easy perler beads question...

[johloh]

this has probably been addressed somewhere, but I'm lazy.

on a single sprite sized project when I iron it, it looks fine. then as it cools the center bulges up and the ends push down, so once its cooled it isn't totally flat...

is there a way to deal with this? do you guys just put something heavy on it while its cooling from the iron?

[LiquidKarma]

this has probably been addressed somewhere, but I'm lazy.

on a single sprite sized project when I iron it, it looks fine. then as it cools the center bulges up and the ends push down, so once its cooled it isn't totally flat...

is there a way to deal with this? do you guys just put something heavy on it while its cooling from the iron?

Once one side is ironed i put a heavy book on it..wait for it to completely cool and then flip it over and iron the other side - book it and let it cool.

When you get into bigger projects it starts to become a mission impossible scenario to keep it perfect.

[dvdwojnar]

One of the key things is to get the sprite off pegboard as soon as you iron the first side (the combination of shrinking beads and the fixed-location pegs results in much of the warping). For single board ones, I just flip it over and off the board. Then you can put the book/whatever flat heavy object you have on hand on top the sprite until it cools down. You can usually tell if its completely cool when the beads have gotten "unstuck" from the ironing paper (that kind of liquid-on-paper look it gets when you iron the beads).

If you're like me--a bit impatient--you can do the same first few steps (minus book-press), but then quickly slap on another ironing sheet to the un-ironed side, iron that, then press the sprite with the book while both sides are still pliable. Its defintely not as professional, and maybe a bit risky if the design is on the larger side, but it makes the ironing process go quicker.

[LiquidKarma]

I find that as long as you use a book and wait until the sprite is totally cool you can leave it on the board, i find this necessary when doing larger projects because I usually go back and re-iron areas or double check that all the beads have fused around the edges. It's a huge pain to have beads left behind when peeling off a huge sprite off the boards.

[dvdwojnar]

Yeah, I can understand that. Haven't gotten into too much of the big stuff myself, but getting it off the pegboard would be almost impossible before it cooled down...

[johloh]

ok, good advice. I've been waiting for it to cool and paper off then booking...I'm not sure why. makes sense to book right away with paper still on. ill try it out this weekend and report back on how much warping i get.