Solvent Transfers

great info

Excellent post and article as while the Micropaedia is the smaller one with shorter articles that are usually less than 250 words, just digged it and stumble it up so your blog post will get more popularity on the search engines.

Great Info ,

Andy Colleman

nitrile gloves
spray booth

i am tryin solvent transfers for the first time and.. uhm i guess it aint workin.. i use enamel "thinner".. i have put a piece of newspaper on a blank piece of handmade paper, i "watered" it with the solvent and rubbed it with a brush.. what now? do i have to wait for it to dry up? because until now, i see no transfer at all.. is it the thinner? i also tried some kind of acetone.. it didnt as well.. HELP!

ps my head is aching...

I've had success transfering laser prints and photocopies with acetone. Recently however I obtained copies from a different machine than usual and got no transferring happening at all. It occurred to me that newer copiers might not use the same toner technology, perhaps they are using inkjet technology? If anyone knows anything about this I'd be grateful.

A quick response to the poo-pooers of health concerns - it's true these chemicals have been in use for many decades. It's also true that thousands and thousands of tragic deaths and illnesses resulted from past ignorance of the health hazards - including many many artists.

if you want the text reversed, do one of the following 1 write it in an image manipluation program like photoshop and flip the image, 2 when it comes to printing, in the print options of most printers there is the option to reverse the image or 3 print out as normal and use the settings on the photocopier to reverse the image.

about the chemicals, we did something similar to this at college, we used acetone to transfer photocopies and none of the thousands of people who have been told how to do it have come to any harm from it, im sure they would have put a stop to us doing it there if that were the case.

im not sure that a transfer will survive the wash, if it does it wont last long, the "ink" is actually a fine dust which sets in place when heat is applied, if it goes through the wash im sure not only the aggitation of the fibers will destroy the image but also the heat of the water.

i want to transfer photocopies of text, is there a way to do it so it's not reversed?

ok..this may sound like a stupid question, but i'm really excited to try this process but am confused about one thing. if you're using a cloth to transfer an image onto another piece of paper, say, a moleskin journal, how do you prevent the entire page from getting wet and wrinkling/crinkling up? that's my biggest concern so far, as i've had luck with the actually tranfering of the image so far! thanks everyone.

Does peppermint oil work as a solvent?

Don't discount the hazards Sabrina. Google wintergreen oil and see how it may effect your kidneys or ovaries! Find your best process, but play it safe, please.

OK people, I came on this website to try and find some sort of instructions for oil of wintergreen transfers and all I got was a bunch of people arguing about how bad chemicals are for you.... for cryingo ut loud take it somewhere else.... People are not stupid and this conversation should have been taken somewhere else and the room saved for people who were interested in the process itself and not the obvious health risks..... I am very disapointed in how long it took me to filter through the crap to get to something that wasn't even there... :(

Toner on fabric will become more perminent with a strong heat set. This will fuse the toner plastic to the textile fibers, and will make it less likely to peel or flake.

I would suggest a hobbist's heat gun.

I just did an experiment to see if a transfer done on fabric could be washed and it was a success. I didn't put it through the machine, just handwashed it in some Zero and hung it to dry. It didn't fade or run at all.

If you choose a dangerous solvent over a natural one (I would suggest the tea-tree, or the wintergreen oils, as their most probable side effect is just a pink rash caused by skin irritation, and at worst, an allergic reaction which sure beats liver, kidney and brain dammage)-- then get yourself either some purple nitrile chemical gloves (I have seen them turning up in Walmarts, of all places) or even better, some heavy PVC impregnated black rubber gloves. (Can often be found in industrial, or agricultural supply stores) Normal old Vinyl or Latex gloves are not suitable for working with chemicals.

As always, when dealing with solvents, use in a well ventilated area, and wear proper eye, face, skin and breathing protection.

I was wondering what is the safest method of transfer? I used to use citrosolve all the time in art school and all kinds of markers and recently a friend told me that they don't even sell them at the school store anymore cause Xylene has been giving people cancer. I hate to be a chemophobe as stated earlier but hey- Eva Hesse and Niki de St phalle are fav. artist of mine and well...they are dead from their solvents. any suggestions if gloves are the best way?

