Press and peel Toner transfer question

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grid_stopper

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Mar 2, 2016
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Ive been using the blue transfer paper to do etches for some time now, with reasonably good success, however, im coming up against a tricky scenario and am curious if anyone has some suggestions. Im trying to apply a toner mask to an enclosure, and wasnt having any luck what so ever, until i realized that the material(aluminium) is too thin to hold the temperature enough for the transfer to work properly-even with my iron on full blast. knowing this, I brought out a second clothes iron and applied it to the backside of the material, in addition to the one pressing down on the transfer paper. This worked a lot better(despite being incredibly cumbersome!), but, because of the shape of the enclosure the iron on the backside cant reach all of the metal it needs to, and the toner doesnt transfer in those spots(mainly all along the bottom). Ive attached a picture below of the enclosure in question. As you can see, the lips that run along the side make it tricky to evenly heat both surfaces with my two iron method.

Im curious if anyone has any pointers on how to make this work a bit better!

Thanks
 

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unless you are after a particular look I would try something different. There is a lot of companies that make pcbs today for so little that I don´t see the point on diy pcbs anymore. At the same time those companies do aluminum pcbs too. I have been using them as faceplates for some projects.
 
unless you are after a particular look I would try something different. There is a lot of companies that make pcbs today for so little that I don´t see the point on diy pcbs anymore. At the same time those companies do aluminum pcbs too. I have been using them as faceplates for some projects.
Sorry, I should have been more specific. this isnt for etching PCB's(which I always get fabbed because i really and truly can not be bothered to etch and drill), but rather acid etching controls/art for the front panel of this enclosure
 
doing some research as to what metals hold their heat the best, and it seems like stainless steel is the best for it, so im going to grab some 4"x2"x.05" SS billet tomorrow, and try heating that up nice and hot, clamp it to the backside of the panel, and apply the iron to front side, and see if that does me a bit better.
 
I tape off anything that doesn’t absolutely need a transfer, which often means you can cover the face with a few small transfers and block any big unetched areas. If that’s not possible, you can pre-warm the metal (carefully) in a toaster or regular oven and use the iron for pressure and the final heat, but that will be tough. Or make a faceplate out of a separate piece of aluminum that you can etch and later attach to the enclosure.
 
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