Transfer templates from paper to metal using laser printer

[Libris]

Yep, as some people got it - it is the same technique that is used to make PCBs. But hey, anyways, I think a short guide should be useful. So here it goes.

What you gonna need:

Material of which your pick will be made (hacksaw blade, spring steel etc.)
Laser printer (regular ink (is that a correct word?) printers won't do the trick)
Some fine grit sandpaper
Some sheets of paper. Regular paper won't do, although I've been successful with it several times. Laser printer toner just sticks too well on it. You need some paper that is shiny and slippery, like polished. Even some magazine covers will work, but it should be plain white. I'm not sure about the fotopaper.
An iron
A bit of acetone, but you can ask your mother/girlfriend/wife/sister for some nail polish cleaner, it also works.
A little bath (no, not the bathtub) of relatively warm water, hot water from my tap works. It is about 40-60*C (104-140*F)
A needle, but that's optional.
Pick templates. They should be plain black.
A bentch grinder/Dremel tool

How to do it:
1. Find some pick templates. As I mentioned, they should be plain black, if they aren't, you should Photoshop them.
2. Feed the shiny paper into your printer. Print the templates, make sure you are doing that on the shiny side (on some papers, only one side is shiny). Also make sure the templates are sized right and the Economode is turned off. You'll want to make more than one copy of each template, in case you fail somewhere.
3. While it's printing, sand the material (e.g. hacksaw blades) with some fine grit sandpaper. If you are using hacksaw blades, turn on the grinder and grind off the teeth and, if the teethway (don't know the word) is wavy, grind it until the wavy part has been grinded all off. This leaves you with just enough material width. Or you may want to cut the wavy part with the Dremel. Then, cut the materal to the desired length.
4. The printing should be finished now. Cut the chosen pick off the template (you don't need to follow the shape, leave a lot of paper before the pick image starts and after it ends). If you are lazy, you can cut only the business end of the pick and make the handle for yourself by yourself.
5. Fill the bath with the hot water. The size of the bath has to allow you to comfortably place your material in it. Since the volume of the water will not be so great, but the surface area is quite big, the water tends to cool quite quickly. You will need to change it frequently, if you're making more than one pick.
6. Plug in your iron.
7. It's the tricky part. You need to place the template on the material, without allowing it to move when you are ironing it. I tried gluing them together, it works quite well. Also, you can fold the template's ends around the material (that's why I advised you to leave a lot of paper before the image and after).
8. Your iron should be ready now. Make sure to turn the steam off. Also you will need to experiment with the temperature. Apply a lot of pressure and iron your template with the material. Once you think it's enough, iron one more time. Apply a LOT of pressure, just be careful not to brake your iron.
9. It is enough now. DON'T PRY OFF THE PAPER TO SEE WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE! Let the material to cool.
10. Place the material with the paper into a bath of water. Leave it in there for about 5-15 minutes.
11. The paper should be completely drenched. Carefully take it out of the bath.
12. Tricky part #2. Take the needle and carefully remove all the paper with it. It's a work requiring patience. If you are not so patient, you can remove it with your fingertips. Gently strip off the layer after layer of drenched paper, until there's no paper left. The Laser printer toner should be nicely stuck to the metal.
13. Now finish your pick using your preferred methods - grinder/file/Dremel. The toner is (or should be) insensitive to water, so you can quench it without worries. But do it more frequently.
14. Once the pick is finished, you can remove the toner with the acetone or nail polish cleaner.
15. Now go pick some locks!



You may ask, why only laser printer toner will do? Well, the toner is something like very very fine plastic dust. If you apply extensive heat to it, it melts. This is the way it sticks to the metal. Why can't you pry off the paper without water? Because the toner is then stuck to the both sides - both to the paper and to the metal. If you'll pry it off, you will ruin it. The water helps to get rid of paper.
Happy picking!

Libris.

P.S. If you want to place this guide outside of lockpicking101.com, you must ask my personal permission.
P.P.S. Sorry for my hopeless English.

[Exodus5000]

Thats a pretty nice guide you have there Libris. My one question for you is if you can explain in more detail what "shiny paper" you are using? Did you say it was photo paper, or is there a more specific name for it?

