[sdiy] Lazertran ROCKS!!

[David G. Dixon]

> I agree, Lazertran is the shit!

...only without the actual shit.  :o)

> I've gotta say tho $35 is expensive, if you look around you can find it
> for around ~$20.

Hey, this is Canada.  Paying 50% too much for everything is a point of
national pride.

> Personally i've found that the best results are gotten through pre-heating
> the lazertran once it's printed for 5 minutes in 150 degrees F. Then when
> transferring it to the metal, make sure the metal is as wet as possible -
> the more water, the easier it is to get rid of any bubbles with that
> spatula. Also, the surface needs to be totally flat, if there's a powder
> coat on the metal it needs to be sanded down.

I heat-gunned it for a few seconds, but I'm not sure that did anything.  I
actually had the metal underwater when I started, so it was wet.  Also, I
put the decal on virgin aluminum plate with the protective sticker freshly
peeled off, so it's flat.

> I *always* get weird brown stains but which are easily removed with a wet
> rag, i think these are just water burns - anyone knows?

The brown stains are the burnt remnants of the Lazertran gumming.  After you
put the decal down and squeegee it, simply run it under cold tapwater and
rub it with your fingertips to remove that stuff.  If you don't remove it
all, then it's easy to get off after you've cooked it.

> On that note i should say that i recently accidentally printed a panel
> non-mirrored, i decided to try and just flip the lazertran once i could
> peel it off the paper. It slipped on very nicely *however* i got those
> brown stains everywhere again and now they seem to be on the inside of the
> lazertran and i can't get rid of them :( I'm not sure whether this is
> because i printed the panel on the "wrong" side of the paper, or if it is
> the metal i transferred to - it seems i got these brown stains even
> outside of the lazertran (but i'm not sure) that won't go away either. The
> metal is steel, as opposed to the aluminum i normally use... Either way it
> looks kinda cool.

Yeah, if you cook Lasertran gum side down, I think the gum cooks inside.