hot plate design transfer

[Aaron Nelson]

I've just joined this group, but have used the 'Sam Alfano's Tip & Tricks for Hand Engravers' and thought I'd share this. I just finished scorching my fingers discovering a new method (for me) for transferring designs onto some copper I am engraving. I have done heat transfers onto wood before, using laser prints/photocopies using an clothing iron. As you can imagine, this transfered the dry ink onto the iron, and from there onto my wife's clothes.

But the clothing iron technique hadn't worked for me with metal. So I put the 6" round copper sheet onto a hot plate at about medium and then burnished the design on with a smooth piece of wood, while awkwardly holding it down with another short piece of dowel. The paper starts to stick as it gets hot. The heat is easier to control this way, rather than using a torch, which I tried.

It was a much cleaner transfer than I've been able to manage with a Chartpak 'blend' pen, which often makes the ink bleed. Less toxic in my shop also. It may have scratched a little on the back side from the hot plate element, so maybe I'll lay some spare copper sheet down first.

Hope this randomly unsolicited technique is of interest to someone out there.

 

[Kerry Bogan]

Thanks Aaron
I have a clock face that I designed and I wanted to put it on an 6" copper disk, I'll try your method.
Kerry

 

[TallGary]

Aaron,

I have used an iron to transfer patterns to metal. The source was a laser printed transparency (dry toner copy machine transparencies also work). The surface of the metal is cleaned with alcohol or acetone to remove any grease or oil. The transparency is positioned on the metal -- toner side down . Put a light cloth over the transparency to keep the iron from sticking and iron away with a light to moderate touch -- iron temp is in the cotton range. You want to adhere the toner to the metal, not melt the plastic transparency material to it. The toner on the transparency will start to stick to the metal holding the transparency in place. When you think you have it, peel the transparency film off the metal. If a spot didn't take, you can reposition the transparency easily and do a little touch-up ironing.

Be careful -- the metal will be very hot.

I have used this method to lay down resist patterns on copper and brass for ferric chloride etching. With transparency film, the toner stays on the surface and doesn't move into the sheet as it would with paper when the hot iron presses it to the metal.

Gary

 

[Tira]

Thanks for the tip - Most of the cafe is base upon randomly unsolicited techniques of interest.

 

[coincutter]

Copper transfer has been mastered by all those clever folks making circut boards. AKA PCB

They even sell transfer sheets specific for the process.
GOOGLE it.

 

[qndrgnsdd]

you can use acetone instead of heat!

 

[pilkguns]

Heat works much better than acetone. I teach it in my classes, although you have to be careful not to burn yourself. I always just turn an iron upside down.