First of all a little disclaimer, I have a bit of addiction to buying old hardware at really cheap prices of ebay.

So last week I picked a HP 5000N Laserjet for $25.00 (prolly about $17 -$20 USD) came with original toner and a an extra tray (it'll print A3 size sheets), and a couple of months back I scored a Roland DXY-980 plotter for $1.00 came with a bunch of pens of which about 6 or so are usable.

I know I can print negative artworks on my inkjet double them up and use them, tho it doesn't print quite to scale and not real keen on spending time to line them up, eyesight has decided to take leave or some such other nonsense. Same goes for the laserjet.

I know the laserjet can print some pretty good artwork for toner transfer, but results are a bit so-so......know I did just notice the boards that take the toner better have a slightly rougher surface, something to look into. I use a laminator that has been modded to increase the heat.

Ultimately I want to do photo etching. Using the old DOS easytrax/autotrax software I can plot directly from the software, but generally I usually generate the file, change the code that sets the speed and do an old fashioned "COPY ARTWORK.PBL COM1" I can also generate postscript files, as positive artwork and mess around with them to get a negative and put a couple of artworks onto a page, hand coding ATM but hopefully I may get around to a shell or sed/awk script to do the same.

Currently I'm chasing up the pen tips, ink & clear film Bob Barnes from RCS Radio used to use, unfortunately he passed away several years ago, but as he was quite a knowledgable and helpful kind of chap he wrote a number of text files that have some great info and are quite interesting, one relating to making artworks at 8:1 ration then using a room or two to reduce them to 1:1.

Sorry about this long winded post. To the crux of the matter, I know there is a great thread about the photo method here, but what I would truly love to know is:
Is there any alternatives for the Arista Ortho Film 2.0 product apparently the it is no longer manufactured, but there is mention of Arista Ortho Film 2.0 product as being a replacement, has anyone had an experience with this ? Or is there another brand that is compatible ?

How do the negatives stand up to storage, do the last of do they get damaged ?

Has anyone tried translucent vellum or tracing paper as a positive master to produce negative artworks ? I'm guessing experimenting with exposure would be needed if they are at all suitable.

That's about all I can think of ATM, oh a part from living in Australia which can be a right PITA to get some, postage can be a bit expensive. I'm guessing if I had half an idea about some stuff I need I could hassle the local photo place.......that's if there's anyone over the age of 40 or anyone knows that photos used to be shot on film and developed rather than just posted "on the internet". Failing that I may contact freestylephoto and see if they can safely ship some film, developer & fixer Down Under.

I'm also figuring that photo etching will have use in my other hobbies as well.

Anyways once again sorry about waffling on
Cheers
Rob

 

1) DuPont makes negative photoresist under its brand Riston.
2) Since you are using an HP Inkjet, you may be interested in a method I use to make the transparencies much more dense. I use positive resist, but it should also work with negative as well. I use a Dry Erase marker (aka White Board marker) to cover the entire transparency and then wipe off with soft tissue. The marker sticks to the toner, but not to the polyester film in clear areas. It works with HP toner up to the MFP4101. It does not work with Brother toner (and probably others that use LED's). Here's a link to a brief description: http://www.electro-tech-online.com/threads/photoresist-pcbs.40999/#post-331896 or here: http://forum.allaboutcircuits.com/t...ic-methods-of-making-pcbs.107696/#post-825425

John