Question: LASER transparency sheet transfers?

Talking with a student this morning about using transparency sheets for transfers with laser printers. The process works beautifully with inkjet printers, but as far as I know there's never been a simple solution for using laser printers. I've tried all kinds of things but nothing I've painted on metal will release the toner from a laser transparency sheet. Does anyone know of something that works?

laser printer melts a powder, heat is the only thing I can think of. It works if i leave printed material on the dash of the car in the sun

Hi Sam,
Yes use Baking parchment or baking paper. Commercial is the best other local brands work very well also. Laser only.

Check out the tutor for directions.

http://www.engravingforum.com/showthread.php?t=2365&highlight=laser+transfer

AirAmp

Eugene Carkoski said:

laser printer melts a powder, heat is the only thing I can think of. It works if i leave printed material on the dash of the car in the sun

Click to expand...

Don't leave me hanging. What do you do after you cook it on the dashboard of your car? What are the next steps?

airamp said:

Hi Sam,
Yes use Baking parchment or baking paper. Commercial is the best other local brands work very well also. Laser only.

Check out the tutor for directions.

http://www.engravingforum.com/showthread.php?t=2365&highlight=laser+transfer

AirAmp

Click to expand...

I've tried parchment and it jams in my printer. Looking for a way to do it with transparency sheets.
Also, I can't read that forum post because I think I'm blocked.

Ok,
Basically you have to use a piece of paper and print your image on the paper from the laser.
Then tape a piece of parchment over the image on the paper (caution to the direction of feed of the paper).
and reprint it on the parchment.

Yes parchment is too thin to feed it directly. I use scotch tape on leading edge and a few small ones on the sides..
give it a try like this.
Airamp

Well Back to Laser transfers. (sorry pictures didn't copy)
Note I now use Cirelli Transfer Solution

or a solution I developed years ago
Here is a solution that I developed from hours of research and it works well. You have to perfect it to your liking but it works.

3 simple solutions that do not separate and will transfer from parchment/laser print almost 100%. Yes there are laser printers out there that do 1200x1200 dpi. (Lexmark and a few other companys made them).

3 solutions are.

Denatured alcohol (hardware store)

Bulls eye shellac (hardware store) Made by Zinsser http://www.zinsser.com/product_detail.asp?ProductID=31

BIN Primer (hardware store) Also made by Zinsser (this is a Shellac based primer. It contains shellac, and alcohol with a white pigment)
http://www.zinsser.com/product_detail.asp?ProductID=10

Now you have to mix it so here is a suggestion that I have used and it will work it also will not (or shouldn’t if mixed right) chip when cutting.

Since I use syringes to mix this it is by volume in CC.

Mix: 10 CC of Denatured alcohol
10 CC of Bulls Eye Shellac
5 CC of BIN primer

So there you have it. Let it tack (about 1 minutes) and transfer with your parchment.

With all the artwork out there you have to pick a design for a practice plate, transfer it to the plate and cut it.

Sounds simple but as you saw in the Acetate Transfer technique it was harder than you thought.

New technology has made it possible to scan art work into the computer, size it erase and redraw parts of it and more.

I will go through the easiest and cheapest method I have found so far.


Laser transfer method of recently discovered by Rodstan on 5/21/08.

Here is his original link:

http://www.handengravingforum.com/sh...hment+transfer
It only works with a laser printer and does not work well with Inkjet printers.

If you only have a inkjet printer Tom Whites method is the best for Inkjet Printer.

How to Do IT
First you have to pick and scan artwork into your computer and save it or print it from the scanner.





cut out the artwork and tape it on a clean sheet of paper. Scan it and print it again
so you have a clean copy for your scanner and to save it.






You can save it and use adobe photoshop to edit it add or take away lines and invert it for a right and left side.

Since these are one time practice plates I scan the image and print it to the printer.

If it is too big I print it again and reduce the size with the printer’s software.
Like shrink it 80 percent and check it again. You can save it again when it is right.




