Help!!! can't get transfer to work..

[MStewart]

Hello all, I am banging my head against the wall here trying to get a transfer to work with no success. I have a Brother laser HL-2140 printer "dry toner" and I have tried the Damar varnish and alcohol with parchment paper but I am only getting a mediocre at best result with that so I thought I would give the acetone method a try and that doesn't work hardly at all I lightly burnish with the wet cloth and hardly transfer any ink at all even after rubbing for like 30 seconds. Am I missing something here? does anybody use a Brother printer, is there some other way that works to do this, and how clear and detailed is your transfer? Thanks in advance for any and all suggestions and advice.
Mark

 

[Mario Sarto]

Hello Mark, i have a Brother HL-2140 and i use parchment, too. In meanwhile i also use Dammar, but i use it with Zippo lighter fluid. Perhaps this is the difference - my results are excellent. The complete toner transfers and it is sharp and clear.
Mario

 

[Powderhorn]

MStewart;
Check the tips section, of this site. I posted a tutorial about using the parchment method.

 

[Tira]

Here is the link to Powderhorn's tutorial: Laser Transfer Tutorial

 

[MStewart]

Thanks very much for your help I will report back with results today!

 

[MStewart]

Mario, what mixture percentage do you use with the Zippo and Darmar?
Mark

 

[DKanger]

Be aware that all Damar Varnish is not the same. Pure varnish needs to be thinned to a workable mixture. Some Damar as used by artist's is already thinned and is used "as is." Which product you have will make a difference.

Dave

 

[pappy]

Acetone transfers didn't work well on my Brother hl-2170w. I was trying to transfer on to a polished Cronite plate. I think next time I will try to use a piece of steel that has been sanded to provide a little tooth for the ink to stick to and see if that makes a difference.
Good luck!
pappy

 

[MStewart]

The Dammar Varnish I have is Winsor & Newton oil colored, Barniz Dammar. But it doesn't say if it is pure or not on the danger label it does say contains oil of turpentine. And pappy I sanded my steel with 2500 grit paper and the acetone method still did not transfer.

 

[Mario Sarto]

Mario, what mixture percentage do you use with the Zippo and Darmar?

My Dammar varnish is a mixture of Dammar and turpentine oil - proportionately 1:2
I use seven parts Zippo lighter fluid and three parts of the Dammar varnish.
I filled it into a very small ampulla with a ground-in glass stopper a few months ago. I used it six days ago and it worked fine as always.
HTH, Mario.

 

[KCSteve]

The thing I've found is that you have to wait until the mixture dries to a tacky state.

And that's really the purpose of the lighter fluid / alcohol - to thin the Damar down to where it will dry in a reasonable time frame.

I use just a drop or two and spread it around with my finger. Give it a minute or two (sometimes in front of a fan) and it's all sticky and ready to grab the transfer. After I get the transfer on I like to try to get it completely dry before I start messing with it.

 

[MStewart]

Thanks all for your help, I got it to work! I was not letting the dammar varnish dry enough before applying the image. I let it dry till my fingerprint would stay and then applied the image and presto it worked like a charm.
Mark

 

[Winstonklein]

Everett. Thank you for the tutorial. well done



Winston.

 

[griff silver]

help?!!??!!

it parchment paper a must? or will regular paper work

 

[builderofstuff]

My experiences

I feel sort of strange for posting my experience since I'm an absolute and utter beginner at engraving, in fact it was just today that I made myself a new hammer and set of chisels for engraving since I haven't really done anything related to engraving in for about a year and that was the last time I attempted to get started learning.

Anyway on to the way I've been doing it. I bought some Dammar varnish from Michael's and I use it straight from the jar without any thinning. The brand I have is Windsor and Newton. I take my piece of metal and using a qtip I put a thin layer on. I wait until it's tacky enough that when I touch it it leaves a nice fingerprint. Then I print out my pattern on standard paper that you would use for normal printing, I place the printout face down and burnish until I can see the image from the backside of the paper. Then I take the cheapest nail polish remover (stuff in a yellow bottle from walmart) and I put some on a cotton ball. I just lightly dab the back of the pattern with it to make sure that the paper is saturated but not soaked. Then I burnish some more. After that I wet the paper (I keep a spray bottle of water on my workbench) and I rub the wet paper with my finger. It just rolls right off leaving the printout on the metal.

As I said I feel a bit strange popping into the conversation and telling someone how I do something when I'm a complete beginner, but if it helps I guess there's nothing wrong with that.

Oh.... and Hi, my name is Chris, nice to meet you folks.

Chris
www.blowyourbrassoff.com

 

[Tira]

Tips are always welcome. I'll have to try this method. I've used the acetone/nail polish remover method before, but I haven't been too happy with the bleed that sometimes occurs if you have too much liquid. Maybe the varnish makes the toner stable - that would be great. Thanks.

 

[Arnaud Van Tilburgh]

To me, the best method is:
Dammar Varnish with some Zippo fluid, use a cotton buds to bring some on the surface to be engraved.
Print the mirrored design on a A4 paper with a black inkjet printer.
Cut a piece of bakery parchment and use some tape to put that piece of paper on the A4 where the design was printed.
Print again and as the bakery parchment is a bit transparent, you can easily put it on the surface with the Dammar solution with the ink down of course, burnish it a bit with you fingernail until all ink is transferred.
After that use a little hair spray to fixate the design.
Works all the time

I use an old HP laserjet 6L

arnaud

 

[builderofstuff]

Arnaud,

I'm going to try your method because it sounds interesting and may work even better than what I've been doing. I wonder if that method will work with a laser printer. I have both laser and inkjet but seem to use my laser printer more than anything. I also saw a method where the person sprayed fixative on the metal, printed their pattern on baking parchment, and then burnished the image on, followed by another light coat of fixative.

I should have mentioned that I'm using a laser printer in my first post but it slipped my mind.

Chris

 

[mhgjewel]

transfer

i use the parchment transfer method and it works perfect. of course i am always trying to make things better. the laser printer i have will print a 1200 dpi resolution which will make a perfect print over 2" x 2" size. but if i want to do a 1/2" x 1/2" i have to look at it from a distance approx. 5x to see the image outline.

my big question is will the epson inject create a higher resolution for the transfer?

 

[mhgjewel]

quality of transfer

here is an example of the transfers i am getting at 1"x1/2", will it be cleaner with the epson method?

Matthew