Suffice to say I'm pleased. After a whole bunch of wild goose chases I finally got the whole laser printer toner transfer thing to work with fairly decent results. Turns out the solution for me was to skip trying to use the photo paper and go with an Avery printable label sticker backing sheet. Basically the entire process involves wet cleaning the board with steel wool using dish washing detergent followed by wiping down with acetone, preheating the board @170 degrees in my convection oven, then pressing about ~45 seconds with my clothes iron. After a bit of cooling and gentle rubbing with the edge of a credit card the before lifting up the sticker label backing sheet the toner comes right off. Right now the smallest thing I have tried doing is around 20 mils with no problem.
Guess the next step is to acquire some tinnit electroless plating solution and start working on dual sided boards. I'm thinking the best way to accomplish that is going to be to see if I can use a friends custom design t-shirt press as it would allow both sides of the board to be transferred at the same time. Still haven't figured out a good way to plate my vias though as one of the chemicals needed to do that can also be used to cook meth and as such is banned in the USA. Closest solution I have found so far are some small tubular copper rivets set into the board but those are somewhat expensive.
One idea I have been tinkering with is to use wire sliced into tiny cylinders using three flat pieces of steel bolted together sort of like a pocket knife. The wire goes into a hole drilled the same size as the wire across all three pieces, with the center piece being allowed to "stick up" just a little bit like a partially opened pocket knife. Giving the center "blade" a blow with a hammer drives the center blade level with the outer ones and effectively shears the wire cleanly leaving a slug the width of the blade with square ends. To install the slugs into the board the idea is to again drill out a hole the size of the slug and to use a small arbor press. The press has a couple thingys on it made from broken carbide drill bits ground down with a diamond cutoff wheel in a rotary tool leaving what could be described as a flat end with a small "nub" in the center. It's actually quite easy to do using a drill to turn the bit in the opposite direction the rotary tool is turning. When the cylinders are pressed the nubs will "mush" the center of the copper slug causing it to expand it's diameter slightly and grip the PCB. A little bit of solder on the ends of the via and it should be good to go.
Guess the next step is to acquire some tinnit electroless plating solution and start working on dual sided boards. I'm thinking the best way to accomplish that is going to be to see if I can use a friends custom design t-shirt press as it would allow both sides of the board to be transferred at the same time. Still haven't figured out a good way to plate my vias though as one of the chemicals needed to do that can also be used to cook meth and as such is banned in the USA. Closest solution I have found so far are some small tubular copper rivets set into the board but those are somewhat expensive.
One idea I have been tinkering with is to use wire sliced into tiny cylinders using three flat pieces of steel bolted together sort of like a pocket knife. The wire goes into a hole drilled the same size as the wire across all three pieces, with the center piece being allowed to "stick up" just a little bit like a partially opened pocket knife. Giving the center "blade" a blow with a hammer drives the center blade level with the outer ones and effectively shears the wire cleanly leaving a slug the width of the blade with square ends. To install the slugs into the board the idea is to again drill out a hole the size of the slug and to use a small arbor press. The press has a couple thingys on it made from broken carbide drill bits ground down with a diamond cutoff wheel in a rotary tool leaving what could be described as a flat end with a small "nub" in the center. It's actually quite easy to do using a drill to turn the bit in the opposite direction the rotary tool is turning. When the cylinders are pressed the nubs will "mush" the center of the copper slug causing it to expand it's diameter slightly and grip the PCB. A little bit of solder on the ends of the via and it should be good to go.