, then your printer is not sufficiently powerful. If you wanna do it right, I would recommend something more professional, such as an OKI C844DN. Obviously this comes at a different price tag.
Thanks for the comments. I agree there are multiple approaches to doing this and thanks for detailing some other options that my followers could try out if they are so inclined. The printer itself seems to work fine, and I wouldn't want to personally go any higher on the cost with this method. If I want to do extremely high detail, that's what I have the pad printer for. I could load several pieces of paper in, but I typically only do one print at a time, as I have no need to print that many copies of a dial. Still the toner seems to adhere quite well to the Sunnyscopa paper. And with my method I have had perfect transfers every time, without any extra added heat. One suggestion you mentioned that I haven't tried is layering several prints to create a relief. That's a really good idea and something I will add to the list of things to test. I like the propeller seconds hand on that second watch...
@@WatchComplications Well the multiple prints would just be a test if your printer can really handle the paper well. You wouldn't print five decal papers, just a few on cheap paper, and immediately following the decal paper. And then compare the result to a decal paper just printed on it's own. If the one printed after the five is more vivid, you know your printer isn't quite capable. Thick paper requires a lot of power to heat it to make the toner adhere really well. You wouldn't know if it is now performing at just 80%, until you've seen 100%. As for pad printing, I have a pad printer, but I have found it's purpose mainly worthwhile for runs, but for one offs the decal method is fantastic. On a pad printer it is also very hard (impossible) to make gradients. I plan to try out combining the two in the near future. So background with decal and details with pad. This could help if you repeat certain details often, like a brand, depth rating etc and wanna have various backgrounds. As for the method, skipping the oven is in my opinion a big plus...
yeah i might try the multiple page thing at some point. I agree about the pad printer being better for runs, but if I have a client willing to pay and they want the full-on quality, then I don't mind using it for a one-off. But in most cases a decal print might be best for a one-off. I like having the time and temp control, consistency with the oven. Going with a hairdryer adds too much variety for my liking. And so far, anything I've put in the oven has held up fine.
Hi is there any way we can use printer, to print what we want design, and paste it on watch, like picture of you face, perfectly resize exactly the size of the dial?!?...sorry for my question, but is it possible? If not can you make it possible?
Depends on the text colors. Some will show ok on black, some won't. If you want white for example, you have to paint the base dial white and then create a black printed decal with negative space (white) for the design. Just like if you printed white text on black on regular paper.
What kind of primer do you use on a brass dial to prep it with? And do you ever pain the dial or just use primer before applying the waterslide decal? Not sure how well paint would hold up in the oven.
I typically use Rustoleum primer or paint/primer depending on the color I'm after. I apply anywhere from 3-6 light coats 2-3 minutes apart. Let it dry for a couple days. Paint holds up fine in the oven.
I'm trying to find out how to make a waterslide decal for a watch dial restoration. Not a custom dial but a restored dial. Just apply the decal on the entire cleaned watch dial and bake it on and be done with it. Is that at all possible?
This is something I've tested some and will continue to test. In many cases it's doable, from what I have discovered so far, but there are some considerations. Look at the next video I did on this topic: ua-cam.com/video/RwcK_hHJcnQ/v-deo.html
sounds like either the chemicals aren't working correct, or the surface isn't quite right. Are you sure you're printing the images as reflected and applying the decal in the right direction (front versus back of the decal)?
@@WatchComplications Awesome thank you!! I need your opinion on something seperate. What do you think of making dials from some special paper at the hardware store?? Might sound stupid but
well you would probably want it adhered to some sort of metal backing as paper will warp over time with temp changes and moisture exposure. Unless you're coating it in some way it will alway have a paper look to it. Not that you can't use it, or that it won't look good...but if you want something that you don't have to worry about holding up over time then you'd have to go with metal or something more solid. Nothing wrong with testing it out though.
