Papering over the cracks, or hopefully avoiding them altogether

[Tony Davis]

Bought myself a laser printer and decided to use Shaun's print and stick model as a guinea pig. Every thing went well apart from cracks where I had folded the wrap around paper. I remember Camperman mentioning this when I was talking about paper weight in another topic but it was only an aside.

 

Is there a technique to avoid the cracks? I thought maybe softening the paper first with pva might work?

 

Thanks

 

Tony

[nev777]

I've found (from a somewhat limited experience admittedly) that PvA glue makes the paper more pliable, and allows a much sharper bend, but you have to be very careful about getting it on the edges of the printed side because it can wet the ink causing the colours to bleed together or change colour altogether.

[Metalhip]

Laser toner doesn't bleed or run,that's one of the advantages of a laser printer over an inkjet printer.

 

Allan

[Stubby47]

I use a cheapo version of 'stick' glue and score the backs of the folds ( as per the master, Chubber), which seems to work for me.

 

I pre-score one fold, to get the brick alignment correct, add the glue, place the card in position, then as I wrap the paper around I score each other fold along the card edge .

 

I use an Hp inkjet, Tesco inks and Staples general use paper ( usual disclaimers ) and as long as the scoring is not too deep, so far so good.

[Phil Howe]

Laser toner doesn't bleed or run,that's one of the advantages of a laser printer over an inkjet printer.

 

... With the disadvantage being that laser toner is actually a plastic rather than an ink, hence the cracks.

 

I've used laser-printed sheets quite a bit and actually found that the cheaper the paper, the easier the creases seem to be. I had the worst cracking with some really expensive bright-white 100gsm paper.

 

If you are able to ascertain exactly where your creases need to be, lightly scoring the FRONT of the printed sheet with something blunt or rounded, like the back of a table knife blade, can stretch the printing slightly and reduce cracking. This tip courtesy of my greetings-card-making better half.

 

ATB

 

Phil

[TheAlchemist]

Please bear in mind that almost any paper you may use either for laser or inkjet printing will have a coating on it which has been applied in the paper mill. Hence the Cornish Alps! This coating also contributes to the total coating thickness once you have done your prinitng.

 

Papermakers are adept at improving the hold-out and appearance of their products. Some of the mill coatings are very similar to paints. Flexibility of coatings, including paints is very influenced by film thickness, at any given degree of hardness a thick film is less flexible than a thin one. Tinprinters can apply very thin films of coating/ink/varnish, (microns?) and get away with extremely sharp bends, in some cases down to 0T. Look at caps on jars and on bottles for examples.

 

Jerry

[Tony Davis]

So thin paper, pre-soften with pva and crease the front  - thanks guys I will give these a try. I am going to download the garages from the scalescenes site right after I post this reply and try out the techniques on these.

 

Thanks again

 

Tony

[Campaman]

I use standard 80gsm weight paper through my laser and find that's the best way of reducing the cracking of the laser print.

 

Score from behind, don't score on the actual print as that will scratch it, also its best to score dry then add your glue otherwise you may find that you will tear the paper by trying to score wet.

 

I also have a set of coloured pencils which are useful to lightly run down any slight cracking that you may get.

 

The disadvantage of the possibility of cracking is out weighed by the durability of the laser print as PVA wipes off it without smudging as it does with inkjets, the other side of the coin is of course inkjets are not prone to cracking.

 

 

Edit: Not sure what Kiwi finds Indecipherable about this post, it would be nice if they asked rather then press that without comment.

[Metalhip]

Please bear in mind that almost any paper you may use either for laser or inkjet printing will have a coating on it which has been applied in the paper mill. Hence the Cornish Alps! This coating also contributes to the total coating thickness once you have done your prinitng.

 

Papermakers are adept at improving the hold-out and appearance of their products. Some of the mill coatings are very similar to paints. Flexibility of coatings, including paints is very influenced by film thickness, at any given degree of hardness a thick film is less flexible than a thin one. Tinprinters can apply very thin films of coating/ink/varnish, (microns?) and get away with extremely sharp bends, in some cases down to 0T. Look at caps on jars and on bottles for examples.

 

Jerry

Thanks for that it explains why some packs of paper have an arrow on the side saying print this side,I always wondered why there was one side better than the other.

 

I'll be a bit more careful now to keep the best side on top.

 

Allan

[Mr Iceman]

never use my laser for modeling due to this cracking problem, Never needed pva to soften paper or had ink run/bleed using inkjet printer and a good matt paper.

[14Steve14]

I always use an inkjet printer on good quality paper, but always seal the print with either an inkjet fixative ot matt varnish before starting the build. This helps stop bleed to the inks when using pva glues and also stops the paper marking as it is help and worked on.

 

I did once try using a laser printer, but also had cracking issues. Also didnt like the satin finish that I seemed to get. Finally bought a cheap inkjet printer.