Herby,
The only potential flaw I see with that process is the substrate you
will transfer to. It must be able to tolerate the heat during the
transfer process. Color lasers work fine for toner transfer, I have
done it several times here for PCBs and other things. For
durability, you will need to spray a clear coat on as you were
thinking about. Sorry, can't recommend anything in particular there
but do some testing first. I suspect some of the clears might
disolve the toner and cause it to bleed. Probably one of the most
promising is a water based polyurethane - very durable and as water
is it's solvent, shouldn't cause any bleeding etc.
I will be doing some experiments this weekend for something similar,
but the substrate I have in mind is very questionable so I am not
expecting things to go good for me.
Chris
--- In
Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, "herby1620" <herby1620@...>
wrote:
>
> While not strictly a "PCB" topic, it does relate to something used
for
> making PCBs. I was thinking (dangerous, you know) about making a
> front panel for another project. Given that I desire "nice"
artwork,
> and have access to a laser printer, I was wondering about using
laser
> transfer methods (print to laser transfer "paper", iron on front
> panel) to make a nicely designed front panel.
>
> A couple of questions:
> 1) How well do the laser transfer methods work? I'm assuming that
> one takes the transfer and makes it work on a PC board with an iron
> (or some heat source with pressure).
> 2) If I can get a color laser printer, would I get color
transfered
> as well?
> 3) Quality? Would it look "reasonable" for the task?
> 4) Durability? I was thinking of coating the whole thing with
some
> clear spray to make it last.
> 5) Am I making any sense? Is this idea a whole waste of time and
I
> should look to something else?
>
> It seems to me that the transfer method would make for the ability
to
> have nice artwork/legends on my finished "box". While I am not
going
> to dunk the "box" in some resist, the transfer method should be
> similar, thus the questions.
>
> Thanks for any feedback.
>