Aluminum Toner No Sticky - Too smooth or due to compound?

[karbomusic]

Grabbed some buffing supplies yesterday and some rubbing compound sticks. Shined up my Hammond 1590b like a champ but the toner simply will not stick when preparing for etching. I've never had this problem in any form until I buffed in this fashion meaning before I just used sandpaper up to 2000 grit. I'm trying to figure out how to solve without wasting too much time. Does this sound familiar?

I thought it might be the rubbing compound since it is surely greasy but I've scrubbed the crap out of it with acetone and a microfiber - no luck. Could it be too smooth to allow adherence? I have a store bought polished 1590b that I etched a while back without issue and it appears to be about as smooth so I'm a little miffed here.

[karbomusic]

Tried several tricks up my sleeve... MEK doesn't even do it so I'm at a little bit of a loss.  It was so 'slick' I couldn't even get the transfer to stick at all, the paper would slide and move even after several minutes with a very hot iron.

I finally went back and wet sanded with 2000 grit. This fixed the problem but of course took away some of the shine I got from the buffing. So I would say it's too smooth (toner particles need something to bite into) but I can't truly be sure there wasn't some substance I simply couldn't remove from the surface with solvents and I'm still faced with the fact that the other store-bought buffed enclosure worked fine.

I won't hesitate to read and learn from anyone who might have an idea of what this actually is.

[stallik]

Hi Kary, I used to buff my pedals and also found that nothing wanted to stick. I'm my case, it was uv ink that would flake off. I used an adhesion promoter to get round the problem but never ended up with a rock solid finish.

For etching the mirror surface, I used cut vinyl as a mask (vinyl does stick) and an awful lot of patience. Whatever was left on the surface by the polish was pretty etch resistant but gave way after a few mins. Because of the heat when etching, I'll normally use a brush to apply the solution in case the vinyl lifts

Kind of gave up on polished surfaces as a result but I'd like to return to it so please share if you find a good method

[Quackzed]

maybee save the polishing for after etching... use a flatish plastic/acrylic piece with a polishing cloth/compound over it to keep out of the etch?

[newperson]

Which adhesion promoter?

[stallik]

Which adhesion promoter?

Sorry, can't recall the name - Ths was 2-3 years ago. I can remember that there were 3 available to me and that only one was any use with the polished surface. It seemed to slightly dull the surface which kind of made the whole exercise pointless

[karbomusic]

maybee save the polishing for after etching... use a flatish plastic/acrylic piece with a polishing cloth/compound over it to keep out of the etch?

Thanks for the idea... That would be wonderful but anything like that is going to lighten the etched areas too much (which by default aren't very dark anyway). The tiny fibers will still reach down into those areas even when flat. I'm going to try a few things this morning and see what happens and will report back.

[deadastronaut]

buffing before etching?..

2000 grit is really fine...

i use 180 to get a key /grip for the toner...

then i would use finer paper...buff etc..

[Quackzed]

yeah ...substrate / 2000 grit.  wet sand(soapy water) should keep out of the etch.

[karbomusic]

Never been able to make that happen, doesn't matter the grit, it finds its way down into the etch, they aren't very deep to keep 'em nice and sharp and to avoid undercutting. I also tried cleaning with acetone, MEK and soapy water and degreaser, no luck. I gave up and knocked it down with 1000 and the toner took fine but I still don't understand why the store bought mirror finish box etched just fine as-is. 

[karbomusic]

.... Quote button should not be right beside modify button ....

[karbomusic]

I went back and tried 2000 and didn't eat in as much as I thought it did so that'd good. I think I'm gonna have to continue to do it by hand for now, just isn't as shiny as the buffer wheel for sure though. Maybe one day I'll find a new trick.