Tea Tree Oil works better than everything mentioned. I found it on accident. Spread with Q tip on back of xerox (without putting it down on thing you are transferring to) hold under a light so you can see the pools dry up just enough... Ink will become sticky and rise on other side. Test with tip of your finger. Should take about 4 minutes. then put down where you want it and rub until its as dark or solid as you want. Done! All natural and aroma therapudic as well... actually the smell is hardcore at first, but you get used to it.

Christofer, I think the stuff I used was "goof-off". As well, I just found this via the Craftster.org forums:

http://visualstudies.buffalo.edu/resources/printlabs/courses/litho/photo...

From this, and what I've found on Craftster.org Acetone, Xylene, paint thinners, and wintergreen oil should all work. I'm going to see if I can track down some wintergreen oil tonight; the goof-off worked ok, but I didn't get the colour saturation I was hoping for.

Not just any marker blender, but Chartpak Marker Blender, which is the only one that contains xylene.

I'm having a seriously hard time finding the proper blender pen. I bought one for colored pencils and it didn't work. I bought one for prismacolor markers and it didn't work either. None of these companies include ingredients, so I don't know if they contain xylene or not.

I tried Goo-Gone and it didn't work. Gasoline didn't work either. I had some success with carburator cleaner (labeleed petolium based solvents) on one piece of wood, but not on another. Maybe the material you're transfering to makes a difference.

In relation to the MSDS thing above, a good place to find them is chemexper.com. Just type in the name or chemical formula and it spits out everything you ever wanted to know about it, and often has several different MSDS sheets. I use it all the time as a chemistry major, and if it's good enough for chem lab saftey info, it's good enough for home use.

I read somewhere that acetone should do the trick, but I did get it to work with some anti-goop stuff. It had Xylene in it and apparently that really does the trick.

Now I'm just kicking myself for bying that damn blend pen... sucker was 6 bux!

Look for a thinner that will cause a styrofoam egg crate to become 'sticky'. Sytrofoam is another form of polystyrene plastic-- the same plastic used in laser toner. If it makes styrofoam plastic sticky, it will make laser toner sticky.

Well it seems that I'm the only one who couldn't get this to work. I went and bought a blending pen, didn't do anything. Found some shellac thinner, all it did was soak the medium underneath the paper. I'm gonna try to find some wintergreen oil tomorrow but I'm feeling pretty lame (and have a massive headache from the fumes no less) at not being able to get this to work.

Should I be burninish it longer? Don't burnish at all?

Oh yes-- Perminance problems--

Laser lithography uses a heating element with a teflon coated roller to "Fuse" the toner particles to the paper, by melting them.

If you have the toner on your fabric, and are afraid of it "Washing out", you can heat set it with a hobbists HeatGun. (A hair dryer will not work, it does not get hot enough) This will melt the polystyrene plastic, and cause it to fuse to the fabric of the shirt, or whatever you applied it to, and it will resist comming of.

A word to the wise-- keep polystyrene toner *AWAY* from PVC pipes. The toner becomes sticky with prolonged contact to PVC plastic for some, unknown reason, and becomes a nuicanse. Some people have PVC pipes in their laundry room-- Just a heads up-- do not hang shirts with a laser toner transfer on a PVC pipe, unless you want the transferred image to transfer AGAIN-- to the PVC pipe.

You need to use an oil based solvent. Here is why:

The dye used in laser toner is an organic dye, derived from coal tar. It suspends quickly, and easily in acetone.

The plastic that makes up the body of the toner however, is polystyrene, and it DOES NOT.

If you dump some black laser toner into a dish of acetone, the acetone will turn a loverly deep purple color, but will leave a thickened chunk of black sludge at the bottom. Stirring does not help-- it always settles.

The readily disolved organic dye will be whicked into your fabric, leaving an unsightly purple "run" around the transferred 'sticky black sludgified" toner plastic. This is unsightly.

