At 07:55 AM 1/13/98 -0800, you wrote: >Mike: > >Could you explain the process you have been using? Perhaps you could post it >for all to read. >I've been looking for a process to photo-transfer onto brass and other >material. > >Thanks >Dave Gordon >33º 39.6' N 118º 04' W >
There are a number of ways one can do it. I spray a brass plate (cleaned with steel wool and de-greased) with a photoresist I buy from an electronics company. They use it for making PCBs. After drying thoroughly, baking etc. I cover it with the sundial face design on an acetate film (I do my designs on a computer using CorelDraw 3.0 and print them on acetate using a laser printer). I expose the plate using black UV light and wash away the exposed resist with a developing agent which I buy from the same company (I believe it is a diluted NaOH solution). Then I etch the exposed brass using Ferric Chloride (you guessed, same company!). Then I apply a patina-type process to the etched brass depending on the effect I want - sometimes green, sometimes blue. It sounds simple, but it is not and misses are as frequent as hits. I put this process together from several sources - mainly books on knife-making and Tim McCreights metalworking and jewellery instruction books as well as the literature put out by the company who makes the photoresist (M. G. Chemicals Ltd of Brampton, Ontario and Surrey, B.C.) I shall try to get my kids to scan some of the photographs of my dials and attach them to my next posting to give you an idea what the final result looks like. Mike Koblic, Quesnel BC
