Finish over stickers

[scotirish]

Good morning to all!
Four of my grandchildren are involved in soccer and baseball. I made them pens out of Poplar and have stickers of baseballs and soccer balls to put on them. My question is what finish should I put over them to keep them on the pen? I have see pens with stickers on the but do not know what the finish is.

 

[ken69912001]

Try spraying a thin coat of lacquer over them if you are worried about the colors spreading. Or you can go to a hobby shop and get the spray they use to put on the top of decals. Then just use a CA finish on the pens.

 

[scotirish]

Thanks I will give that a try.

 

[Rodzilla67]

I have had good success using Thins CA applied with paper towel on lowest possible speed. Very gentle first coat, and quickly spray with accelerant. After that first coat, you can bump speed if you prefer, however I usually set mine at 2nd slowest speed after that.

Another idea would be to simply cast your tubes in clear resin, and turn that way. Would give the images the appearnace of depth.

 

[Skye]

Careful with accelerator on CA, sometimes it'll fog over in white. Just depends on how thick it is and the accelerator used I think.

I've made a pen with a cigar band on it, just a few coats of medium CA, seems to work fine. Just make sure you MM with a gentle touch.

 

[gwilki]

I spray a very thin coat of pre-cat lacquer first, then cast them. The lacquer seals the colour.

 

[MobilMan]

Syke--can you feel a ridge or bump after the CA has been built up somewhat? Otherwords, can you feel or see the transition where the item is placed? Is it best to have it go completely around the blank? Don't wanna steal Scotirish's thread but these questions may help him. If an item wrer placed only 1/2 way around the blank, how would you build up the other 1/2 to make it round? Probably have to be double cast?

 

[Skye]

I can feel the cigar band on mine. As thick as CA feels, a sticker or piece of paper is pretty thick. You'll have to at least double the thickness of the paper in CA in order to get everything even.

The brown is your wood.
The white line is the sticker.
The blue to each side of that is the first layer of CA that brings the sticker level with the CA on the wood. This makes the sticker seamless, but it also exposes the sticker to damage.
The blue on top is a sealing layer, which is the first and only protective layer on the sticker.

That's the way I would have went had I spent more time with it. Problem is, when you're getting that first layer down, you need to make sure not to damage the sticker.

 

[Blind_Squirrel]

I spray a very thin coat of pre-cat lacquer first, then cast them. The lacquer seals the colour.

How long do you let the lacquer cure before casting?

 

[gwilki]

I generally let it cure over night. It dries to the touch in about 5 minutes, and is supposed to be hard enough for a second coat after about 30 minutes. I found that if I only went 30 minutes before casting them, I was getting a reaction between the lacquer and the alumilite - showing up as a haze over the decal.