[Libris]

I don't know the correct name for it. Fotopaper is something like that, but I haven't tried it. Shiny paper... well, it's just shiny

I told you my English is hopeless.

Libris.

[Libris]

Just searched google for "shiny paper". No good results. It is not the paper you put your gifts at Christmas in, as one of the results showed me. I may be able to take a picture of the paper I'm using soon.

Libris

[cottonmouth]

The proper name may be "glossy paper". It is filled with kaolin to make the surface smooth and shiny. Some free catalogues are printed on that kind of paper. You can feel the difference to regular printer paper. I´ve seen guides on that topic that state that white paper isn´t required.
There is also a special PTFE sheet for this thermo transfer method. It should be available in eletronics shops but rumor has it that it´s quite expensiv.

[hippy5749]

The only thing I would add is that you would probably do better to print as many picks on the glossy paper as you can comfortably fit on it to minimize paper waste, that way you can do an assembly line of different picks and finish them a lot faster than normal.

I also don't know if it would help keep the water hot, but a couple of suggestions could be to use a pot on the stove over fairly low heat, or possibly use an electric blanket turned on high with the pan setting on it to keep warm or hot. That way you wouldn't need to keep changing water.

If anyone tries these, let us know how it works....

Thanks,

Hippy5749

[Libris]

Yes, glossy paper may be the right name. You see, I, being someone for whom English is not the first language, don't see no difference In Lithuanian, it's called "kreidinis popierius", if we will translate it word by word, it should be "chalky paper". Maybe that gives more refference?

Libris

[digital_blue]

Cleaned out posts previous to the tutorial and stickied.

Good guide! Thank you!

db

[unbreakable]

W00T, you made a sticky!

Congrats man, great guide

[Libris]

Weeee, a sticky! Thank you! Maybe not so bad for the first topic, eh?

Let's get back to the topic. I will try to borrow a datacable for my phone from my friend and add some photos af the paper I'm using and maybe even update the guide with photos

[Shrub]

Good guide nicely done and a sticky on your first postings well done,

A couple of things,

You can buy iron on sheets from electronics shops for doing printed circuit boards, they cost around the same as a pack of glossy paper but you only get around 10 sheets,

I have heard that when this is used for circuit boards that some have had good results by running the material through a laminator instead of useing an iron,

You can spray your material with a UV sensitive paint which when dry can have the template laid on it and either left out in the sun for 30 mins or put in a uv light box, a soak in a very very diluted caustic soda bath will then make the pick shape stand out and the uv paint to come off,

Theres lots and lots of ways you can mark material like this but i still like the old cut out and glue on paper templates lol

[SFGOON]

It's a little better than "not bad," I don't know of anyone else who got thier first post stickied. Mostly first posts tend to be STOOOOPID questions and nothing imminently nor incredibly useful, as was yours.

[Libris]

Thank you all for your compliments and comments! I'm tying to get a camera now.

[Lynx40]

Nice write-up.

Just a couple of things to add:

Pretty much any glossy paper will work. The thinner you get, the better. Provided it will go through your printer.
Very thin, uncoated paper WILL work, but the results aren't nearly as good. It's the clay coating (glossy paper) that releases in the hot water that makes it work so well.

This technique, when used to make circuit bords, is capable of holding very fine lines, so the better your original template, the better the results. If you can get a very clean template, you can hold an amazing amount of detail.

One trick is to run out a number of them on the sheet. Lay your hacksaw blade (or whatever) on top of the design and trace around it. You can cut on the lines and your paper will fit exactly to your piece of metal. It simplifies the "lining up" process when ironing.

If you don't have access to a laser printer, you can print your template out with a normal ink-jet printer and photocopy the printout. A photocopier works along the same lines as a laser printer...the toner melts and fuses to the paper.

With either laser printer or photocopy, make your templates as dark and crisp as you can. Heavy coverage (100 percent black) makes for the best transfer.

[Lynx40]

One additional thing...
(sorry for the double post)

You don't need to use acetone or other solvent to take the toner off when you are finished. It scrubs off really well with an ordinary scotch pad or other scrub pad and some hot water.

Don't worry if you can't get all of the toner off. It will come off easily while you are sanding the pick.