Since my name has been mentioned, I thought I might make a comment:
1. There are many types of toners, using different types of heat sensitive polymers.
2. Each toner is going to have a different "solvent".........for lack of a better word.
If you don't use the material that is the "solvent" for the particular toner you are
working with, to cannot possibly get a good cold transfer.
3. The paper does not really contribute very much to the cold transfer process,
but some types of paper may absorb more of the solvent and thus aid in
transferring the solvent-softened toner.
4. Some toners may dissolve in several liquids. Others may dissolve in only one.
Acetone, xylene and naphtha seem to be the most common, but there might be
toners that don't dissolve in any of the above. So, first, you want to determine if the
solvent you are using does actually dissolve (soften) the toner you are using.
5. Applying heat to ANY solvent can be dangerous.
6. I do not own a laser printer. I use the same copy store all the time, and it appears that they
use the same toner in their machines all the time. So I always get a good cold transfer.
Regards,
Roland F. Harriston
Thank you for sharing your 2 cents, Harvey.
I tried cold toner transfer on glossy coupon flyers from McDonalds,
but they failed to lift from the paper. Looking around for paper that was "glossy but flexible" to print on, I also found and tried a Techni-tool catalog cover, a CVS Pharmacy sticker backing, and an Avery address label sticker backing. All failed. So I'm postponing my cold toner transfer tries until I can get some Office One "Business Gloss" 32lb. 92 brilliance glossy paper Roland F. Harriston reported worked well awhile back.
Meanwhile, a bunch of my circuit's artwork piled up on a pile of ORACALl 651 vinyl stickers. So I got out the iron & did some that way.
My first impression looked good. So I etched it with ferric chloride and tinned the traces with Tinnit solution. It looked great. Until I looked a little closer and notice I'd forgotten to print the pads on this through-hole board. D'oH!!!! But it had another major flaw -- an unwanted trace shorting out 3 pins on an opamp chip.
So I re-ironed the board by following Adam Kohring's instructions to the letter:
Print Your Own Circuit Boards
EXCEPT I ironed it on for 5 minutes, rather than 2.
It worked. The traces are well-defined. However, about 30% of their
interior is lacking toner where it ought be. Does this mean I need to
buy a new toner cartridge to replace the original one I've been using for
11 years ?
Well, on October 3, I removed the old image and ironed another one on, following Adam Kohring, since I had two more artwork prints. This time I used a timer to ensure I only ironed it 2 min.
It failed. Maybe I didn't hold the iron still enough for 20 s.
Maybe do it for 30 s. However, I DID NOT get the voids in the traces
that I did last time. That's good.
My third try WORKED! YAY! The traces are about 95% covered on
their interiors. I just gotta remember:
2 min. in oven -- 30s holding down the iron--2 min. total ironing.
I will go over the tiny holes w/ Sharpies.
I couldn't really do the holes using the 3X magnifying lens. They
were too hard to see until I put them under the 10X loupe.
Oct 14
I just went over the tiny holes in traces using an ultra-fine tipped
Sharpie. My Vision Technologies VT100 19in. CRT magnifier is inval-
uable for this purpose. I saw holes in the toner as big as
0.005185 of a 0.086 in. trace, or 0.0004 in. That's about 0.4 mil.
I filled 'em in with my ultra-fine-tip Sharpie.
WIlll etch it tomorrow,
Alan