I've talked about this in other videos and comments, but with a decal you have two options. Most printers can't print white, so if you have white in a design it is negative space, meaning no ink. You can print a black dial with white markers, but it's going to be a black or dark print design with no printing in the white space. So you would need a dial with a white base, and then print the decal and apply. Some more expensive printers and services can print white, so you can look into those if you want actual white printed markers.
yeah, you just need to get the decal paper for use with inkjet, as opposed to laser. note that I have not tested the process with inkjet ink, but I assume it would work alright.
Was so frustrated and considered buying a pad printer but after watching your videos things are improving. keep up the good work and the videos are great.
Glad it's helping
Really enjoying your watch dial decal project. I will be a good imitator of your process. I also remember using micro sol and micro set many years ago putting decal on model planes.
cool. thanks for watching :)
Thank you for sharing. Im new to modding watch's but your videos are giving me alot of ideas
glad you’re finding them helpful
That is a sacrifice I’m willing to make for a better modded watch 👍
Sweet, Brian! I’ve been waiting on this video since I watched your other videos on decals! And yes, I’m a dork 😉👍😁
Nothing wrong with needing out on watches. Hope you find it helpful. :)
@@WatchComplications No exaggeration, I find all your videos helpful. I know this might be a silly worthless test, but if you can work in a test of various laser ink colors on a dark dial to see what shows up the best, if any, that would be great. I am very interested in your future videos on what happens to dials with applied indices and lume when you bake them in the oven to set the waterslide decals. Thanks again for your vids!
yeah I am planning some tests on black dials as well so stay tuned.
@@WatchComplications Will do!
@@WatchComplications Perfect! I just bought a watch on AliExpress to use as my base to start my modding journey. It has a black dial, so I’m very interested in this test. And since it’s AliExpress and won’t arrive for another month, you have at least until March to get this video out 😉👍.
Your videos are so useful!
thank you! that’s great to hear. thanks for watching :)
Great video!
thanks for watching :)
Wow! This is great! I really appreciate all the work you put into figuring out this process and communicating it clearly. What kind of clear coat do you use afterwards?
Depends on the final look I’m going for...matte or glossy, but I often use a Krylon UV-resistant matte clear coat. It’s non-yellowing and looks pretty good
Hello. I am a watch maker.
I was looking for a way to produce a watch dial with decal stickers. I would like to test it many times by myself from now on. Your videos are great. I would like to upload my own watch making video too.
go for it. I show the process :)
Hey mate, just got a new subscriber... this content is gold!
I know this is an old video but hope you still monitor the comments.
You mentioned either on this video or another that you had played around with printer settings, software and resolution resstings etc... what did you find work for gettinf the best prints?
Also do you paint these dials yourself or buy them prefinished? Would be interested to know your process here..
Great work mate
hello and thanks for watching. I try to use as high a resolution as possible and my printer is a laser printer, and use vector based graphics. I painted the dials in this video myself but I sometimes I will use factory painted dials, just depends on the project and dial finishing.
@WatchComplications thanks mate, yeah I'll be working in illustrator. Have you done any bold colour designs? I really want to build a Mickey style watch on an NH platform but dials are impossible to find so am thinking this might be a decent compromise... but would require colours to come.out nice and bold...
@@tobihall2247 you can try something like that but you need vector graphics, a good printer, and don’t forget Disney designs are under copyright.
@WatchComplications yep the vector side of things is all sorted. Roger re the copyright...These aren't for sale... just a personal watch. May not even be a mickey watch but something quirky like a mickey watch or your Monty Python watch... whatever I can find the hands for.
Espectacular trabajo. Quisiera aprender?
Keep watching :)
Excellent video, they came out much better than I expected them to. I might even give this a go. I'm curious about the difference between laser and inkjet, is there much of a difference, or does it depend on the quality of your dial image, the dpi maybe? I guess keeping it to 300 dpi, or even maybe 600, would make a difference, and your print settings at maximum quality...anyway, great job.
Yeah, they turn out pretty good. Laser is typically going to be able to produce a sharper image. You do want a good vector based format and as high of a dpi as possible for the smoothest look. Make note that there is a specific paper for inkjet and a specific type for laser.
@@WatchComplications Ok, cool, I'll check that out.
