Heatless "cold" toner transfer - some results

[statzern]

Tried my hand at this method of toner transfer and wanted to post in case it may be of use to some of you. I have been a little frustrated with the ironing method because of uneven heating, I will sometimes get both smudged traces and small gaps on the same board. This is probably lack of skill with ironing pressure, speed and motion on my part, but I thought I would try the heatless method, just to see if I could get better resolution and consistency.

It took a little experimenting, but I got a great transfer in a remarkably short amount of time. Will etch today, and that will be the real test whether this is a reasonable alternative to ironing.

As far as technique and materials go, I started with a piece of copper clad which I prepared with 00 steel wool, rinsed with water, then scrubbed with acetone and a paper towel, making sure no paper towel fuzzes were left behind. My artwork was printed with a Canon laser copier onto my photo paper of choice, HP photo paper which can be bought at Dollar Tree in 8 packs.

The tricky part was finding the proportion of acetone to alcohol to get an acceptable transfer. The YouTube tutorial suggested 3:8 acetone to ethyl alcohol, which is basically not available in the US as far as I know apart from denatured alcohol which has who knows what else in it. I went with 91% isopropyl alcohol for my dilutent. I tried with 3:8 ratio and got basically no transfer the first time and the paper fell right back off the board as if nothing happened. I then increased the acetone proportion to 1:1 with a single pad transferring. The final mix that worked for me was 3:1 acetone to alcohol. The alcohol is Target brand and the acetone is Kleen Strip, which I bought at Home Depot.

As far as mixing, I used a 10 cc syringe and drew up 3cc acetone, 1cc alcohol and agitated before spreading on the copper clad. As soon as the solution was on the board I quickly placed the artwork facedown on the board, making sure all toner was in contact with the solution. I waited about 10 seconds to allow for reaction time and then placed a folded paper towel on top of the paper and pushed down with my thumb with moderate pressure to transfer the now soft toner onto the copper. For about 30s, I worked my way around the board until I had pressed all parts of the board several times. I then allowed to board to sit uncovered for about 2 min to allow any residual alcohol to evaporate. The board then was placed into a bowl of water to soak for about 2 min, allowing the backing paper to soften. The board was then removed and the paper was gently removed to reveal the transferred toner.

I will post a picture of the transferred board and the etched result when I'm done. Happy building all!

[karbomusic]

Sounds interesting, let us know how it goes.  My curiosity is how well it bonds to the copper and how much abuse it can take post transfer.

On a side note as far as ironing/pressure/heat. There is a temperature where toner will transfer but not melt (usually between 275F and 325F) so being in that happy zone is key - it's also more difficult to control with an iron since pressure relates to heat transfer etc. However, I picked up a cheap t-shirt press a couple years ago. I have it set to 280F, plop in the copper, clamp, 90 seconds, done and perfect first time every time.. One of the best decisions I've ever made and I can make my own t-shirts to boot. I've never really fretted about transfers at all since the day I got that press.

[statzern]

Here are the results - pretty good I would say.

A couple small notes - I should have removed the board outline or cut it out closer - even that tiny thin line on the board etched perfectly, but I was afraid it might create a short so I used a scribe to remove the toner over part I was concerned about and put it back in the bath and etched it away.

The toner provides very good resistance to the etchant. I used FeCl and a water bath to heat the board / speed the process.

I will try next with a larger board and see how that goes!

[statzern]

Here's an etch with a larger design. There are a couple small defects - the trace in right side of the picture is the worst on the board - but nothing that can't be fixed with a little creative soldering, and it does already check out continuity-wise. Adequate for prototyping and personal use.

[ElectricDruid]

Interesting. I hadn't heard of this method before. Thanks for sharing your results.

Tom

[Kipper4]

Yep very intresting.
Nice mechanical style layout too.

[PRR]

> ethyl alcohol, which is basically not available in the US as far as I know

You have to pay the Booze Tax. "EverClear" is 75% or 95% (local laws) pure grain ethyl alcohol, available in some states in large liquor stores. Golden Grain, Clear Spring, and Gem Clear are other brands of the same stiff stuff. $13 for the small 190pf bottle in Chicago. $23 for larger jug of 151pf in Maine.
EverClear info
general info on over-strong spirit in the US

[Beo]

I would be very curious to see this applied to enclosures. Also, I suspect a hand held pressure roller would be good for ensure consistent and complete pressure coverage, instead of your thumb.

[baklavametal]

I would be very curious to see this applied to enclosures. Also, I suspect a hand held pressure roller would be good for ensure consistent and complete pressure coverage, instead of your thumb.

