Etching Design Resolution

[seedlings]

@chad use a really coarse paper to sand before ironing...like 180 grade...and hottest iron...it'll grip on the box better!...

i put one strip of masking tape on the back f the toner paper to align, and stick to side of box... this will stop it moving/slipping/smudging....

throw in sink under cold water while still hot....let paper bubble up...rub off, use toothbrush to get tiny bits..(sometimes you can get away with peeling the paper off as soon as it gets cold with a little water) ..nail varnish edges..

tape up sides all the way...dip in etchant...agitate.....rinse of when done and then use 600 to sand...

and yes acetone clean after sanding...

180 grit?  In Fernando Ruz's 'Making a Color Etching' tutorial, he says to use 800 grit then 1200 grit.  Neither of those were available, so I used 600 grit for final polish... I thought 600 was maybe too coarse...

I will acetone clean this time!!!

Also I kept it under heat for about 8 or 9 minutes and this may not have been long enough... or two sheets of paper was too much insulation between the iron and the paper?  The paper was brown from heat though.

Thanks to all for your advice and help!!!

CHAD

[deadastronaut]

600 is not coarse enough imo...use 180..you'll be fine...then use 600 to get burnt aluminium off...clean...paint/dab your decal in...then 600-1200...as you don't want to sand the metal off, just paint etc..

it needs a good 'key' to adhere to the box...

[alparent]

If you have 90% adhesion then your all OK paper and all.
Just work on the technique.
Work longer on the edges as the sides act as heat sinks.
You can also try parchment cooking paper instead of normal paper bettween the iron and photo paper.
Crank up the heat a bit?


Don't be afraid to print multiple copies of your design.
And yes acetone after sanding is a good idea.

[deadastronaut]

i keep meaning to try that cooking stuff...ive no excuse i have some in the kitchen!...

[alparent]

Keep in mind that tuner can be porous, and you're covering a lot with your toner. You might get a lot of pitting.
I'd cover as much as you can with paint and small brush after, just to seal those pores.

I use a cheap spray can of flat black paint. Mask the top spray the sides...remove the mask spray some paint on plastic to make puddle then use brush to take paint and appply to top. I try to go as close as I can to my design.

I was going to try the stuff Pulsar paper sells to seal toner transfers.

Or maybe I'm just a perfectionist?

[Maik]

I think sometimes the toner makes the difference. Tried a Brother 1430 and it works, tried a Kyocera 1920 and it didn´t work as good as the brother toner.

@deadastronaut. positiv 20 is for transparencys and uv. It´s cool and the spitfire etching is ca 1mm deep with that spray.

[seedlings]

This was a Xerox Phaser 5500DN at work.  I'll print multiple copies on photo and magazine paper this time.

CHAD

[seedlings]

i keep meaning to try that cooking stuff...ive no excuse i have some in the kitchen!...

I tried and tried to get parchment paper to feed, but the printer chewed it up every time.  I cut it to the same size as copier paper with one of those guillotine paper cutters like they use in schools so that the edges were nice and square.

But, I have 8 more photo paper transfers to attempt.  Surely one of those will stick.

CHAD

[Pettol]

@Maik. 1 mm seems quite deep. Didn't work that well for me; the text I was etching got a bit blurry after a while, so I decided to keept it rather shallow.

[alparent]

i keep meaning to try that cooking stuff...ive no excuse i have some in the kitchen!...

I tried and tried to get parchment paper to feed, but the printer chewed it up every time.  I cut it to the same size as copier paper with one of those guillotine paper cutters like they use in schools so that the edges were nice and square.

But, I have 8 more photo paper transfers to attempt.  Surely one of those will stick.

CHAD

You use the parchment paper between the iron and the photo paper when you are ironing.

[seedlings]

You use the parchment paper between the iron and the photo paper when you are ironing.

I thought I'd read of people printing directly onto parchment.  Kind of like printing directly on the backing paper after labels have been removed.  Woops.

Any way... I'm 2 more attempts down.  I sanded with 150 grit (I was out of 180 and 220), acetone scrubbed with cotton balls, and 10 minutes later absolutely nothing stuck.  So, scrubbed again, 10 minutes later same result- nothing stuck.


CHAD

[.Mike]

This was a Xerox Phaser 5500DN at work.  I'll print multiple copies on photo and magazine paper this time.

Some Xerox Phasers use solid ink, not traditional toner like a laser printer. They probably won't work very well, if at all.

If you are having poor transfers, the next question should always be about how you are prepping. Your iron is flat. Your enclosure must be flat to match the iron. Most of the enclosures I have etched were high on the edges, and low in the middle. If you don't sand the enclosure flat, solid contact between the iron and the enclosure is not likely, and good transfer is even less likely. Light can play tricks, but the enclosure in your picture on the previous page doesn't look flat to me.