Could you do an experiment with more professional printers, such as taking it to Office Max or a local print shop, to see if you can eliminate the scale issues?
Not sure if I’d go that route or not, in future experiments. Would take a lot of time and testing, thus money. The laser printer I use is 2400x600 DPI. I’m not sure if the time and energy would be worth it. At some point the cost would run into that of pad printing, which will always be better.
I like your video, and I have been doing this for quite a while. I am using paper type A with W1 glue and the Sunnyscopa squeegy. Your method seems extremely circuitous. You may say, well it gets me results, but it you are missing out on a few nice properties of this printing method the way you work with it now. For one, you expose the substrate quite long in a wet state for dust particles to enter between the toner and substrate. What I do is prep a very clean spot under a tray on my desk, and dip the decal in water and then it curls up towards the printed side. So I lay the printed side down on the cleaned surface. Then I dip a pair of tweezers in the W1 glue and apply some on the cleaned dial surface and immediately place the decal, with the paper still on. Splitting it upfront like you do is unnecessarily fiddly. Then once placed slide the paper away, and then slide the decal further in place, use the squeegy to further slide the fluid out that is underneath the material. I have found it helps to make sure there is at least some water on top for the squeegy to slide nicely. Then, once it is all nicely adhered, use a heat gun from about a foot away to allow the W1 glue to dry. I am obviously using a wood dial holder (a slab of wood that I drilled a few holes in myself for the dial feet) When air bubbles occur, use a small piece of cardboard (a business card is really ideal) to push down on the surface. Then let the dial cool down completely, and you should be able to peel down the film. When you notice some toner is peeled away with it, just apply a drop of new W1 before fully removing the film (to keep it's position) and heat it again, let it cool. Usually this is not necessary, but it is nice to have the option to fix any faults that may occur during the film removal. Then when the film is removed, I keep the dial face down (to prevent dust from entering the surface) and apply heat with a mini blowtorch for a few seconds from the back. Painted dials can usually handle this heat for a brief moment, but it can be a good idea to try on a dial blank first. When using fully blank dials, you can also opt for a heat resistant paint, such as header paint or engine block paint. The blowtorch baking makes the toner melt and flow very nicely smooth and will help making it very rugged as well. When you scratch it? Just heat it again and usually the scratch will just vanish due to the toner melting again. A fun thing to know is you can stack several decal prints this way and even produce relief! There is a video in my channel showing an example of this, of a Grand Seiko homage with a guilloche effect done this way.
Then your printer. Even though it might work well in practise, it is pretty much on the limit of it's capabilities in terms of paper weight. Sunnyscopa paper is about 120-185 grams paper and your printer is specced max 160 grams. This may not look like a big deal, but be aware that the power of the led module inside that printer is not very high, and to get such thick paper hot enough to adhere the toner properly takes a lot of power. You may experience not so very vibrant results. An indication of this may be that the performance increases when making a few prints right after eachother. Say you place five sheets of cheap paper, and one decal sheet, and print the same image six times, and now compare that to making just one print from a standstill (cooled down) when your six in a row shows a better result at the sixth print, then your printer is not sufficiently powerful. If you wanna do it right, I would recommend something more professional, such as an OKI C844DN. Obviously this comes at a different price tag.
Example videos of my dials: ua-cam.com/video/8l0nwbAUi0Y/v-deo.html and ua-cam.com/video/D-8g9-cwMeo/v-deo.html
Thanks for the comments. I agree there are multiple approaches to doing this and thanks for detailing some other options that my followers could try out if they are so inclined. The printer itself seems to work fine, and I wouldn't want to personally go any higher on the cost with this method. If I want to do extremely high detail, that's what I have the pad printer for. I could load several pieces of paper in, but I typically only do one print at a time, as I have no need to print that many copies of a dial. Still the toner seems to adhere quite well to the Sunnyscopa paper. And with my method I have had perfect transfers every time, without any extra added heat. One suggestion you mentioned that I haven't tried is layering several prints to create a relief. That's a really good idea and something I will add to the list of things to test. I like the propeller seconds hand on that second watch...
