Thank you

I have Siemens printer, it works quite good with PNP, but I used clothing iron, set low and also high temperature, but always there was some areas that not stick to copper. I am not sure if this is problem of the toner or iron or me. The copper was superclean without any grease. How much time you need to transfer the design with iron?

Rudolf

First, what is under your copper?  I use a piece of high density particle board, also known as Masonite.  What you don't want to do is set this up on anything that conducts heat.  That will just rob your iron of the heat and you will never get a good result.  I actually never timed how long I left the heat on.  5-10 minute?  Copper is an outstanding conductor of heat, you need to understand that you need to bring the entire piece up to the temp where the PnP will stick.

Thank you for your advice.Btw you just put the iron on top of the PnP and leave or push or use any weight to make pressure?

I mostly do 4" x 6" pieces (sheet) of copper or brass (to be used in roller printing silver and copper not for enameling).  This assumes that there will be a number of projects on the sheet I'm working on.  I clean the sheet with acetone prior to heating.  If the sheet is in any manner tarnished I will sand the sheet with 600-1000 grit paper that I get from Rio Grande.  This sand paper is actually more like a mesh than regular sandpaper and I prep all of my metal for soldering the same way.  I place the sheet on the particle board (don't use wood, it warps from the heat), place the PnP pieces on the sheet then carefully set the iron on top of the PnP.  Since I'm using a larger piece of copper, I tend to have a lot of smaller pieces of PnP with my art work.  I wait about 5 minutes, remove the iron and with the sheet on the particle board, I use a wood sculpturing tool to burnish the PnP paper onto the copper.  You need to work from the center out to allow any air pockets to empty.  After a preliminary burnishing, I reapply the iron, heat a second time, then reburnish.  I can do this step more than once if it needs done.  Once I get the PnP to the place I want it, I place the sheet onto the concrete floor to cool.  Once cooled, I peel off the PnP paper.  Then I tape the sheet.  I use packing tape on the back of the sheet.  This is the sticky clear stuff like scotch tape on steroids. Since I used small pieces of PnP I need to mask off the uncoated places on the front of the sheet with plastic electrical tape.  I also use the tape to mask off the edges.  I use a piece of glass and place several strips of electrical tape on it.  I then use an exacto knife to cut the electrical tape into narrower strips.  Once every place that I can tape is taped, I use a paint marker (like a magic marker but used paint as the "ink", Office Max and Staples sell these in their magic marker section) to retouch the piece.  I then fill a disposable plastic tray with ferric chloride, about 1/2" deep.  I then cut off a section of the clear packing tape that is roughly a foot longer than the sheet.  I apply this tape, to the back of the sheet, centering the sheet on the tape.  I then use this to place the sheet upside down (the side I want to etch has to face the bottom of the tray) using the tape to hold it in place in the tray.  Next part is temperature dependent.  The amount of time that I suspend the sheet in the etchant depends on 1) temperature of the etchant, 2) depth that I want to etch, and 3, number of times I have used this specific batch of etchant.  In a warm shop (say summer) I can get the depth I want after roughly 60 minutes if the etchant is new.  I like to etch really deep, but that is the artists choice.  This time of the year the first sheet will etch in roughly 2 hours.  This is due to that fact that I don't heat my etchant (which you can do to make it work faster).  I can usually get about 6 4"x6" pieces of sheet out of one batch of etchant.  Each piece will take longer as the etchants becomes exhausted. When the sheet has reached the depth that I want.,  I place the sheet into a bath made of baking soda and water.  You want far more baking soda than you can dissolve in the water, but not a paste.  Once the bulk of the etchant is neutralized I then wash the sheet with water and use a brass brush to scrub out all of the debris.  I add more baking soda if needed.  After all of the etchant has been cleaned off, I then remove all of the tape.  I will still have the PnP transfer material on the sheet.  I clean this of with acetone.  Acetone will also remove any tape residue.  I then cut the various projects out of the sheet and finish the edges, etc.  For champlevé I have found that I need to use colors that have a strong contrast to the copper, and remember, the copper will darken with age as it tarnishes. I prefer to use 325 grit enamel for the champlevé work.  The 325 grit packs into the etched grooves better and has less air space than 80 grit enamels and this results in better color in the lines.  I fire the enamel in a kiln (never tried torch firing because I do almost all of my enamel in a kiln).  I then use a diamond grinding cylinder (1/2" x 1/2") on my Foredom flex shaft to remove excess material on the surface of the piece.  I own a tool called a JoolTool that I use to place whatever surface I want on the enameled champlevé after I rough grind it with the foredom.  I then 1) polish the copper and wax with Renaissance  Paste Wax (museum grade wax used in metal smithing), or I use a clear enamel top coat (Thompson 2030, Clear for Copper)

Hi

I need help with PnP blue paper transfer methode. Does anybody have experience with personal laminator and PnP? Can I put 0,9mm copper sheet through the laminator?

Thank you.

R.