My first attempt was to transfer the following laser printout on Epson photopaper onto the piece of brass below.
I folded the paper and stapled round the edges to keep the brass in place.
I wasn’t quite sure how to do the ironing 🙂 So I opted to press the very hot iron down directly on the paper for a minute. I quickly realised the iron was melting the outside of the paper, so I put it inside a sheet from an old notebook.
After the minute was up, the paper was discoloured and sticking to the brass plate. Some quick research showed that you can’t just pull the paper off; you have to soak it in hot water then gently rub it off with your fingers. So, I did so.
This resulted in one side like this:
The detail of the cogwheel is intact, but I’ve obviously not done the edges enough. The staples were perhaps interfering with the iron contacting the paper.
The other side looked like this:
I only ironed one side of the paper, so this demonstrates I really need to do both sides properly.
So, not perfect, but very encouraging: where the toner has stuck, it has really stuck very well, and nothing is stuck where there was no toner on the paper!
I’ve just found this video which shows how to do it for PCB etching. Obviously the ironing is key to the process: I didn’t spend nearly long enough at it.
adq 