Heating up toner

[millwab]

A few years ago (check that – too many years ago) I transfered a graphic from a photocopy to a piece of wood. I used a woodburning tool to heat up the toner from the copy, but trying to consistently stroke the blade of the burner over the paper for an even transfer was difficult at best. Now, fast forward and I have a project that I would like to use this technique for again (actually I'll need to transfer multiple copies of an image). Now I have access to computer generated images and color laser printers. The question is: how much heat does it take to transfer the toner to the wood? Would I need something as focused as a woodburning tool or, e.g., would I be able to do it with a clothes iron. The image will be ~ 1" square, but because I would be doing so many of them I was hoping I wouldn't have to do it line by line. Anyone have any experience with this?

[CanadianScroller]

It takes 400 degrees to fuse the toner to the wood.
You can use a clothes iron, specially when doing smaller pieces.
Remember that wood will burn at 451 degrees. Just like the paper will.
Something else to remember is the colour of your image is based on a white paper, you will find some color distorting when transferred to wood.
Also you can only transfer the image once, after that there is not enough toner left to release from the paper to the wood.

Some colour copiers and printers use a fusing oil when printing to paper, this makes the release of the image a little harder to accomplish too.
I have had great success with inkjet tshirt transfers, there again the ink colour is based on white paper.
I will be experimenting with dark tshirt paper later this week. It has a white backer, That could work for some projects not for others.

There is a company called Chipping Away. They have done lots of experimentation on paper choices for heat transfer of toner.
They offer a kit which costs about $50. Once you have the kit they will sell you special paper for $24 for 80 sheets, This is much lower cost than my tshirt method.

Something else I picked up but have not tried yet is a laminating machine. I think the constant heat and feed rate would work well, I am just not sure how thick a piece of wood I can feed through.
I hope these ideas help. There are many good links on the Makezine website too. Just do a search for toner transfer, much of it is for making Printed Circuit Boards but the principles are the same.