Toner Transfer Decals

Nest step - coat the panel with clear acrylic paint -

Reassemble the internals -

It worked well. It wasn't perfect but it's my first (rushed) attempt intended simply as a proof of concept so I am happy that this is a workable thing.

Conclusion (thermal):

This didn't quite work out as I expected. I assume the original panel was aluminium (aluminum) painted black when in fact it was plastic coated with black plastic. I then painted the surface white for contrast. This may have helped the adhesion of the toner to the surface so I will do another test with bare metal in another log or perhaps painted metal. It seems to have stuck to the white paint well so perhaps this was an acceptable test.

I will also be creating another log with chemical transfer to plastic.

I have one of these -

Well mine is *like* this *but* it's over 25 years old and all the printing on the front panel is faded or scratched off.

I have been wanting to try to transfer color toner onto surfaces other than PCBs and this is my opportunity.

There will be some other MODs along the way. I want to change the front panel banana sockets to the safety type sockets so I can use any test leads that I have here.

As you can see, I drilled out the banana socket holes to fit the larger sockets -

And, well, um, oops! I am too used to reversing imaged for PCBs. I scrapped this and started over.

The parts of circle around the holes will be covered over by the new parts.

The electronics inside was still in very good condition. I made this from a kit over 25 years ago -

Tomorrow I will spray paint the panel with clear acrylic and re-assemble the unit.

This is more or less a proof of concept. The panel steel coated with black plastic that I have painted white to contrast the toner.

I am thermally transferring the toner with a laminator. The next test will be to transfer to plastic chemically using a mix of IPA and acetone.

I will write another log when I finish this (hopefully) tomorrow.