Preferred way to iron perlers?

[funkymonkey]

Since I'm new to perler beads, I don't really know what the "standard" way to iron them is. On the instructions that come with the kit, it says to iron one side on the board, flip it, and iron the back as well. Most things I see online show people only ironing one side. It seems you still want the holes to show, but then some people iron them solid so they don't show. Which side is the front, the ironed side or the holed side? If it's the "hole" side, and you iron both sides, there wouldn't be a front!

I am very confused.

Maybe it is all just personal preference, but is there a "standard" way to make these?? Thanks!!

[RMDC]

To add to this: How does one prevent the piece from curling while ironing?

[katdun]

I'm definitely not an expert, but I can share what I've done. I always consider the "holed" side to be the front (I think it looks better on most of my projects), so I always put the beads on the pegs mirrored so that it comes out right when it's ironed. I only iron the one side of mine. To keep my projects from curling, I put a cake pan with weight in it over the whole thing right after I iron it (while it's still warm and with the paper still on) until it's cooled off enough to peel from the pegboard. I've only made small things, but so far so good!

[funkymonkey]

So far I've had the most luck keeping mine from curling if I just wait a couple of minutes after ironing before peeling off the paper.

[RMDC]

@katdun - I'll try the cake pan.

@funkymonkey - do you iron only one side as well?

[funkymonkey]

So far I've been lightly ironing both sides. Still wondering if this is standard!

[Aridesh]

Here is one of mine. I iron both sides because I find that it holds the project together better. I lightly iron the "front" so that it looks barely ironed, and I tend to heavily iron the "back" because I've had multiple projects fall apart from not being ironed enough.

[PixelPockets]

I have only a little experience with perler beads, but from what I can tell there are different methods for ironing them, and you just have to choose which ones you like the most

1) light ironing
you will need to iron both sides if you use this method.

2) normal? ironing
you just iron it a little bit more and can choose to iron both sides or one

3) flat ironing
you iron the piece lightly then remove it from the peg board and iron the crap out of it till they look like square pixels, (dont' do this on your grandma's wood table or a plastic folding table etc..)
with this method, many people seem to like to only do one side and display the unironed side, but you could potentially iron both sides if you prefer.

to keep mine flat, I lay books over each section as I complete it (for a large one) then let it sit till it cools.

If you want to make a large sprite, but don't have enough peg boards, you can follow the masking tape method of creating a portion of it by filling up the board you have, and laying masking tape over it... like in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5RjXH7AzTs
If you do this method, and want to go for the flat ironing, you'll have to remove the masking tape before the heavy duty ironing, or you'll have issues with the air expanding and blowing out some of your sprites.

there's probably more to know, but that's all I can tell ya! =)

[Kevin18875]

I'm tying my hand at Perlers now, and my inquiries have been answered, except for one:

I tried a large project for my first one, and butchered it. To start, it was on a soft ironing board, which I think may sag in the middle, so 2 of my 4 boards warped. I wanna know the surface where everyone irons their projects, and how to know also when enough heat is applied to the surface. You see, I left the heat on in certain areas, because some didn't even iron, and even still, I don't think some areas fused together, when they had the heat on em for more than 30 seconds. Let me know how everyone solves this problem. Also if boards can be unwarped if you iron em again on a flat surface. Let me know. Thanks.

[funkymonkey]

I have recenly moved to ironing my perler projects directly on my kitchen countertop. When I used an ironing board, especially with multi-board projects, I nearly always had shifting/sagging issues. I tried the straight-on-the-counter method as a last resort on a super big project, and it actually melted really evenly so I've been doing it since.

Given, my countertops are crappy laminate and I don't care if I damage them, but so far there's been no damage and I'm careful not to tip the iron so it never touches anything but the beads.

I also have been using parchment paper instead of the included ironing paper since I can tear a much bigger sheet and there aren't creases in it.

I put pots on the project as it's cooling after ironing the second side to keep it from curling, and iron the second side fairly quickly after the first (as soon as the parchment paper curls off; ~1-2 minutes) so it is still as warm as possible without damaging the ironed side by pulling the paper off too quickly. This also helps keep it from curling.

I do have to use a hot pad to help hold the project still while ironing the second side; the beads tend to slide a bit when it's straight on the counter.