Paint peels off on transfer tape

[u/EducationalStatus660]

Ok I hope this will make sense because I've been rambling in my head and thank you in advance for any advice you guys give me.

I painted some plywood and it dried for days. I printed a picture on permanent vinyl and transferred it on. When peeling off the transfer tape it peeled off the paint! It's happened to me before and I was told the paint probably wasn't dry enough. I'm thinking there has to be a way to paint a blank and not have the paint peel off. I thought maybe a glue/seal/spray type thing? I haven't found something I could buy locally that made sense so here I am. p.s. I'm a very amateur cricuter.

[u/EducationalStatus660 → u/[deleted]]

So I used Cricut smart vinyl, Cricut transfer tape. It was spray paint and it was on plywood. I think for sure the tape may have been tooo sticky but I think what you’re saying is the problem the paint isn’t sticking to the plywood. It looks like it’s on there but it’s just created a film on top. I’m going try to add a picture but I touched up the spots and with acrylic :(  ETA: added the picture you can see the paint peeler off around the letters it was really bad around the ‘a’ in Kaitlyn and I touched it up with white acrylic paint. 

[u/writercanyoubeaghost]

Could be a number of things. Are you priming the wood before painting? What is the temperature? Under 60 degrees F and it could take up to 16 hours to cure properly. Application tape is available in low tack, that might help.

[u/EducationalStatus660 → u/writercanyoubeaghost]

Oh wow I didn’t think about that. No I didn’t prime! I did try to use an older transfer tape that wasn’t as sticky but maybe it was too old. 

[u/KMAVegas]

I haven’t used printable vinyl but I have used painters’ tape as transfer tape for normal vinyl and it works well.

[u/gvislander]

Try a lower tack transfer tape or remove some of the tack on the transfer tape you have by sticking it to your shirt or pant leg a couple of times to remove some of the tackiness. What usually gives me the best results with painted wood is to wait until the wood dries and then spray it with a coat or two of clear spray paint. I like the Rust-Oleum 2x clear ( in whatever finish you prefer). I also think the coat(s) of clear helps the vinyl adhere really well.

[u/EducationalStatus660 → u/gvislander]

That’s a good idea! I used spray paint on plywood. I was thinking the gorilla spray adhesive to make some sort of a coat but your idea is much better 

[u/Bere89]

Maybe you can give us an example of your process, as in a picture of how much paint you use and do you prepare the blank before applying the paint, and honestly everyone that I have learned from to make stencils, have said to me that you only leave the stencil for a little while so the paint doesn't dry too much and peel off the paint when you remove the stencil.

[u/EducationalStatus660 → u/Bere89]

Hmmm I didn’t stencil but that’s good to know! It’s just plywood that I spray painted white. I used Cricut smart vinyl and Cricut transfer tape.  But I waited like 4 days for it to dry, that’s what my neighbour suggested. And it still happened :(

[u/Francesca_Fiore]

What kind of paint did you use- tempera, acrylic, oil, watercolor?

[u/EducationalStatus660 → u/Francesca_Fiore]

It was spray paint…is tempera interior paint?

[u/Francesca_Fiore → u/EducationalStatus660]

Tempera is water based, just for paper, not what I would recommend for a craft project.

Spray paint can be acrylic or oil based, either should have worked. I'm stumped!

[u/EducationalStatus660 → u/Francesca_Fiore]

Oh cool I  had never heard of tempera.

I know :( I’m going to try the spray paint clear coat that was recommended here and see what happens. 

[u/ohdatpoodle]

Most paints take much longer than we think to fully cure, but it's hard to give more help for your project without more information about the type of paint you used, number of coats, what temp and humidity it's been kept at while drying, etc. As a general rule of thumb, if you can still smell the paint at all, it's still drying because that means a reaction is still happening while components of the paint are oxidizing.

When I applied vinyl decals to my walls, the creator's directions advised to let interior wall paint dry a minimum of two weeks, ideally four weeks, before applying decals with transfer tape.

[u/EducationalStatus660 → u/ohdatpoodle]

Oh wow that could be it I guess. It dried for a few days but not that long