Home-made white decals are back?

[Maletrain]

https://www.micromark.com/Ghost-White-Toner-and-HP-Printer-Bundle

But, definitely not cheap.

[C855B]

And definitely not for a quality result. The HP M452 is a four-color CMYK printer, I have one. IIRC, the white cartridge substitutes for the black, and there's some software funkiness to make the white/(black) print first, underneath the CMY. So if you need black, you have to run it through twice. Or some similar nonsense, like doing a white-only pass, changing the cartridge back, then printing the CMYK. The M452 is an excellent printer in general, but accurate registration on multiple passes is not what it was designed to do.

Also... the M452nw is a discontinued model. FWIW. Micro-Mark wants $350 for the cartridge alone, so you'd be paying $440 for a printer I bought three or four years ago for under $250. Such a deal!

I'll continue to use http://www.circuscitydecals.com for custom white decals. They have an honest-to-gosh 5-color laser printer, so registration isn't an issue.

[wvgca]

i just use white paper, and print the background color ... a lot lower cost ..

[Missaberoad]

https://www.ghost-white-toner.com/

[nkalanaga]

wvgca:  A good idea for graphics, but not so easy if one wants white lettering.

[rslaserkits]

Does anyone know what Epson uses to ink in their tank printers?
If you could get white ink that would work in one of them and they are low cost
so could have one just for white decals.
rich

[DeltaBravo]

Have any of you tried Decal Pro?  https://decalprofx.com/index.html.
 I used it for custom white lettering on some coal cars. It is a multi step process, but it works and is dry-rub-on.

[wvgca]

wvgca:  A good idea for graphics, but not so easy if one wants white lettering.

actually very easy to do white lettering ... white decal paper, and print the background only ..;
i did the same on my home made decals, yellow letters on a black background .. couple of bucks a sheet ..

[reinhardtjh]

This has been well discussed in the two ALPS related Yahoo groups.  I'm surprised @peteski hasn't commented.  But for decals the white toner solution is so-so mostly due to repeatability (actually lack of it for feeding the sheets through multiple times) and the order in which toner is laid down on the paper.

[DeltaBravo]

So as I mentioned the Decal Pro system does not use white toner. It is a dry transfer system. Here are a couple of custom cars I made using the system. These are weathered.

[diezmon]

Still have my ALPS, and plenty of ink

[learmoia]

Question on the dry transfer process..

Can you print dry transfer, and apply the 'Dry Transfer' to decal to clear decal film?

I've heard of this method being used where dry transfer letting would be difficult to apply to uneven surfaces.

The results look decent.

~Ian

[DeltaBravo]

Question on the dry transfer process..

Can you print dry transfer, and apply the 'Dry Transfer' to decal to clear decal film?

I've heard of this method being used where dry transfer letting would be difficult to apply to uneven surfaces.

The results look decent.

~Ian

I have no idea, I never tried it. The dry material is a foil,very simular to the foil used in foil stamping as part of the printing process. Don't confuse foil with gloss.

[peteski]

This has been well discussed in the two ALPS related Yahoo groups.  I'm surprised @peteski hasn't commented.  But for decals the white toner solution is so-so mostly due to repeatability (actually lack of it for feeding the sheets through multiple times) and the order in which toner is laid down on the paper.

Because, as David said, DecalPro is a different process.  While the process likely works fine, it is more complex that what I can do with Alps (direct printing on decal paper).

None of the consumer grade laser printers (with white toner) come even close to the capabilities of the Alps MicroDry printers, and I'm tired of mentioning that.    Heck, even the industrial ink jet printers (like the one Tichy Trains uses for custom decals) are not optimal. Their ink is way too thick for decals.  It would be best suited for printing decal rivets, louvers, or welds.

[reinhardtjh]

Because, as David said, DecalPro is a different process.  While the process likely works fine, it is more complex that what I can do with Alps (direct printing on decal paper).

None of the consumer grade laser printers (with white toner) come even close to the capabilities of the Alps MicroDry printers, and I'm tired of mentioning that.    Heck, even the industrial ink jet printers (like the one Tichy Trains uses for custom decals) are not optimal. Their ink is way too thick for decals.  It would be best suited for printing decal rivets, louvers, or welds.

Ah, but the original post wasn't about DecalPro, that came just recently.

This was the original post:

https://www.micromark.com/Ghost-White-Toner-and-HP-Printer-Bundle

But, definitely not cheap.

But I can understand you might be tired of it.  How many times has it been brought up in the ALPS groups?