Pictures:

First picture is the best toner transfer I’ve been able to pull off so far. Spent most of the week trying to just get a resist going. You can still tell there are some breaks, but those should be fixable with a really fine sharpie. I’ve been experimenting with a variety of factors that people say help with the toner transfer, from paper choice to laser printer brand to application technique and more. The largest difference I could see was in the choice of paper. Previously I was using a photo paper, which was more plastic and less paper. This messed up the iron (which was easy to clean with a little bit of steam and some paper), but also made it impossible to remove from the copper without destroying the traces. Going to a thinner presentation paper let me really weaken the fibers with a soak in water. Unfortunately, the traces are so thin they still break off anyways.

The second picture is what I’ve been able to put together with respect to sewing. This is only a portion of the hat, and was just something I did for practice on the sewing machine. There’s some wicked curves in there, but I think it went okay.

Successes:
Put together part of a hat. Got the toner transfer complete. For more info, see above.

Problems:
Well, I still need to finish the brim assembly. I’ve got the toner transfer done as well as I can pull off, but there’s still possible problems with the etching. The mix works for sure, now the problem is doing it with the resist.

I’m no longer worried about the sewing at all. Couple hours in front of a machine some evening this week and I’ll have it all done.

Plan:

Monday, gonna to the etching and soldering in the evening. Tuesday should be final checking of the electronics. Which leaves the rest of the week for final assembly. NBD.