Engraving / Etching

[Eveness]

I will try the masking tape idea now! Fingers crossed!


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[Eveness]

Unfortunately the masking didn't have much effect. It looks pretty glued on! 😕


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[ps_bond]

Stupid question - you did peel the protective film off the silver before ironing the PnP on? I'm at a loss to understand what could stick the PnP to the silver, it won't adhere without the toner to stick it down.

[Keia]

I'm at a loss trying to understand what's gone wrong for you. I've done tonnes of etching & the only time I left the iron on the silver for too long it made the black smudge out of place, I've never seen the blue actually stick to the silver like that.
The best I can offer is a quick list:

Printing - make sure you use a lazerjet printer/photocopier, inkjets do not work for pnp paper. (they will print the design to paper fine, but they won't be transferable. The black toner from the lazerjet machines will be your black resist)
Silver thickness - Thicker silver will require a much longer time under the iron
silver condition - Give the silver a really good rub with fine grit sandpaper or fine grit wool to remove any grease etc that might hinder the adhesion of the toner
Make sure the steam function on the iron is off
I start with a low iron setting until the paper feels like it wont move around, gradually increase iron temp (I've stood for 10 mins on one transfer)
Make a sandwich - I have a towel on the ironing board, then the silver, blue paper on that then a piece of scrap paper on the top.
I found that when I can see something that looks like oil forming on the scrap paper it means the temp is correct and the toner has started to transfer on to the silver.
I remove the blue film when the silver is still warm (not hot!), as when I've tried to take it off when the silver was cold is when I lost alot of the design.

That method works good for me and very rarely have any problems. I hope you can find something useful in my reply =)
Best of luck & stick with it, when it works the results will be so rewarding.

NB edit - If you already have the steam function off, check to make sure your iron isn't faulty & leaking water out the bottom, making the project damp. That's the only thing I can think off that could make the blue paper stick to the silver like that.

[Eveness]

Hi Peter, its ok to ask as it can happen I'm sure, but yes I removed the film and then gave it a wipe down with some fine steel wool first.

[Eveness]

Hi Keia,

So the printer I have is a Dell Colour Lazer Jet CP2025. It was gifted to me by a friend so its the first time Ive used it but it does use toners so I was assuming that it would be fit for the job. I printed in black and the print itself went on ok...but i wonder if I have been unlucky in my gift?
Yes the first 4 attempts was for shorter time and on those attempts only part of the blue stuck so i increased my time this time around....i wasnt using a timer though so maybe I left it on too long? Is that possible?
The heat I had it on was cotton (no steam)...maybe that was overkill stright off the bat?
I used 2 pieces of printer paper between the silver and the iron and 2 pieces underneath it - and under that was an old piece of wood
I think I may need to remove the film a little sooner than I did...it was completey cold when i took it off.

Ok, I think i shall make these tweeks and have another go...!

Thanks again for your kind input! I really do appreciate it!

Eve

[Sandra]

This sounds very strange! I didn't have a clue what I was doing the first time I used PNP and tried all different heat settings and lengths of time but I never had the blue stick to the metal. It's definitely PNP and you're printing on the proper side and ironing the correct side, right? I think we need pictures to figure this out LOL!

[Eveness]

This sounds very strange! I didn't have a clue what I was doing the first time I used PNP and tried all different heat settings and lengths of time but I never had the blue stick to the metal. It's definitely PNP and you're printing on the proper side and ironing the correct side, right? I think we need pictures to figure this out LOL!

Hi Sandra,

I posted up a couple of pictures to show what I mean, if you scroll back a couple of posts you should see them.

I reversed my text on my pc first, then printed it on to matt side of the PNP paper (which I bought from Maplins).

It's driving me round the bend but I'm determined to overcome this!

Thanks for your input! Any other ideas are most welcome!

[ps_bond]

I've not used that particular printer, but it is a toner-fusing printer from what I've read so there's no way that should be a problem.
Temperature *may* have been a bit high, from memory I used the high side of a wool setting.

Have you seen these -
http://clacktronics.co.uk/diy/pressnpeel
http://www.techniks.com/how_to.htm

[Myosotis]

I use a slightly different method of applying the image.

I use an old iron clamped upside down in a vice on a non steam setting. Then a piece of kitchen roll (to be able to pick up the metal when it's hot), the piece of silver, then the pnp.

Turn iron on, when the silver starts to get hot, I use the end of a pair of brass tweezers which happen to have a nice smooth rounded end and burnish the pnp quickly - you can tell where it has transferred to the metal so its easy not to miss any. Once image has been transferred I remove the silver, pop it onto a small steel block and when its cool enough to touch then remove the pnp.

Haven't had any problems using this method