Best COLOR LASER printer for water slide decals

[Solo7]

I have been trying to print decals on laser printers (since laser prints don't have to be coated like inkjet decals) but I get smudging on color printouts. My B&W laser (a HP LaserJet pro M401dne) prints B&W decals all day with no smudging. I tried LASER decal paper from pavilion.com & www.decalpaper.com which seem to be the same. I tried different settings on the printer (Glossy & heavy stock) with not much results. On one side of the page color printouts comes out OK (not perfect) the other side has a lot of smudging. The 2 Color Laser printers I have used are a HP Color Laserjet 4700 & a HP Color Laserjet CM1017 MFP. Has anyone had luck with COLOR lasers in printing decals?

[Hotdog]

I print them all the time with great results. I use a heavy duty office Xerox copier, model 700i. I use only high quality Beldecal brand laser decal paper. It costs a little more, but it runs good and never wrinkles or rips.

 

The trick to printing model decals on a laser printer is to get the sheet through the printer as quick as possible, before the sheet gets too hot. Here's some tips on how to do that:

 

• Use a plain paper setting. Do not use the copier settings for labels, glossy or heavyweight stocks. These settings move the sheet at a slower speed to prevent jamming. Thin model decal sheets should run just fine on "plain" and never jam.
   
• Feed the paper through the bypass tray instead of one of the drawers. This helps cut down on the time the sheet is inside the printer.
   
• Use the "face up" print setting. This keeps the machine from flipping the paper over and running it through another set of rollers inside the copier, greatly speeding up the print time as well as preventing smudging while it's rolling along inside the printer.
   
• Turn the power off and let the printer cool down completely before running a decal sheet. Sometimes if I print a decal after my copier has been sitting "on" all day, I get smudging or flaking.

 

If you try all of that and still get smudging, try putting the decal sheet in the fridge for awhile to cool before printing. That may help offset the heating problem.

 

[Solo7]

Hotdog thank you I am going to try every thing you outlined.

[Solo7]

OK the Bel decal website sends me over to www.decalpaper.com so I have the right paper.

I use the printer in my office and the color printer is within 5 feet of the refrigerator.

So I swiftly install the paper in the bypass tray after coming out of the freezer and then click the print button on my computer.

This all WORKED! The print has NO smudging, Thank you Hotdog!

[Hotdog]

You're welcome! Glad to be of help.

[Solo7]

Just an update here incase anyone does want to buy a color laser printer to print decals. I contacted HP & they don't recommend any printer under $1000 for printing onto water slide decal paper. That said they do sell printers that print onto heavy glossy paper of up to 52 ibs paper weight for way under $1000. Water slide decal paper is about 45 ibs paper weight. You can pick up a discontinued & refurbished printer on Amazon (HP Color LaserJet CP2025dn) for about $175. You can also buy a new HP Color LaserJet CP2025dn for $270. I got the new printer since I want to keep it for a while for many other printing jobs. But I am still going to follow the 4 suggestions that hotdog outlined above to print smug free decals.

[karl h]

i used an old HP 2605dn and got fantastic results. i only use strips of decal paper taped to normal paper to avoid the paper turning gray after the second print run (due to heat). i might try the cool method...

[Hotdog]

23 hours ago, Solo7 said:

 I contacted HP & they don't recommend any printer under $1000 for printing onto water slide decal paper.

 

That's because they don't want to be responsible for the decal film coming off inside the printer and ruining the machine when you accidently print with the wrong settings. As you said, decal paper is 45# and heavy gloss is 52# so you can get away with it, you just have to be meticulous and be sure to get your print settings right. It's all about keeping that sheet of decal paper from getting too warm. Follow my guidelines above and use common sense with the mindset of keeping the paper cool and getting the sheet to go through the machine as fast as possible, and you'll be fine.

[jelliott523]

Hotdog, I dont know if you are still checking in on the thread or not, but I was curious about putting the paper in the fridge. Can you put it in by itself, or should I seal it in a ziploc type of bag to prevent moisture getting to the paper? I to have an HP Laserjet MFP and experienced the smudging that Solo was describing. I also had trouble getting it to feed through the bypass tray.

[Aussie-Pete]

I've been using an office laser printer. Just run paper from sheet feeder

[Hotdog]

On 9/9/2019 at 9:54 PM, jelliott523 said:

Hotdog, I dont know if you are still checking in on the thread or not, but I was curious about putting the paper in the fridge. Can you put it in by itself, or should I seal it in a ziploc type of bag to prevent moisture getting to the paper? I to have an HP Laserjet MFP and experienced the smudging that Solo was describing. I also had trouble getting it to feed through the bypass tray.

 

You should def seal it in a bag, and I'd be sure to only leave it in there as long as necessary to cool it. In other words, don't forget about it and leave it in there overnight.

[Fredrick Bond]

The HP is a solid machine. Almost all manufacturers will not list waterslide paper as "compatible" however as long as you get the waterslide paper that is designed for laser printers you should be OK. My general advice for shopping for a printer is to look at the cost of the cartridges and duty cycle of the machine.

 

There are some great machines out there for filthy cheap on the low end of the cost spectrum, however the cost of using them is prohibitive. Lexmark has some very solid machines as well.

 

For more details about waterslide decal printers, you can check out David's blog here.

Edited October 15, 2021 by Fredrick Bond

[Aussie-Pete]

I've done my own decals on my office color laser.

[Immi Wilson]

On 3/29/2017 at 8:37 AM, Hotdog said:

I print them all the time with great results. I use a heavy duty office Xerox copier, model 700i. I use only high quality Beldecal brand laser decal paper. It costs a little more, but it runs good and never wrinkles or rips.

 

The trick to printing model decals on a laser printer is to get the sheet through the printer as quick as possible, before the sheet gets too hot. Here's some tips on how to do that:

 

• Use a plain paper setting. Do not use the copier settings for labels, glossy or heavyweight stocks. These settings move the sheet at a slower speed to prevent jamming. Thin model decal sheets should run just fine on "plain" and never jam.
   
• Feed the paper through the bypass tray instead of one of the drawers. This helps cut down on the time the sheet is inside the printer.
   
• Use the "face up" print setting. This keeps the machine from flipping the paper over and running it through another set of rollers inside the copier, greatly speeding up the printer for waterslide Decals time as well as preventing smudging while it's rolling along inside the printer.
   
• Turn the power off and let the printer cool down completely before running a decal sheet. Sometimes if I print a decal after my copier has been sitting "on" all day, I get smudging or flaking.

 

If you try all of that and still get smudging, try putting the decal sheet in the fridge for awhile to cool before printing. That may help offset the heating problem.

 

 I Just Followed these Steps and Everythinig goes perfect. PERFECT!!!