Putting Your Photograph On Metal

There is all sorts of fun things to do down at TechShop San Jose whether it's in the wood shop, metal shop or in the textile area. However if you aren't the inventing sort, there is a way that you can combine photography, printmaking and the metal shop: Ink Jet Transfers! By placing an ink-jet transparency against a Purel-brushed surface, the ink will pull off and make a print on a surface of your choosing! You can do this to just about any surface, but if you want to use metal like I did you will need to take the MIG welding SBU. Beyond that, the only other tools I used are hand tools and the handheld plasma cutter which is a check-out service. So this is definitely a cool and interesting project that can be done without taking a class. 

Through

Materials:
A TechShop Membership (Not required but highly recommended)
Whatever is in the desired scrap bin (Or something you purchased)
Purel - 70% alcohol hand sanitizer
Apollo Inkjet Transparency Film (It cannot be multipurpose or quick-dry. And I don't know about other brands)
An inkjet printer - The higher quality the better
A Brush for the hand sanitizer
Angle Grinder
Flap Wheel
Clear coat

Step 1: Surface Grinding

So the easiest first step for this project is to prepare whatever surface you want first. The main reason for this being that once the image is printed on the transparency ink can be scratched off or it can be damaged in general.

Through doing roughly 8 of these pieces, there are many variables that can affect the final outcome. The most effective method to prepare the surface is to use an angle grinder and a Flap Disc. This creates grooves in the metal that makes it easier for the ink to stay on the material. When I was taught how to do this, the hand sanitizer method was mainly used for porous materials but I got a cool imperfect look with metal. 

As I have stated in my previous instructables, when using rotary tools it is important to not where gloves and keep otherwise loose things away. At the same time, it is important as always to wear safety glasses. 

Clamp down the piece of metal you choose, and grind it down! Be sure to be cautious of heat build up, especially with thinner gauge material. It is definitely possible to not only burn the metal but also grind through it. You want to make sure that the metal is ground down enough to create consistent scoring as well as brighten the surface to bring out the highlights. In the image provided you can easily see the before and after of this piece of scrap metal that I found.

Comments

[farabide]

Just found this and I love it! I'd love to try something like this with my kids do you think sand papered tin (as in tin can) would be as effective as angle ground steel?

[sallyp]

I'm confused about the final steps.
• How long do you leave the printed piece on the metal?
• How do you remove it? Just peel it off?

Thank you!

[MakerDrake]

Sorry about being a tad vague on that, I only left the printed piece on the metal for about 10 seconds or so. I didn't really keep track of time, I just spent the time making sure the image was in full contact with the purel. It's essentially instantaneous.

And yes, I just peeled it off.

[spark master]

Please do a video of the actual transfer part of project. Can one use just methanol , alreasy on my toxic waste shelf and purel costs more money and they are both spirit. There are many DIY picture transfer pieces on the web but yours is a bit different so it adds to the mix.

[MakerDrake]

I may be making more of these soon so when I do I will try to remember to record the process. It was interesting to try and record exact instructions since I wasn't being meticulous about it. I believe you can use anything with alcohol in it, that's the key ingredient. There is another transfer process which one can float the project in a bath of isopropyl alcohol which comes out with a cleaner look.

[bg_askins]

how smooth of a finish can the metal have and the picture still transfer?

[Wroger-Wroger]

I think it comes down to general durability.

Anything "inky" or film based needs a physcial "3D" to fuse or grip into.

It's like how many things can you stick onto a smooth surface like a mirror, and are either easy to peel, scrape or rub off?

Then there is "fusion" of sorts by heat or emulsification - like oil on tar macadam or hot moltern plastic or wax etc., on cloth.

Then there is applying things like glue to coarse brick work etc....

Smooth surfaces are nice to bond onto, but the question is how well will it actually stick?

Like if I am selling "art work" it would be reasonable to expect that the person who bought it, could take it home and wipe the dust off without the image partly or mostly coming off as well...

So I guess the idea is to make the surface SMOOTH but in a microscopically rough way... like a fine matt sand blasted effect - like a microscopically torn up surface.

[MakerDrake]

I haven't done any significant exploration in that area. Like I said in the write-up when trying to do another transfer after a failed one, it works terribly. I believe that the success on the metal is due to the grooves created by the flap wheel. It's worth a shot with a higher grit wheel!

[ak08820]

I wonder if you could use a pressure washer to remove the ink residue for a second trial!

[PitStoP]

This is a cool affect. I like working with sheet metal and making art sculpture with it so this gives me more ideas to try on my next projects. Have you tried using just plain printing paper? Also (I'm sure you already know this)have you tried cleaning the metal before and after grinding it? When I worked at a metal fabrication shop we cleaned all the metal we grind or sanded to remove the oil before welding and painting it! I'm thinking if there's oil in the metal it's probly why the image don't stick, maybe the reason why grinding it is working better?
Also I was thinking instead of brushing the alcohol on maybe spraying it with a fine mist using a plastic spray bottle or maybe an paint spray gun for the alcohol. If you try any of this or already done it let me know how it worked out.. Thanks for the instructable MakerDrake..

[p.lefebvre]

i use the pre-coat from Canadian company Inkaid to print on " anything " www.inkAID.com
It comes out pretty good on coper and stainless steel

[TimS124]

Nice artistic effect. Thanks for the writeup (and the new ideas kicking around in my head). :-)

If you chilled the metal (and possibly the Purell) before Step 4 (Placing the Image), it might slow down the evaporation rate enough to give you more working time before the alcohol evaporates too much.

The chilling might make it easier to do larger pieces (which would likely require breaking an image into multiple printed transparencies). Brushing on additional Purell to apply a print next to an existing one seems likely to mess up the first image…but if the chilling slows evaporation enough, you could do multiple images on a larger chunk of metal by brushing over a wider area before applying the images.

[wbunch1]

How long do you leave the transparency film on before removing? I am guessing just a minute or two if that.

[MakerDrake]

That is correct, about a minute or so. I wasn't really scientific with the process so it ranged from about 30 seconds to 2 minutes. It largely depended on how much other pressure needed to be applied throughout the transparency.

[The Green Gentleman]

That is so cool looking! I love that!