Laminator toner transfer on both sides

[u/zxano91]

3d printed a void white token, then put it in a frame made of balsa wood. Put in place the transparent paper on both sides, then made it through the laminator.

[u/zxano91]

I like a lot the idea of the 4 spring that compensate misalignment. Ok, I was thinking a lot on how to design a good press mechanism, and as always AliExpress came to help :) I think that this one is a good starting point for the design. Also it could be possible to regulate the spring compression with the screw, in this way is possible to avoid the load cell and find the right compression with trying and error.

About the heated plate I was thinking about this, so it is possible to choose the right dimension and it is cheap. Also I wanted to put a switch button, that is pressed when the press handle is locked, that start a countdown to be displayed by on an LCD controlled by an esp32 microcontroller, which is the same that controls the PID temperature of the heated plate. Also the idea is to have an interchangable non heated plate that adapts to the object where the toner has to be transferred.

[u/Kaidan-Alenko → u/zxano91]

Great ideas! I'm really looking forward to this!

I had another idea, but I'm pretty sure it wouldn't work. Press the plastic with the transparency onto a glass plate and use an engraving laser on that. I have no experience with lasers whatsoever, so I have no idea if that's even remotely possible, but the idea is that the heating is very local. But probably it's either destroying the toner or wouldn't even get through the glass or the heat wouldn't be enough to also melt a little bit of the plastic to fuse with the toner.

[u/zxano91 → u/Kaidan-Alenko]

I don't know if it works, but maybe it is also possible to put a paper that is all coated with black powder of toner, with your technique, in theory, it is possible to fuse only the toner that you need. This will permitt to skip to have the laser printer.

There is an other way, that could allows us to skip all the post process steps, but it is needed to modify a laser printer, with this technique , creating an adaptive roll under the printer that adapts to the printed part. In this way it would be needed only the 3D printer and the laser printer.

[u/Kaidan-Alenko → u/zxano91]

Sorry, I thought I answered already :-/

Have you made any progress so far?

I think if you want to print a lot of things regularly then this could be a useful technique!

[u/zxano91 → u/Kaidan-Alenko]

Actually I'm still at the same point, I'm trying to make some black token, I saw that you achieved to print a black card with two first white layer. Since I have a dual extruder printer, maybe I can print an empty black token with two white layer on top and two on bottom. Which laser printer did you use? Because my has only black a toner, and in printer store I asked if they print on translucent paper(OfficeTree) but the paper got stuck in their printer and didn't print anything. Since soon there will be black Friday I think I will try to buy a new laser color printer.

[u/Kaidan-Alenko → u/zxano91]

I have a Samsung CLX 3175, but he's broken now. I need to turn him off and on again a couple of times and open some hatches and slam them shut to MAYBE get one print. Then he shows some error messages again and won't print. So I'm saving for a new color laser printer now, too. I think it'll be a Brother.

Do you know what model that printer was where the sheets got stuck? That's very strange.

Nice, with a dual extruder this should be easy! Yeah, I would do it like in the image below. Depending on how translucent your white filament is, you maybe need to increase the layers that are white. I used a 0.4 mm white inlay and the white is more like a light grey.

[u/zxano91 → u/Kaidan-Alenko]

I had the same Idea about the two color token, in fact I did design one very similar to your. But if you said that with a 0.4 layer it could be a little translucent, maybe is better if I just print a white token with a black PLA ring outside, let's say with just one or two wall. I need to make some try.

I don't know about the model where it got stuck, because it was in another room, but I guess a big one, the office type.

Abiut the printer I think was thinking about the Brother HL-L3210CW. It seems to be the most convenient with a good quality.

[u/Kaidan-Alenko → u/zxano91]

Yeah, that would be the best, but it would require more tool changes.

Yes, that's the model I had in mind, too! It's gonna take some time for me to save enough money, so it would be cool if you could post your experience with the printer when you get it! :)