so, I found this paper/cardstock building that I can download and edit on my computer. It has a lot of possibilities, and I was thinking how hard it would be to try to laminate printer paper or even decal paper onto sheet styrene. Do you think that this is possible? http://scalescenes.com/products/T009-Modern-Industrial-Building
Piece of cake for either. Visit your local craft store like a Michaels or A.C. Moore and you have a big selection of adhesives including rattle can spray on contact type.Very thin sheet styrene will take decals as long as you have a gloss coat applied for the decal. Set the same and treat the same as a car or loco.
From the title I though the OP was wanting to inquire about running styrene sheets through his printer. I do not think this is a recommended practice.
Might be possible. But I would not try it on any printer of value. Maybe if you had an old printer which could be sacrificed, if the process goes bad.
I have run construction paper through my printer with no issues. If one can find very thin sheet styrene at .005 or .010 and then manage to coat it with a liquid decal film it could be done. With a BIG Maybe. Otherwise the ink has nothing to adhere too and will smear like crazy.
If printing directly from your printer doesn't work out, you may be able to take the file to a commercial sign shop (preferably a smaller one used to dealing with small, one-off projects), that can either print directly to styrene or PVC, or that can print to an adhesive material that you can then apply to the modeling medium of your choice. It's a neat looking building. If it were me, I would probably print the image onto an adhesive backed material, such as vinyl, using as much bleed (bleed is where you have color or image that extends beyond the line you're cutting on to give you a consistent image all the way to the edge of the paper) as possible, then wrapping each piece as thoroughly as possible. I would want things like the black around the truck dock to be a separate image than that of the wall of the building so that I could use smaller pieces of styrene with the black image to add more depth to the building than a printed picture would normally have, especially if you're looking at the dock from an angle. The crane on the inside is another thing I would want to print separately, again to apply it to smaller pieces of styrene for a deeper looking scene.
When laminating, it is probably best to use a slipsheet: http://artbistro.monster.com/training/articles/302-how-to-drymount-with-contact-adhesives
DO NOT TRY TO FEED STYRENE INTO A LASER PRINTER!!! They use heat to fuse the image to the paper and will melt styrene turning the fuser into a solid mess and destroying the printer. The problem if you try to do this with an inkjet printer is that the ink is water soluble and will rub off (especially if your fingers are moist).
If you have an inkjet printer that uses pigment ink, you may be ok, but use very thin plastic, and only in a machine that has a feed option for thicker materials. I have an Epson that has an adapter for printing on CD's, so how much problems can styrene be? There are coatings that could be painted on the styrene for better results. In all cases, spray with an overcoat. There are gloss and matte coatings made specifically for inkjet prints.
I doubt that any ordinary printer will print directly on styrene worth a darn. I do think you could easily print on paper and stick it to styrene shapes. Isn't that how Lance Mindheim does his structures? I think he photographs buildings from all sides, corrects any lens distortion and perspective in Photoshop, prints on plain paper, glues to styrene?
Just read something that could help you. There is an inkjet medium that is called Pictorico. It is made by Mutsubishi and is the same stuff that was once the substrate for glossy Cibachrome. For inkjet printing, it is coated with micro-ceramic. (all photo quality inkjet media is coated with something to absorb the "ink" that is usually clay based, but...) Can't be cheap and is thin and flexible, but it could easily be laminated to styrene. Just be sure that both surfaces that receive glue are clean, clean, clean. But, I still think that one of the coatings that are commercially available could be coated on styrene...
I once tried running thin sheets of styrene (.015") through my laser printer. The first sheet worked great, but the second sheet got jammed and actually started to melt inside the printer. Fortunately, no harm done, but I won't be trying that again Cheers, -Mark
Avery labels come in several sizes - I think they may even have full sheet sized. I've used them on styrene before to print cutting templates on my inkjet. Basically you just print on the Avery label, then peel it off and stick it to your styrene and not have to worry about sheet thickness or heat melting the plastic. Cheap, simple, no mess. Best of Luck, -Mike
i think an alps printer might do the job. but then, no one with a working alps will risk to ruin the printer.
The Avery full sheet self-adhesive label is #5165. However, if you want to avoid risking the possibility of humidity eventually causing the paper label to wrinkle (which I've seen happen), Avery also makes inkjet-compatible full sheet clear plastic labels, #18665.
Bill Pierce and I have probably had similar experiences with our Epsons, and his advice is right on. I have a widebed (19") that uses a pigment ink (Ultrachrome) and has a mechanism for feeding thick materials straight through the back. I'm not sure what John wants to print on the styrene. If he's trying to duplicate something like corrugated metal siding, it might be better to get a cheap digital cutter and scribe the material. Same thing if he's just marking out windows and other openings for later cutting with a knife. I've found that .010" styrene handles similar to extra heavy cardstock. However, it will not accept even pigmented inks without a little smearing. I do not use this thickness for structural parts, unless I am laminating it to very tight or complex curves. Sometimes I just laminate cardstock rather than styrene this thin. I also haven't found it in large sheets, the 48 x 96 or 36 x 72 that I prefer, so I consider it specialty material. Styrene thicker than .010" usually has two distinct sides, one smooth and hard, the other a bit rougher and softer. Printing on the rough side, at least with my printer, has been more receptive to ink and less smeared. But I always cut on the hard side, as that leads to fewer chips along the edges. I've found .015" only in a few places for the quantities I buy: it seems to be a strange beast, much cruder than thicker material. I don't use much styrene above .020", as I laminate that thickness to build up strength. I find the thicker stuff harder to flatten (or, in ships, to curve), so I use it only for special purposes.
There were car that had attached signs, like the NP pig palace cars, that this might be the answer for. Print your private owner, Olde Hooch Distillery, and attach it to a car. Now to see if they have the product in smaller label form.