The solution is to use a solvent that disolves the plastic, and not the dye. I would suggest a vegetable volatile oil, like Citrus oil, the wintergreen that a previous poster suggested, or a terpinol/terpentine derivative.

I suppose you could use kerosine or gasoline as well, but I would think these would be more dangerous to your fabric, and to your health.

the 1st two came out okay, if a mite blurry, but the later oens where they had LESS design and hence less toner - the 'ink' runs like mad. perhaps i need thicker paper?

PS-- What siloxane said. I didn't read his post before i wrote mine.

consumer_q.

Actually, for these solvents an MSDS should be pretty consistent as long as you look up the correct approximate purity of the appropriate solvent. I didn't realize we were dealing with radioactive isotopes here *saracasm*. THEY ARE SIMPLE SOLVENTS! PRECAUTIONS GIVEN IN AN MSDS SHOULD BE CONSISTENT REGARDLESS OF MANUFACTURER!

If not, then i don't know how i have not died or contracted any health issues in the lab after all these years. But feel free to send me some vastly differing acetone or toluene MSDS's if you want. I'd love to see how the acetone you get is treated totally differently from the acetone i get. Oddly, i can send you acetone or toluene MSDSs from two different distributors that are very similar.

The small differences in MSDSs for these solvents are totally trivial relative to this application.

Again, common sense lives on! (in most of us anyways).

Does anyone have any guidelines for time on this process? Such as, how long should you be rubbing... Also, it suggests you "rub" the image to transfer... can you use things like a rolling pin, or is just rubbing the rag across it going to do it?
Again, once the image has dried... is there a risk involved with chemical interactions if you try to use a clearcoat on it for instance?

#28: Organic solvents are not much different from one another provided you buy from scientific suppliers (ie. Sigma, Alfa, etc). Virtually every chemical in the USA is supplied with a CAS number. Therefore, a MSDS sheet from different suppliers for a chemical with the same CAS# will be the same.

That said, there's pretty much no difference between MSDS sheets for, say, 99% acetone and >99% acetone. They're just standardized for different things (ie. reagents versus cleanroom work).

great idea. I'm goingto try. btw first thing I thought of was "I'll have to read the bottle" as a writer of technical details of a project I dont think you should have to do a PC song and dance. your not the readers mommy. when anyone knows paintthiner and solvents should be handeld in accord with their instructions on the bottle, in your hand that you see before you crack the seal on the top. duh

Guess no one's tried it on a shirt yet...?

"Go to sigma-aldrich and look up the MSDS for the solvents. Problem solved. "

If you want to know exactly what you are handling, do not go to Sigma for an MSDS unless the chemical you acquire is a Sigma manufactured chemical. You want the MSDS for the exact product, not an MSDS from another company.

Common sense, indeed.

In the UK, years ago a BBC program (name not remembered) showed this process, and used white spirit (mineral spirits for the USA folk) mixed with a few drops of dish detergent, the dtergent acting to better get the toner to transfer, when ironed or rubbed onto the t-shirt. worked great I seem to remember.
For ink jet you need to print directly onto a release paper, that has a waxy surface, the ink kinda balls up and does not wet properly on this type of paper, but can be transferred to an absobent paper or t-shirt for funky effects. I have tried with some faked duotones and it works well, timing between print and transfer is a bit critical and open to experiment, but thats the fun of it all? With any of these processes just remember to reverse the image if type is involved.
Hope this is useful to someone.

Wintergreen oil is also available in some drug stores, in the area where they have generic items like peppermint oil, glycerin, rubbing alcohol, witch hazel etc.

I can tell you with *certainty* that inkjets DO NOT work with this sort of transfer process. My daughter Devon was in a summer thing @ Cranbrook where they were doing things with these sorts of processes and she tried using something that was printed on my HP inkjet and she got NO transfer action happening. You really need something printed on a laser printer or photocopier...

