So I'm looking to custom print some decals, and from what I can gather laser is preferable to inkjet for them. However my local print shop is cautious about using decal paper because they're concerned about the plastic layer of the paper melting in the printer's heating element and damaging the machine. From what I can gather, this can happen (I can point to a rather angry Amazon review of someone who used decal paper that damaged two printers if you like) and I don't want to damage their printer or be left with a hefty repair bill. Can anyone recommend any particular brands of decal paper or methods of printing to ensure that this won't happen? Is there any advice that people can give me about printing them?

I printed my decals on several different laser printers I have at work (both b/w and color) using Experts-Choice Decal Film. I had no problems whatsoever in using their clear or white laser decal film.

http://www.bare-metal.com/Experts-Choice-Decal-Film.html

I think you can get those from Hannants in UK.

Do you have access to a good quality printer at work? Or a friend owns a quality printer at home? Perhaps you can try to print the decals yourself first and see if it works before going to the printing service?

Mario

Thanks, that's very helpful. Unfortunately I don't have any access at all to a laser printer outside of my local print shop, however they use a brother hl-41450cdn (guessing they meant either hl-4140cdn or hl-4150cdn and misquoted it to me) which as far as I can tell is more of an office printer than a professional or commercial one.

Well, it is your call. I would hate it the company pins an eventual problem with the machine to printing on a decal film, and you have to reimburse their repair costs.

Can you point me to the Amazon review you quoted?

Mario

Thanks. Yeah, it's a bit tricky. It's reached the point where I'm seriously considering finding a cheap laser printer on eBay and using that :/

As for the amazon review, here you go

I custom make my own decals on an HP bubble jet printer all the time-- a laser is preferable if you can get it, but not necessary if you follow these simple steps:
1) clear coat your decal paper with a good flat clear, this gives the ink something to "bite" or stick to. It doesn't need to be a heavy coat, but be sure every centimeter of the paper is covered.
2) print at least two of every image if you use color, not so important with black colors--the reason for this will become apparent below-- if you have a quality printer, and carefully re-insert the printed sheet when dry, you can print it again to give deeper colors and tones--but it's important to make sure it's aligned properly in the printer.
3) allow the decals to dry for about an hour after coming out of the printer, this ensures the ink will stand up to a second clear coat
4) using a good clear flat or gloss, whichever you prefer, lightly spray a fixative coat over the printed decals. This should be "misted" on to prevent puddles or drips that could cause the underlying ink to run.
5) allow the now coated decals to dry for at least 12 hours.
6) cut your decals out and apply as normal, use a mild decal softener to start, if needed you can go over them with something hotter later.
7) sometimes different bubble jet printers will print the ink a little translucent-- and not all decal paper is the same, some are thicker than others-- so your decal may be slightly translucent on the model-- this is where the second set of decals comes in-- they can be applied right over the first decal to give a richer, deeper opaque color. I've used as many as three sets of decals to get a really rich color (printed on Microscale decal paper, which is really thin).

A couple of tips: I recommend Microscale Decal solution to substitute the second fixative coat over the decals-- it can be sprayed full strength over the decal with an airbrush-- you can use lacquer or enamel clear coats and even Future (Kleer) but they are sometimes less flexible. I don't recommend spray can decal fixative (Testors) -- it can't be controlled well, which usually results in puddles and runs, and it can't be "misted" on very well. One last note-- I usually "practice run" my decals through the printer with a plain sheet of printer paper to ensure everything is aligned and correctly sized. I also mark the back page of the decal paper with a big "X" so if I need to reprint it, I get the right side up in the printer.
VR, Russ

Thanks for the information. I've also got a couple of concerns about printing. I've come across a couple of instances where four-pass colour printers warp or deform the decal paper or damages the printer. Is it worth specifically going for a single-pass printer out of it?

I don't know much about printers--I have an HP Office Jet Pro 8600, and I've been using it for about 4 years to print decals without any problems, using Microscale and Testors decal paper in both clear and white. Before that, I had a LexMark printer for about 7 years-- a pretty simple one, and again I had no problem. I upgraded my printer when I bought a new Sony computer. Most printers are made to print glossy photo paper stock, which is really no different than decal paper-- so I really don't see any problems. I'd think if you could print photos, you can print decals-- the same should go for a laser printer wouldn't you think?
VR, Russ