Printing on sail fabric?

[Ronastoo]

I remember some of the information from the dear departed PMB thread that was about making new sails for the pirate ships.
The fabric that is used is a nonwoven material that is called Pellon® in the US. It was the heaviest weight that was available.  It was the nonfusible kind.

Now this is the part that I need help with.  As I remember it, someone used that fabric and ran it through the printer to get new graphics on the sails.  I'm assuming that it was an inkjet printer but wouldn't that make the printing not waterproof?  Is there anything special that I need to do to my printer before I try to print on fabric?

Any suggestions or real life experience stories for this project would be greatly appreciated!   

[Ali Baba]

I have some experience with printing on unusual materials.

Use the manual tray of your printer. Because the material will go straight through the printer without bending too much in the rollers. Also because it will have an odd shape as opposed to regular printingpaper.

Some printers have an output tray at the back as well. So the print will not bend at all.

Make some paper copies of the sail and try printing on them first for the best result. You can align your graphics properly on your test sheets.

Put the straight edges on the side of the tray and not at the top and bottom, so your sail will go straight through the printer.

You can fix your graphics with hairspray, but you can find other fixing agents in art supply stores.

Are you going to frint on Pellon? Are you sure you cannot put it through a laserprinter?

[Andy R]

I remember some of the information from the dear departed PMB thread that was about making new sails for the pirate ships.
The fabric that is used is a nonwoven material that is called Pellon® in the US. It was the heaviest weight that was available.  It was the nonfusible kind.

¡YA! ¡¡THANK YOU!!
I really wanted to know what the material was so I can make new sails for myself… So ¡¡¡thank you very much!!!

[Ronastoo]

You can fix your graphics with hairspray, but you can find other fixing agents in art supply stores.

Are you going to print on Pellon? Are you sure you cannot put it through a laserprinter?

Thank you!  It's good to hear from someone that prints on unusual stuff.
My printer doesn't have a manual feed so I'm going to try the auto feed and hope for the best.

Using hairspray is a great idea.  I might have to buy some at the store because it's been YEARS since I used any on my hair.   

I don't know about putting the Pellon® through a laser printer.  If someone has a laser printer and wants to experiment it would be great to hear how well that works.  I'm going to see how it looks after I try putting it through my inkjet printer although I have the worst kind to use for this kind of project.  It's a front feed that makes a turn and then exits at the front.  I don't know if the fabric will feed through it without getting stuck. 
I'll let you know the results of my experiment.

[Ali Baba]

De nada. Another tip: often printers have an extra setting for thicker materials such as envelopes.

If you are making test prints on paper, use the same thicknes as the material for the final prints.

I'm really interested in your results, so I look forward to reading about them.

[Andy R]

I got to thinking, silk screening or similar processes (usually used for tee shirts) might work.

[Ali Baba]

If you have the tools to do that, sure.

You can also make a paper template and use paint and a flat brush.