Supplies:

Laser printer (not a Brother, they don't work)

2 A4 sheets of 1mm brass (I've also used copper, no difference)

A4 sticky vinyl sheets

Acetone

Soap (I use Solvol because it cuts through oil)

Synthetic steel wool pad

Laminator

Kiln brick

Heat gun

Leather gloves

Method:

Reprint the paper templates of the plates. This time flipping the image horizontally. Always print out a test image on paper and double check that it's correct. It's a real pain when you don't do this.

Also see if you need to make the image in negative. The black bits won't be etched and will be the raised bits. anything white will be etched.

Now that you've double checked that. (you did do that right?) it's time to make the resist mask.

I struggled for quite some time using the classic PNP Blue. Sometimes it worked and sometimes it was really fiddly and always it was really expensive..

Here's my trick: I use the backing paper from sticky vinyl. I have a vinyl cutter (we'll be using that later) and the backing paper works easy and perfect every time.

You can't use the paper from vinyl you have cut on the cutter because it will have very slight slices in it but the sheets cost me about 50 cents each (PNP costs me 7 bucks) and I use the vinyl anyway.

Carefully separate the vinyl and backing. Save the sticky vinyl. I conveniently have a not quite finished time machine in my workshop which is good for hanging the bits of vinyl on. You can use something else.

Print your flipped image onto the shiny side of the backing paper and put this aside where it won't get damaged. It will scratch and ruin the mask if you're not careful.

Now to my least favourite stage. You need to make sure there is no oil on the brass. This includes the oil from your fingers so latex gloves work well here. Wash the surface with acetone to get rid of the majority so that it doesn't just get spread around in the next step.

The surface of the brass needs to be fairly well scuffed to give the toner something to bind to. I use the steel wool and soap to scuff it and cut through any remaining oil.

And now on to my next trick. I preheat the brass to get it up to toner melting temperature before I laminate it. Hitting it with the hot air gun for a few minutes does the trick. Before you start pre-heating it make sure that your laminator is up to temperature, you need to get it in there pretty quick.

The difficulty here is that you only get one shot to drop the printed mask onto the hot brass. If you don't get it in one, it's back to the acetone/scuffing stage for you.

As soon as you have the mask and brass together, feed it into the laminator and give it 4 or 5 passes. Use the leather gloves unless you're made of asbestos (and if you are, don't come near me)

The laminator doesn't really like having sheets of brass going through it but, hey, I don't like umbrellas. Build a bridge laminator, build a bridge.

Let the brass cool so that the toner will solidify and carefully pull off the paper to reveal the masked piece.

Now take the piece of vinyl you put aside earlier and stick it onto the back of the brass sheet. This will stop the brass being etched from the back.

Also if you have large areas of unmasked brass on the front side, use some vinyl to mask it off to save using the potency of the etchant. You can just use plastic packaging tape if you don't have yards of spare vinyl strips like I do.

What do you mean you want to hear more about the time machine? If you behave, I'll give you another glimpse at the end.