When I have the size of my plate and like the way it looks I print 3 or 4 of them on paper. I put one away as in a file and the other’s are for making transfers.



If you are doing this with original artwork scan it, save it and print it on a acetate sheet for easier positioning and sizing on real work.

Remember the print will go down backwards (face down) so be sure you have it properly sized and made for the way you want it to come out (right or left sided).

Now that you have your artwork and it is in the correct direction and the right size and printed on sheets of paper or acetate.

Take a piece of parchment larger than the artwork you want to transfer.



You will be taping the parchment curl side up since it is normally rolled over your artwork but you must know how to tape it down.

BE SURE YOU KNOW HOW THE PAPER IS FED INTO THE PRINTER. (Long side or short side first).

HP printers have a little diagram in the printer tray. This is very important since you must tape the full leading edge of the parchment on the paper so it feeds the paper taped with parchment leading fully taped edge first.


If you do this any other way it may work but if the tape comes off in the rollers or fuser it will be a PIA to clean and fix. You will get paper/tape jams no doubt.


So Tape the leading edge full length of the parchment.

Pull the parchment tight and tape the other 2 corners down. Put it in your printer tray and scan and print your file copy to your printer or print from your saved and modified copy.

It is important that both the parchment overlay and the scan or saved copy are the same so you are double printing the parchment copy.

This is what it looks like double printed




Once the transfer is done take a letter opener and separate the parchment from the paper. The tape doesn’t stick well to the parchment so this should be easy.





Preparing the plate:

Sand your practice plate with 600 grit emery paper and clean with a cotton cloth.
Spit on the plate to clean off any oils and prepare the plate. This is a old trick of die engravers. (love that).

Use one of the transfer solutions and give it a quick light one swipe coat with a cheap brush. This is Bryan Bridges Chisel Whiting.



Once tacky position your parchment paper where you want it on the plate (be carefully you only get one shot at it). Once you have it on the tacky plate put a piece of acetate over it and burnish it with a steel.

I use a jewelers burnishing tool for bending bezels around stones. The Acetate makes it easy to slide the burnishing tool on the parchment and gives a more even pressure for a complete transfer.





You can see a slight change in color from black to gray as the design is transferred. Brunish the design completely and a second time at 90 degrees to the first burnishing.

Remove the acetate cover and slowly remove the parchment with a lift peal off the plate motion.

You should have a near perfect transfer.


Let it dry a few minutes and it is ready to cut. It will not run, smudge or fade and can be handled easily with no fear of losing your transfer.

Note: Bryan’s Chisel whiting and how clear the laser transfer came out. The whiting really makes it easy to see your lines and cut out any glare. This Batch of whiting is old so the transfer is not as great as it should be. We are working on the formula to solve having to mix up a batch every week or so.



How it Works

The reason this works so well is that a laser printer actually cooks small particles of plastic (toner) on to the paper. Unlike a inkjet that sprays on ink.

The laser tries to cook the toner on the parchment in the second run and the little particles actually cook together but does not stick well to the cooking parchment paper so your design is really one piece of thin plastic.

Use this method on laser printers only. If you do not have a laser printer, go to a thrift store or Good Will store and look for a Hewlett Packard laser jet printer. They are common and there are many part and toner cartridges on Ebay for all models.

If you want to use the Inkjet or need extremely high detail use Tom Whites techniques with Transfer Magic.

It is the best system out there for extremely high detail transfer.

The laser method is much cheaper and doesn’t require special materials. Detail is excellent for most work. Give it a try.
[/quote]

nothing is is transfered to the cover of the three ring binder
proving heat works

Thanks airamp. The purpose of my post was to see if anyone knows of a way to transfer laser printed designs on transparency sheets. I'll have to give the parchment another go though.

