Possible new panel legend technique

[David Halliday]

Actually, wax thermal might not work out well with transfer papers...

Usually ( used to run a print and copy shop ), the chemistry of the transfer
paper is optimised for the chemistry of that which is being transfered.
Substitute something else and you will get slimed.

Couple of tips

Like Rob says - clean, clean and  oh... did I say CLEAN! - try different
solvents - Windex ( ammonia and water ), Acetone, Naptha.  These will all
 if they are pure ) evaporate without a trace and one, maybe two of them are
guaranteed to mess up your nice clean surface so test all three out on a
piece of scrap and see which works best - let this sit for a day or two and
try scratching the surface to make sure that it isn't horribly soft or
something.  Citrus cleaners are oil based and death to transfers.

Once you use your cleaner of choice, handle the panel by it's edges only.
Wear cotton gloves.

My personal choice would be to output from InkJet or any other decent color
output ( wax thermal is fine too ) and take it to a tee-shirt place - have
them make the transfer and use their heat press onto your clean panel.  Have
them pre-heat the panel in the press for 30 seconds or so.     Find out when
a quiet time is for them so you can spend the time working with them to
properly register the transfer sheet onto your panel.

Also, you can build a library of "modules" - these can be layed onto the
copy glass of a color copyer and an 11*17 sheet of transfer paper can be run
through.  If there are lines or shadows between the individual modules,
scratch them off the transfer sheet with an XActo knife before transfering -
you can also cut up the transfer paper and place the modules by hand but if
you let it sit too long, it can degrade the image.  The copy machine will
have a reverse image feature built in so you can print your modules to be
right-reading.

Do not try to use a photographic dry-mount press - these have neither the
temp nor the pressure to work reliably for transfers.

When you pull the transfer paper off, if there is any solid residual image
at all on the carrier, the temp or the pressure wasn't right.  There may be
a ghost of an image left but there shouldn't be anything beyond that.


Best of luck!


Also,when everything works right, it is clear, bright and durable.  Well
worth doing!




----- Original Message -----
From: Rob <cyborg_0 at iquest.net>
To: synth-diy <synth-diy at mailhost.bpa.nl>; Chris Crosskey
<chrisc at zetnet.co.uk>
Sent: Tuesday, June 01, 1999 5:31 PM
Subject: Re: Possible new panel legend technique


> Look in the archives..
> I tried this with a wax thermal printer (which SHOULD have worked really
> good)
> It kinda worked, but it was with mixed results..
> ONE THING
>
> MAKE SURE you CLEAN the surface really well with alcohol or something, and
> lay a t shirt or rag between the print and the iron...
>
> Also, let the iron on cool before you try to peel the iron on...
>
> Rob
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Chris Crosskey <chrisc at zetnet.co.uk>
> To: synth-diy <synth-diy at mailhost.bpa.nl>
> Date: Tuesday, June 01, 1999 7:01 PM
> Subject: Possible new panel legend technique
>
>
> >
> >Hi Folks,
> >I can't remember if I've just posted something like this (or if anyone
else
> >has in the past...)
> >
> >I've just got some iron-on transfer paper so that you can make tee-shirts
> >and mousemats etc using the output of an ink-jet printer. My thought is
> >this....it should be possible to use them with powder-coated panels.
> >Powder-coat is fairly resistant to heat (more so than the neoprenbe in
> >mousepads I would have thought) and the iron on process doesn't involve
> >high heat settings....Using my plotter and its fibre-point pens it should
> >be possible to make reversed artwork to iron onto blank (white) panels,
> >even in colour too :-)). I've made a <Dial> macro for my PCB CAD package,
> >which has a plotting output I can trust, and am currently awaiting a
> >delivery of white powder-coated panels. For non-gap-critical layouts
> >(anything where the PCB isn't held on by potentioemters etc) then you
could
> >probably get away with inkjet output and some scaling experiments with
> >normal paper first....
> >
> >If this works it wil give me professional, fairly hard-wearing (I use it
on
> >a mousemat) panel layouts that are easily repeatable, availabel in almost
> >individual quantities (I guess 2 x 9" x 3" from an A4 or up to a 9" x 9"
is
> >OK, cheap to produce, and don't require either any equipment I don't
> >currently have or my presence on the far side of the local cityy to get
to
> >it, and also the chance to do WYSIWIG preruns on papa`er to see how it'll
> >turn out. Finally (and most usefully) I can generate graphics output (OK,
> >it's .IMG, but I have converters) from the package. Combine this with
just
> >how friendly Scooter is as a CAD program and I'm hoping that I've jkust
> >found a personal holy grail of the last couple of years.
> >
> >If anyone out there is using Scooter for Atari or Windows I will happily
> >post you my DIAL.MAC file (it's pretty tiny) for a 19mm knob, and I'll
> >generate another opne for 16mm knobs soon. It took me about an hour to
put
> >it together, I guess it'll be abbout 30minutes or so to take the master
> >panel layout (8 dials on the Modulus published spacings) and turn it into
> >any given panel....
> >
> >Oh Lord please let it work :-)) Will post results in due course, though
if
> >anyone else has some of the stuff kick ing around and the materuials (and
> >curiosity) to experimetn, I will not claim any kind of precedance :-))
> >
> >chrisc
> >
>