Re: 2D printer-real parts

At 03:01 PM 10/11/00 -0700, Anne Ogborn wrote:

>Yes, and the heat from the machine welded the ribbon to the brass,
>trashing the print head.

Ouch! I'm glad you tried it before I suggested it... :-)

>ALPS dry ink is a sublimating dye - when heated it goes directly from
>the solid to the gas stage. The gas then condenses on the paper.

I didn't know that. I thought it was thermal wax. When I worked at Zeta
Graphics (we made pen plotters) our chemist got some sublimating dyes to
experiment with. He took great joy in demonstrating them--just a pinch in
a foil tray on the hot plate, place a piece of paper on top, heat up and
*poof*, big colored spot on the paper and empty foil tray. It was almost
magical...

>Peel off the paper and you have toner on metal. The toner is
>a resist.

I've tried the PnP Blue transfer paper with not good results. It is billed
as being able to be ironed on, but I got either incomplete transfer or
major smearing and line spread (depending on temperature, pressure and
time.) I was already using dry-film photoresist when I tried it, so I
didn't spend a whole lot of time trying to develop a technique. But some
people swear by it, and claim to be able to do .010" traces and spaces when
making PCB's.

Best regards,

Randy

Randy Gordon-Gilmore ,----.___________ ______________ _________________
ProtoTrains // = = === == || == == == = || == == == = == =|
Rio Vista, CA, USA /-O==O------------o==o------------o==o-----------o==o-'
zephyrus@... http://www.rickadee.net/~zephyrus