Go to sigma-aldrich and look up the MSDS for the solvents. Problem solved. MSDS's are not hard to find, if they were it would defeat the purpose of having them. Common sense is alive and well for most of us....

Wintergreen oil can kill you, so can citra-solv, both more easily than water, and both of them are "Natural" to some extent. You contradicted your own argument, consumer_q. Moreover, in my experience, reliable info for solvents is easier to find than citra-solv or wintergreen oil.

Do your own research.

Water "is a NATURALLY OCCURING COMPOUND IN YOUR BODY!" and can still harm you. Regardless of what advertisements tell you, "natural" does not mean "safe".

There really is no such thing as "common sense" when dealing with chemicals. The proper handling, storage, and disposal of chemicals is learned through proper training. Most products these days have warnings, but they do not include MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheets)that let you know of the potential harm caused by the use.

Do take note of the risks involved. I would people have "chemophobia" than put themselves, and those people and animals around them needlessly at risk.

If wintergreen oil or citrisolv works, use that instead of xylene or acetone.

If you're concerned about the chemicals, try wintergreen oil. It will transfer black and white xerox and laser prints....don't yet know how it does with ink jet or color laser. You can buy it at your local natural foods-type store.

Fun.....
My first one came out great.

Get over the chemicals people; histologists have been using such solvents for decades and many would without gloves. Xylene eats latex gloves and if you get a little on your hands it will start removing your lipid bi-layer, you will feel that natural oily feeling on your hands will be gone. Use a little common sense and you will see you can go far in life. Have a phobia about everything and you will be stuck!

I'm sure that the people that go ahead and follow this procedure read the warnings printed all over the bottle of whatever they're using. That's why they're there. And if not, well, you can't save the world, but a good faith effort was made. Common sense really does go a long way. Constant repeated exposure to anything really isn't so good for you (except unicorns) so just use your best judgement here.

Arrgh! People, lay down the chemophobia for a moment! Acetone, that oh so evil solvent which apparently will give you 'liver damage' and cancer, is a NATURALLY OCCURING COMPOUND IN YOUR BODY! And xylene, yeah totally poisonous stuff! I wonder how humanity was able to survive back when people used only common sense and didn't have access to MSDS and respirators.

The best possible results (without long-term damage; my father worked with xylene for a number of years and now has a nervous system disorder) is to use citra-solv or the equivalent. Robert Rauschenberg used gasoline for transfers, one can imagine the hazards involved with this technique. I would advise "setting" the transfer after full evaporation of the solvent with a piece of acetate film (available at art supply stores) over which an iron lovingly has been pressed. Good luck.

Don't be paranoid about xylene or other organic solvents, but standard precautions should be taken. Proper gloves and an organics respirator are all that is really needed, both can be picked up at the same store you get the solvents.

Just working with a fan or outside won't give you as much protection as a respirator. No sense taking risks.

Has anyone tried this with a shirt? Has it survived the wash? :) I'd really like to know.

If you use xylene, do it outside. A fan will not be enough. Xylene is NASTY. I have a large permanent marker that has xylene in it, and even just taking the cap off stinks up a whole room - the marker literally saysto only use it in a well ventilated area...

So, with much MORE xylene than in a felt tip marker, such as this process will take, you will regret doing it indoors even if health is not your concern... the fumes are brutal.

If one simply takes the precautions outlined in the MSDS concerning personal protection equipment, using these solvents has little to no risk of over exposure. For both xylene and acetone, nitrile gloves will work well for the skin exposure. As for inhalation, just do it outside or with a fan on your workspace.

There's absolutely no reason to be paranoid about these things.

Good point. Both acetone and Xylene are organic solvents, meaning (with prolonged exposure) liver damage and increased cancer risks. They are also volatile and flammable. So avoid skin contact, take it outside, and no smoking.

It's irresponsible to write about using solvents without at least mentioning the large health risks and proper safety and disposal procedures. Those considerations alone make using that technique questionable.

I would also recommend a product called citra-solv for doing transfers. It works just as well as xylene and is far less toxic. Your transfers will smell great afterwards, too.