What did I do wrong?

[mattthegamer463]

My first attempt at a full size etching:



Fantastic failure.  I sanded with 220 grit and a sanding block to get it flat and smooth, printed at max darkness on magazine paper, ironed it onto the enclosure for 5 minutes, dissolved the paper, and thats where I lost sections of toner.  Did I do something drastically wrong?  I did this exact same thing to make a PCB and it went swimmingly.

[MikeH]

Toner doesn't stick to aluminum as well as copper.  The enclosure has to be REALLY smooth.  Like, "800 grit wet sand followed by steel wool and scotch brite" smooth.

[mattthegamer463]

Wow, I figured that kind of smoothness would be trying to stand on a water slide.  So, other than maximum smoothness, my process was pretty good?  The enclosure also has to be super flat too, right?

[PRR]

> The enclosure also has to be super flat too, right?

And probably pre-warmed. The toner must *melt* onto the surface. A household iron can heat thin copper on insulated board, but can it heat a big aluminum box ALL the way to melt-heat? Maybe just-barely. Or almost all of it.

I must admit this theory is refuted by the fact you got mostly-good around the edges, which would be cold from the walls pulling heat away.

As you speculate: Using a flat-iron, the surface may have to be FLAT (or barely convex). Are the flawed spots also "low spots"?

Get a foot of 4-inch metal duct. Set it on end. Brace it real well. Put a 60 Watt lamp inside. Set the box on top and let it heat too hot to touch, probably just past where a droplet of water quickly boils-off. (IIRC, polystyrene barely softens in boiling water.) You will have to add clever bracing so the box doesn't move while ironing. Please don't knock-off the hot box. If you do anyway, please do not try to grab it! Let it fall, find some tongs.

[glops]

I etched two Hammond enclosures last week.  On the second one I used glossy magazine paper.  The first time ironing didn't work because I used a page of the magazine that wasn't as glossy as the cover.  On the next attempt, I used the glossy cover and ironed it for at least 15 minutes.  I used a lot of pressure and payed attention to every part of the box.   I think the trick is to iron it for a long time with a lot of pressure and it will look like the paper is fused to the aluminum.  I put it in cold water for awhile and it was really hard to get it off.  Used a tooth brush and then some 400 grit paper and sanded )very lightly) the rest of the paper off.  The results came out really well and the toner had transferred perfectly.  Before I ironed the box I had sanded the enclosure but it wasn't a perfect shiny polished enclosure.  Probably 400 grit at the max.  

So my suggestion would be to iron for a long time using a good amount of pressure.  At the beginning I just let the iron sit on one side of the enclosure without moving it, just enough to get it to stick.  Then slowly ironed the box sometimes letting the iron sit still on different areas.  

Both of my areas were reverse etches, as well....

[glops]

Try ironing on your design, make sure it was printed with a laser printer.  Use the glossiest magazine paper you can find (I used a Sports Illustrated swimsuit cover.)  Be really anal during the ironing process.  Iron for a good amount of time.  From my experiment, 5 minutes was not enough.  I went for 15 to 20.  Then let it soak in some cool water for awhile.  Peel off as much paper as you can, then use a toothbrush for the areas to be etched.  Then you could wet sand if you want.   Just be careful to not sand toner off.  Touch up faulty spots with nail polish.  Etch.

Everyone has different ideas on the best way to do it.  This is just the way it worked for me.  But it came out great.  The great thing about magazine paper is that if it doesn't look like the toner transferred you can sand it all off and do it again...

[differo]

I found that the magic is not heat, toner, sanding ... all of these things HAS to be like described flat, smooth, good toner coverage etc but the MAGIC is the paper. if you look carefully in Slade's tutorial, when he removes the paper thin layer of paper is left OVER the toner. That ensures not only extra protection during etching but guaranties that ALL of the toner is under it. I tried p'n'p blue, magazine paper, sharpies and whatnot. super glossy photo paper  (and also not too thick from my experience 170-200g is fine) is da sh*t almost great result without THAT much work. I do not sand that rigidly, I sand standard hammon/eddystone enclosure with 240 grid until no dots visible and then with 600 just a little bit. Steel wool (or whatever it's called) with some detergent, wash it, dry it (never touch the top after). Acetone clean and transfer. 

[mattthegamer463]

Well, initially I tried some photo paper, using 240g super glossy Canon photo paper, but it cames out incredibly bad.  The toner stuck good as far as I could tell, but as Slade showed, I couldn't peel off the paper.  The paper came off in bits and pieces.  So I had to try to dissolve, and once I dissolved all the paper (which took forever) there was still the thin plastic gloss layer covering 100% of the top.  In the end I had to try to sand the whole thing off with high grit sandpaper and the ordeal lasted over 45 minutes, just to get this stuff off.  So I whipped up a printout on magazine paper and tried again.

[differo]

240g canon photo paper didn't work for me either. if it's any conciliation 200g or less, print on glossy side, no film should stuck on top.

[therecordingart]

I have the worst luck with transferring toner to enclosures. I think I'm going to use Lazertran as the etch resist next time...no ironing involved.

[mattthegamer463]

I have the worst luck with transferring toner to enclosures. I think I'm going to use Lazertran as the etch resist next time...no ironing involved.

Can you elaborate?  What is this product?

[therecordingart]

I have the worst luck with transferring toner to enclosures. I think I'm going to use Lazertran as the etch resist next time...no ironing involved.

Can you elaborate?  What is this product?

http://www.lazertran.com/products/lazertran_products_original.htm

It's a waterslide decal that you can use alcohol or turpentine to eat away leaving only the toner on the surface. Go about 3/4 of the way down the page for instructions.

[mattthegamer463]

The lasertran site mentioned baking on their product with an oven: has anyone tried this in lieu of an iron?

I picked up some 600 and 1000 grit sandpaper today, and some steel wool so hopefully I can sand this puppy flat and buff it to the moon and back, and have some 3rd time charm.