My wife ask about me lasercutting a sign for some friends, but at the time she ask, our laser was still down for repairs. I remembered Ben doing a toner transfer project several years ago, so I googled it up, and it turned out to be easier than I remembered.
This isn’t intended to be a tutorial, but the general steps are as follows:
- Print Design on a laser printer (mirrored)
- Sand wooden surface (I bought a prefab plaque at Michaels 40% off)
- Tape paper to surface so it doesn’t move around
- Apply acetone (a little goes a long way)
- Remove paper before toner bleeds everywhere.
- Apply clear finish
This was my first try at toner transfer ever, and the photo below wasn’t my final product. The toner doesn’t soak in very deep, so it’s easily sanded off for another attempt. I ended up resanding and transferring 3 times, due to incomplete transfer or smudging (as below).
Lighter weight paper seemed to work better (the paper at OMG was quite a bit lighter than what I had at home, and worked great) as it didn’t want to soak up so much acetone, and transferred more completely as a result.
Once I was satisfied with the transfer results, a quick coat of spray lacquer finished the project. Setup, drying and cleanup took the majority of the time and effort here. Total hands-on time was about 15 minutes.