I start with a random orbital sander at a low grit, like 100. It quickly becomes obvious if the box is flat if the enclosure is a little dirty-- the high spots are the first to get a clean, uniform look. Once it seems uniformly clean, I wet sand with a sanding block. I color the surface of the enclosure with a marker between grits so it is easy to tell if the box is flat, and if I have sanded enough to move to a higher grit. I go back and forth in one direction, taking my time with the sanding block to make sure I get the surface as flat as possible. I go up to about 400. I have found that if you go much higher, not only does the toner not like to stick, but the acid has a hard time initiating the etch.

Good luck!

Mike

[alparent]

Go back to what you did in the first place ....... you had 90% addision?
Clean with aceton.

Try one chane at the time to figure out what you need to perfect.
I used to sand up to 1200.......but 600 should be OK.
Do make sure the surface in flat.

[seedlings]

I suck at this.  I'm about to paint over the face and scratch in a ghetto design with a dental pick.

Orbital sanded, used marker in-between to make sure the surface was level followed by isopropyl alcohol to clean.  First try was printed on a JCPenny's flyer from the newspaper.  75% adhesion after 12 minutes of pressing, rubbing going round and round with the iron tip like in the videos.  Re-orbital sand, re-isopropyl, then second try was a little heavier paper from a Caterpillar rental catalog.  90% adhesion this time.

Would Press-n-Peel blue be idiot proof?

Does regular krylon spray paint do well as an etch resist?

CHAD

[alparent]

Your problem is with adhesion...I don't think PnP would make a diff.
Did you try cranking up the iron's heat?

Are the adhesion problems always in the same area? (I had ONE enclosure I couldn't get anything to stick to to save my life!)

Is krylon enamel...then yes it should work.

[seedlings]

Your problem is with adhesion...I don't think PnP would make a diff.
Did you try cranking up the iron's heat?

Are the adhesion problems always in the same area? (I had ONE enclosure I couldn't get anything to stick to to save my life!)

Is krylon enamel...then yes it should work.

Tried with iron on 'Cotton' which is a little below highest, then tried on 'Linen' which is the hottest setting.  Adhesion seems to fail at random places.

CHAD

[.Mike]

Adhesion seems to fail at random places.

Please reread my post, which likely holds your answer:

If you are having poor transfers, the next question should always be about how you are prepping. Your iron is flat. Your enclosure must be flat to match the iron. Most of the enclosures I have etched were high on the edges, and low in the middle. If you don't sand the enclosure flat, solid contact between the iron and the enclosure is not likely, and good transfer is even less likely. Light can play tricks, but the enclosure in your picture on the previous page doesn't look flat to me.

[edvard]

+1 for flat iron; +1 flat box surface.
I used a regular iron the first time I tried to do PCB's, at first I would just press down real hard.
Got spotty results until I noticed it wasn't sticking where there were steam holes in the iron bottom. >_<
Now I keep the iron moving, works well.

+1 acetone clean.
Even the thinnest traces of grease from your fingers can cause bad adhesion.
Sometimes, it's just fine, other times not.

Xerox Phaser models use a wax-based "solid-ink" toner, but I can't imagine THAT would be a hindrance; in fact, I would imagine it to be easier.
I'm fully prepared to be wrong, however...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solid_ink

Also, I (and a few others on this forum) use the backing paper from printable address labels.
They feed through most laser printers just fine, and you don't have to scrub the paper off.
After you've melted the transfer, hit it with some cold water to set the toner on the surface, and the paper curls right off.
I tried magazine paper a couple times, the glossiest I could find, but it never worked for me.
The sticker backing worked the first time (after I figured out the iron, heh).

[seedlings]

I tried again with the avery label backing paper.  It went OK or so I thought.  I went over most everything with a fine paintbrush and krylon enamel spraypaint.  Etching seemed to go OK at first.  I used some rolled up pieces of painter's tape to give 'space' between the container bottom and the face.  After a few minutes of gently swishing the etchant around I noticed the bubbles started going faster, then violently.  So I take it out and rinse... Pfft...

Here it is after steel wool.  Pretty much unusable.  I'll probably paint the outline of flame and skull then, oh, I don't know, use the label maker for controls.

I noticed during ironing this time that I'd sanded too much off the corner edges and the face had become slightly rounded.  The orbital sander is probably to blame since it has a cushion.  Next time will be sanding blocks only.



CHAD

[deadastronaut]

uh oh!......

shame man...