stencilling cd-rs

would it be a bad idea to stencil a design on with spray paint or india ink? either in terms of flaking off with heat, or making the cd unplayable? my burner is broken right now otherwise I'd just try it...

i would worry about paint

that would surely chip at some point

nah, i've done it plenty of times. just normal spraypaint should be fine. just make sure you don't get any overspray on the other side!

Make a mask from heavy cardboard (not corrugated) and use a jewel case to hold the CD as a way to prevent overspray.

You could also go the printable CD route as well...

cheers for the tips! I have some printable labels too but I don't really like the thickness/texture.

You can also get CD-Rs that have a blank top that is paper based, and then you can just get a stamp made that's the size of the CD for like $10. It works very well, the only problem is it'd have to be 1 colour (actually maybe you can make multiple stamps with different colours, but that'd get complicated fast).

take carboard, cut out exact shapes of CD's.

and spray paint. Just make sure you know how to make an even coat, and to wait for it to dry to do more coats.

  On 8/21/2009 at 4:14 PM, Joyrex said:

You could also go the printable CD route as well...

true. but any sign of water will ruin the print. spraypaint will never come off!

printable CD's also look shitty.

noise labels mostly do cassettes, and printed paper for cassette casing works a lot better, than on a CD.

Also, yes small labels that do spray painted CD's look better than inkjet/laser jet printed cds. Not to mention any one who does more than 100 or more copies can get professionally printed CD's for a good rate, that wont look like shit.

You tell him GP!

ok sure, find an easy way for me to screen print CD-r's and I'll do it.

  On 8/22/2009 at 2:16 AM, modey said:

  On 8/21/2009 at 4:14 PM, Joyrex said:

You could also go the printable CD route as well...

true. but any sign of water will ruin the print. spraypaint will never come off!

Not with a clear coat of lacquer spray...

  On 8/24/2009 at 4:44 AM, Glass Plate said:

printable CD's also look shitty.

Depends on your printer, and the surface you're printing on.

You can also get a thermal printer...

ugh, thermal cd's...

seriously if you want something more complicated than a stencil, then you should probably just get them professionally made, it's pretty inexpensive these days.

or better yet, just sell mp3s... :P

  On 8/24/2009 at 8:40 PM, Glass Plate said:

ugh, thermal cd's...

 

seriously if you want something more complicated than a stencil, then you should probably just get them professionally made, it's pretty inexpensive these days.

 

or better yet, just sell mp3s... :P

OK, I'll bite: What's so "ugh" about thermal CDs? the WATMM Volume One 3" CDr bonus was thermally printed, and I was quite impressed by the quality and durability of it...

I have been collecting used gillette razors to make an additional simulated "low printer ink" stencil. I think it will be more "authentic" than thermal printing.

  On 8/28/2009 at 8:12 PM, Glass Plate said:

Well, for poorly-prepared images, I'm not surprised - they should have converted that image into a halftone screen compatible with the output resolution of the thermal printer.