@@WatchComplications Well the multiple prints would just be a test if your printer can really handle the paper well. You wouldn't print five decal papers, just a few on cheap paper, and immediately following the decal paper. And then compare the result to a decal paper just printed on it's own. If the one printed after the five is more vivid, you know your printer isn't quite capable. Thick paper requires a lot of power to heat it to make the toner adhere really well. You wouldn't know if it is now performing at just 80%, until you've seen 100%. As for pad printing, I have a pad printer, but I have found it's purpose mainly worthwhile for runs, but for one offs the decal method is fantastic. On a pad printer it is also very hard (impossible) to make gradients. I plan to try out combining the two in the near future. So background with decal and details with pad. This could help if you repeat certain details often, like a brand, depth rating etc and wanna have various backgrounds. As for the method, skipping the oven is in my opinion a big plus...
yeah i might try the multiple page thing at some point. I agree about the pad printer being better for runs, but if I have a client willing to pay and they want the full-on quality, then I don't mind using it for a one-off. But in most cases a decal print might be best for a one-off. I like having the time and temp control, consistency with the oven. Going with a hairdryer adds too much variety for my liking. And so far, anything I've put in the oven has held up fine.
Hi is there any way we can use printer, to print what we want design, and paste it on watch, like picture of you face, perfectly resize exactly the size of the dial?!?...sorry for my question, but is it possible? If not can you make it possible?
hey buddy, lovely videos. any suggestions to do the same with black dials?
Depends on the text colors. Some will show ok on black, some won't. If you want white for example, you have to paint the base dial white and then create a black printed decal with negative space (white) for the design. Just like if you printed white text on black on regular paper.
Great video! Thanks! What is the primer you used for the other dial, and was the dial plain brass before?
i have tested on both brass and aluminum. I typically use a type of rust-oleum primer or paint/primer.
What kind of primer do you use on a brass dial to prep it with? And do you ever pain the dial or just use primer before applying the waterslide decal? Not sure how well paint would hold up in the oven.
I typically use Rustoleum primer or paint/primer depending on the color I'm after. I apply anywhere from 3-6 light coats 2-3 minutes apart. Let it dry for a couple days. Paint holds up fine in the oven.
I'm trying to find out how to make a waterslide decal for a watch dial restoration. Not a custom dial but a restored dial. Just apply the decal on the entire cleaned watch dial and bake it on and be done with it. Is that at all possible?
This is something I've tested some and will continue to test. In many cases it's doable, from what I have discovered so far, but there are some considerations. Look at the next video I did on this topic: ua-cam.com/video/RwcK_hHJcnQ/v-deo.html
im having problems with my paint not transfering on my dial it stays on the waterslide completely any idea how to fix this
sounds like either the chemicals aren't working correct, or the surface isn't quite right. Are you sure you're printing the images as reflected and applying the decal in the right direction (front versus back of the decal)?
Where did you get those dials?? They almost look like u cut them out perfectly with like hardware store paper
these specific dial blanks I got from Ofrei.com I think
@@WatchComplications Awesome thank you!! I need your opinion on something seperate. What do you think of making dials from some special paper at the hardware store?? Might sound stupid but
well you would probably want it adhered to some sort of metal backing as paper will warp over time with temp changes and moisture exposure. Unless you're coating it in some way it will alway have a paper look to it. Not that you can't use it, or that it won't look good...but if you want something that you don't have to worry about holding up over time then you'd have to go with metal or something more solid. Nothing wrong with testing it out though.
What if I want to print on white letters on a black dial?
I've talked about this in other videos and comments, but with a decal you have two options. Most printers can't print white, so if you have white in a design it is negative space, meaning no ink. You can print a black dial with white markers, but it's going to be a black or dark print design with no printing in the white space. So you would need a dial with a white base, and then print the decal and apply. Some more expensive printers and services can print white, so you can look into those if you want actual white printed markers.
Can this be done with inkjet printers?
yeah, you just need to get the decal paper for use with inkjet, as opposed to laser. note that I have not tested the process with inkjet ink, but I assume it would work alright.