Eugene: Do you use heat to transfer designs to metal for engraving? Or are you just referring to what happens when you leave your binder in a hot car?

ive been trying out something that's working fairly well with laser printer.
using the backing from my printed shipping labels, and damar varnish. dab on a film of the varnish, and then (toner side down) burnish over and the design peels right off the backing. sticks quite well... no smearing either.

tried the baking parchment, but didn't work as well.

will try out acetate sheet to see if itll do any good.

oiseau metal arts said:

ive been trying out something that's working fairly well with laser printer.
using the backing from my printed shipping labels, and damar varnish. dab on a film of the varnish, and then (toner side down) burnish over and the design peels right off the backing. sticks quite well... no smearing either.

tried the baking parchment, but didn't work as well.

will try out acetate sheet to see if itll do any good.

Click to expand...

I cant see through the backing on my labels.

sam: i have used mike cirellis' formula so nicely with the inkjet, i never tried it with the laser printer. quite sometime ago, some body said to turn the heat off during the lasing process. thus preventing the cooking of the powder. i'd try doing this, but don't know how to turn off ( or when) the heat portion of the print cycle.
i think pre printing on a sheet for locating, and then taping a small acetate overlay might work. the overlay would need a bit of damar for tack. best of luck there. i guess timing all this would require a lot of t & e.

Sam,
I have tried thin transparency's but they burn too easy.
I have tried developed Xray film (thicker with no image) that seems to work much better, but is hard to get for regular users.
Airamp

First thing you need is a printer that uses ink that will release from the transparency to your work piece. The system I use is HP printer that uses a #61 black ink cartridge. Print in black only mode. I use Pictorico Premium OHP Transparency Film. I use Prismacolor Premier Art Markers, 40% warm Gray is the color, as the transfer medium. Swipe the marker across the project surface with one smooth swipe until the area is covered. Then place your transfer pattern over the area and burnish. You can get multiple transfers from each transparency piece. Been using this system for some time now. I wish I could take credit for this simple and effective method, but I can't. Todd Danials showed it a few years ago when I took a class from him. Hope this helps.
Sandy

Sandy said:

First thing you need is a printer that uses ink that will release from the transparency to your work piece. The system I use is HP printer that uses a #61 black ink cartridge. Print in black only mode. I use Pictorico Premium OHP Transparency Film. I use Prismacolor Premier Art Markers, 40% warm Gray is the color, as the transfer medium. Swipe the marker across the project surface with one smooth swipe until the area is covered. Then place your transfer pattern over the area and burnish. You can get multiple transfers from each transparency piece. Been using this system for some time now. I wish I could take credit for this simple and effective method, but I can't. Todd Danials showed it a few years ago when I took a class from him. Hope this helps.
Sandy

Click to expand...

Not inkjet Sandy. Laser.

oiseau metal arts said:

using the backing from my printed shipping labels

Click to expand...

That would be an experiment to try... print on the backing paper with a laser printer. That might work. :thinking:

I'll leave that one up to you Doc... let us know how it goes.

I have enough experimentation in my life just getting breakfast prepared right.


Brian

I haven't read all the posts.

But I can tell you where to get heat proof sticky tape that you can use to stick baking paper on normal paper so that it doesn't jam.

I've only got mine jammed once and that was because I reúsed sticky tape and not enough tape.

Dani Girl said:

I haven't read all the posts.

But I can tell you where to get heat proof sticky tape that you can use to stick baking paper on normal paper so that it doesn't jam.

I've only got mine jammed once and that was because I reúsed sticky tape and not enough tape.

Click to expand...

Drafting tape works quite well with the heat.

sam said:

Thanks airamp. The purpose of my post was to see if anyone knows of a way to transfer laser printed designs on transparency sheets. I'll have to give the parchment another go though.

Eugene: Do you use heat to transfer designs to metal for engraving? Or are you just referring to what happens when you leave your binder in a hot car?

Click to expand...

This is why I do not like trying to communicate via texting my spelling's terrible and try to make my ideas clear are even worse yet.
The only time I have used a laser printed image, was with wood where I ironed the image onto the wood and then used a wood burner to make it permanent.
Sorry about all the confusion.