Tried today on a backlid of a 1590B, just to test it. it came better than with iron method.
Surface was unprepared except cleaning it with 100% acetone (bought from a nearby hw store)
Printed with HP P1102 on an IKEA catalog paper
Positioned the printed paper on an enclosure lid
applied acetone from "behind/above"
left it for 1 min
Applied pressure using paper towel, another enclosure and the bottle of acetone on top of that (almost full) for 3 mins
Rinsed under lukewarm water, paper peeled right off
Looking very good compared to my previous iron method

No pictures because i tried to etch it with NaOH after and almost suffocated (first time NaOH user) so, like a true millenial i quit after the first obstacle

[patrick398]

I think i need to give this method a proper go. I've had mediocre results with heat transfers for too long. Luckily when doing enclosure transfers i do quite like the 'aged' effect a bad transfer yields.
Interested to hear that IKEA catalogue paper works well? I wonder if an Argos catalogue uses the same paper. God i hope so, no more extortionate photo paper

[Mark Hammer]

I find the challenge with toner transfer is identifying when "what's underneath" has adhered.  Having tried a variety of media, I find the critical factor to be the thickness and pliability of the backing media.  The advantage of Press-N-Peel is that the acetate sheet is thin enough to "sag" over the edges of the toner pattern (it's a good idea to select printer settings that lay down the thickest coat of toner).  When the full pattern seems to appear in "bas relief" ( https://www.dictionary.com/browse/bas-relief ), you're done.

Photo paper is pleasingly inexpensive, but is a much thicker medium than the acetate sheet, so you can't get the bas relief, no matter how long you iron for, how thick the toner is, or how hard you press.  If one uses the thinnest photo paper you can find, that will help matters, partly because you can sort of see the progress of the transfer better, and likely because the thinner paper backing allows heat to be transferred more effectively.

I've been using this stuff - http://www.dipmicro.ca/store/TRANSFER-PAPER-YELLOW - of late, and it strikes a nice balance between cost, precision, and ease of use.  It's not quite as good as PnP, or as informative about the state of the pattern-transfer, but it's a whole heckuva lot better than any photo paper I've used.  I imagine glossy magazine paper can be very good, but I would also imagine that being able to see the pattern-transfer accurately would depend on the nature of the graphics originally printed on the sheet.

[patrick398]

I use the waxy backing of vinyl sheets which is well documented and has a good reputation. It is pretty thin, so thin in fact that it often crumples in my printer. I feel i should be getting better results...having said that, my printer is pretty cheap and crappy and i expect the printer plays a very, if not the most important role in a good transfer. I might try and fiddle with the settings, see if i can get it to dump a veritable butt-load of toner down

[Tony Forestiere]

I use the waxy backing of vinyl sheets...

Buy a pack of cheap laser labels and strip the label material from the wax backing. Load a piece of plain paper into your printer's manual feed tray, marking the feed and orientation of the paper with a pen drawn arrow. Print your transfer.
Cut a piece of the wax backing over-sized for your transfer, and tape the leading edge pointing to the arrow orientation, wax side up. Print again through the manual feed.
If your laser printer has decent toner density, you should end up with an easily transferable iron on.

[Beo]

For PCB's I've always found the laminator method works well. My search has been for a fast, easy and reliable enclosure transfer method. This alcohol-acetone cold transfer method looks worth trying.

I just saw another youtube video which looks promising. You start by spraying a lacquer, and then lay down your print and finger press the image. Type of paper used may matter, but water helps with the release. The toner sticks to the lacquer. Then use alcohol to clean off the visable lacquer where there's no toner to expose the metal underneath.

The thing I like about this method is that there is no chemical or heat softening of the toner, which should keep details intact. However, I wonder if the etching chemical might eat under the toner, if it affects the lacquer layer underneath. Worth trying out though.

[baklavametal]

Here's a quick update,
tried on a real enclosure. I was using only acetone, and i would always get a smudge somewhere. Not everywhere, but enough to deserve a redo. First i thought there was something wrong while applying pressure.
Then i tried diluting acetone with ethanol alcohol (70%) in ratio about 1alc:4acetone
and got an excellent result.
I also prepped the box a bit up to 240grit
Position IKEA paper with printed image on the box
Apply acetone/alcohol solution with a syringe, make it wet
Wait 10-20 secs
Put folded paper towel on top and apply pressure with fingers for about 2 mins
Put it under a running tap until paper peels itself off (this time i used lukewarm water instead of hot)

Here's the result

[deadastronaut]

cant see it.....but yeah ive heard of diluting.