Has anyone stickering tried using a spray adhesive and regular paper instead of laser printer stickers? I looked at the prices of stickers I could put in my printer and they were surprisingly expensive. Some of the spray adhesives made by 3M are pretty strong and durable. It seems that using a spray adhesive with regular paper would be a much cheaper way to sticker.

Get yourself a can of 3M's 777 adhesive, it's quite durable. But instead of regular paper, you might want to try heavier stock (such as might be used for a report cover). Unless you've got a laser printer, you'll save yourself a lot of money by going to a copy center (e.g., Kinko's) and making them that way. If you've got an inkjet printer, you'll burn a hole in your wallet doing them yourself.

Hint on 3M's 777: Spray the sign, wait a minute, then slap your paper on top of it. Waiting is a drag, but it lets the adhesive get tacky, and your paper will stick MUCH better and be MUCH harder to remove.
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Remora
Remora@Resourceful.com

remora
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remora@resourceful.com

An update:

First, as others have mentioned, 3M's product is "77," not "777." I guess I got carried away with the sevens!

Second, one of the signs that I "stickered" a couple of days ago has been "attacked." I presume the original spammer saw the stickered sign, and tried to remove the sticker. Too bad. He was able to peel away a few strips, perhaps 20% of the paper; but the area code & prefix of his phone number were still covered "well enough." Don't know why he left the sign there, though --- it was quite useless --- so I grabbed it and threw it in the trunk of my car.
--
Remora
Remora@Resourceful.com

remora
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remora@resourceful.com

Well, it's expensive, but after much experimentation, we're completely sold on Fasson Crack'n Peel Super Permenant Adhesive sticker stock. This one adheres to coroplast FOREVER. We often see stickers that someone's tried to remove and simply failed. The edges will be shredded, but the bulk of the sticker remains.

The only downside is that it doesn't work well if it's cold. In winter, we simply remove signs. In summer, however, the stickers are so aggressive that it's really difficult to apply them to the signs. We use a 4 foot pipe to raise the sticker up to the sign, and sometimes the sticker won't come off the pipe.

The best combination seems to be to run your car's air conditioning (in the summer, of course) and direct the blast onto the pipe. When you stop for the next sign, the pipe is chilly enough to resist the sticker.

What is your source of supply for this adhesive.
I don't recall seeing anything in the office supply stores in our area. Also, what is the cost and quanity you must buy.

GreatWhite-BH (GW)
Texas Chapter - CAUSS

GW

Home Depot and Lowes carry it here in Texas. A can costs about $10.

There are different kinds of spray adhesive. A weak kind is sold in hobby stores that allows repositioning. You wouldn't want to use that. The one's sold in the hardware stores are much heavier duty.

In experiments in my garage, I found that a light-weight paper (like newspaper) is virtually impossible to remove from the sign. You can only pull little, tiny pieces off. With laser printer paper, if I was careful, I could pull the sheet off in two or three pieces. The glue is left on the sign however.

Hmm... I just thought of something. If I printed the paper double sided and used spray adhesive, I wonder if when the paper was pulled off, if the toner would be left behind on the sign? I could print the image backwards on the side which goes against the sign and that way even if the paper is removed, the message remains. I'll have to try that out.

When I started stickering I was having custom bumper stickers printed for $1 a pop. Luckily, my supplier dried up and I was forced to try something else.

I noticed some spammers were sticking their signs to metal poles using some kind of fabric-like double-sided tape. I went to the local Home Depot in search of this stuff. It turned out to be carpet tape.

There are several types. The kind I use is the light duty 1.5" by 42' which is thinner, cheaper and easier to work with than the heavy duty stuff. The light duty tape costs less than $2/roll. Be careful though: there's some very similar looking tape that's sticky on one side only.

Anyway, you just:
1) Print up some CAUSS slogans using a copying machine
2) Apply the tape to the back
3) Approach sign
4) Remove peel-off backing from sticker
5) Stick it to the sign

Pretty simple. Seems easier than spray adhesives but does involve more preparation.

Good luck,

GS

I use 3m 77 spray adhesive. It works quite well. I am always careful to remove part of the phone number or the domain name...so that it wouldn't even be worth it if the spammer could remove the sticker, cause the sign would still be useless.

>I use 3m 77 spray adhesive.

I also use this and it work great - even when it's cold. Make sure that the sign is free of dirt first.

Cutting off part of the phone number and web address is critical so that the sign is left useless. I have seen a couple of my stickers torn off...leaving bits of bright paper behind. I don't know why because the signs are no good when I get done with them.

-Spellchecker

Spray adhesive evaporates so when you spray it on your fingers in cold weather, they can get really cold. This is more than offset by the sound of shattering coroplast - in cold weather it shatters with a sound not unlike firecrackers.