Well, I had some difficulties with the wall vinyl I’ve been using so I decided to stop being so cheap and do a bunch of designs to practice installing.
Did some research on other user’s different techniques for Oracal 631 wall vinyl application. I cut most of the designs before I realized I should cut some with the cutting force lowered. The 2 circular dragon designs were cut after I lowered the cutting force. I rubbed the vinyl down with isopropyl alcohol to get my finger oils off the designs. I also squeegeed the backside of the designs after application tape installation. I tried the smaller reverse dragon design in my room again and had a much easier time with it. I think it was the alcohol that did the trick.
I took the T-Rex design to Ontario for my godson who loves dinosaurs. Had no real problem getting the design off the backer perhaps because of the alcohol. The application tape removal had a few hiccups that were easily corrected. I think in our haste to get the design on the wall we didn’t squeegee the design on the wall as thoroughly as we should have. Anyway, he loved the design and I look forward to doing some more for his brother and sister once I get some other colors.
Unfortunately, I found another problem when I was showing samples of the “etched glass” vinyl. I had used some low tack clear tape which seems to be losing adhesion over time. It could not lift the design of the backer. It worked fine for the multi-color design I did earlier for our glass door at the office. I checked on the PDS logo design which also used that tape and it seemed to have adherence issue on that as well. Obviously that’s not going to work for sending designs out. So now I am doing a bunch of designs in Mactac 8300 vinyl to test outdoors.
Now, I have to fine tune my depth, cutting force, and speed settings along with getting the proper tape for different vinyls and installation types. I need a good clear tape for doing multi-color designs and a consistent high-tack tape for getting the wall vinyl off the backer and onto the substrate.
Arrg! It’s always something.
