On 16 Jul 2011 17:52:03 -0300, Mike Spencer
wrote:


Am I missing something? Is this business with the press all about
getting rid of air bubbles under the sticky film? Pressing bubbles
makes them smaller but they just, you know, re-expand when you stop
pressing.

Actually they don't. Even if they did it would not matter because by
that time the resist is transferred to the workpiece.

And they migrate if you roll -- it's like spearing buttered
green peas with a fork on a china plate.

I wish they did. They don't, which is the point of the whole exercise.

Apply the film as well as you can. Maybe make an initial pass with a
roller or iron to get it well stuck down.

Locate any bubbles. Use a fine hypodermic needle to pierce the film
and release the bubble, gently rolling the film down with a narrow
steel roller as you do so.

I haven't tried poking them. Good idea! Trouble is sometimes they are
not visible until you remove the backing. I have found that preventing
them is the way to go.

Then use your iron or press or whatever to do the iron-on step and
finish the heat transfer.

There used to be a product used by newspapers to produce cylindrical
rotogravure plates, called IIRC "carbon film". I tried to get some 30
years ago and no one around here (very far from the NYT or the Chicago
Trib :-) had ever heard of it. So I suppose it's no longer made or is
hiding in some industrial niche somewhere. I wanted it to do stuff
very like what you're trying to do.

I used to do this with ordinary transparencies but they do not work as
well as Press-n-Peel.

[...]

Michael Koblic,
Campbell River, BC