Hello everyone! I am getting started in trying my hand in IDs again.
A quick history on me: From 2004 to ~2010 I used an Evolis Securion (don't ask) to print high quality cards. I would skip the Securion lamination process as I didn't have any real state laminates and instead use EZscreen stencils with speedball and Pearlex directly to the card and then apply a 1mil matte adhesive laminate over it. My UV, applied with custom home-made rubber stencils, would stick to the laminate. I used a MSR206 for magstripes, always scanned great. I experimented Teslin a few times but never got much into it. My IDs did the trick in many cases. I was more into making them as a hobby to see what I could do; for the few dozen times I sold them, people were happy over all.
I'm looking to get into things again and I now have, aside from my PVC cards and while my trusty Securion still works, I don't intend on using it. Currently in my shop I have: 10mil Teslin; various thicknesses of both matte and gloss laminate; Epson w/ 6 different colors UV ink for UV print; Canon IP8700 series for the primary print (and I heard it was good for micro-printing); CR80 card puncher (a heavy, oily one); TLC 7000T table-top laminator; various Pearlex pigments; Transgen v2 for barcodes. My source of templates remains the old Ultimate ID v8 pack from 2010 and some newer materials that were found over the years. Some are high quality, some aren't. It's really kind of hit or miss. I have a 0.3mm micro drill bit and hand tool for hand-making perfs, I have mixed success with testing that.
A few questions:
I'd like to try my hand at making some of my own holo/OVI laminates. What I am curious about is how I get it onto the laminate so that it survives the heat of laminating and maintains its look. I understand that screen printing to them works but I don't have a screen printing setup aside from the EZscreen stencil stuff, and speedball + Pearlex method isn't exactly encouraging. Can anyone recommend any information on this? What exactly is needed here?
I also am interested in perforation. I have a 0.3mm "microbit" drill bit with a small little hand-held drill press, and in some cases might be able to do some passable perforation by hand into the Teslin. However, otherwise, am I to assume that a small programmable CNC is needed to punch these out reliably or with complicated patterns like the shape of a state? Does anyone sell a large number of state perfs of Teslin already punched?
Transgen v2 with the state modules is a bit confusing as its documentation URL is no longer available. For certain states there are many fields with confusing variable values that I do not understand. Does anyone have any information on this, including the documentation / guide to the states (or whatever it is that it is supposed to link to that is 404?)
TO TRUSTY VENDORS:
To help get started faster and to have something to inspire me and compare my work to I'm interested in buying good quality OVI laminates (multi-color w/ UV if the UV is in the OVI per the ID spec) of 7mil and 10mil; pre-perforated Teslin in 10mil; and high-quality modern templates w/ associated guides if applicable, for the following states: ND, SD, RI, MT, OR, CT, VT, ME, NE, ID, MO, IN, MI. Have bitcoin, will spend :D.
Thank you everyone. This is basically my first post here but I have been lurking for a while, reading and checking out the verifieds and it seems like this is a pretty good community.
Regards,
K.C.
Upvoted: i_main_darius, kingcandy
Downvoted:
FoundingFathers Vendor —