Any way to manually "set" the toner powder?

[LurfysMa]

I had a paper jam on my HP 5000 laser printer. I was trying to print
on a greeting card. The text was placed on the card, but it did not go
through the heating process, so the toner is still "unset". This has
happened before. If I brush it with my finger, it will smear.

Is there any way to "set" the toner? I don't have another card to run
through the printer.

Can I print a blank page and run it through the printer again? I don't
want to reprint the same text because I don't think it will align
perfectly.

Thanks

 

[LurfysMa]

I had a paper jam on my HP 5000 laser printer. I was trying to print
on a greeting card. The text was placed on the card, but it did not go
through the heating process, so the toner is still "unset". This has
happened before. If I brush it with my finger, it will smear.

Is there any way to "set" the toner? I don't have another card to run
through the printer.

Can I print a blank page and run it through the printer again? I don't
want to reprint the same text because I don't think it will align
perfectly.

Alternatively, is there a good way for me to wipe the unset toner off
the card without smearing is all over and then reprint?

 

[Steve Mackie]

I had a paper jam on my HP 5000 laser printer. I was trying to print

Alternatively, is there a good way for me to wipe the unset toner off
the card without smearing is all over and then reprint?

Is this a one of a kind card? If not, just buy another one.

 

[Tony]

Alternatively, is there a good way for me to wipe the unset toner off
the card without smearing is all over and then reprint?

I can't think of any way to set the toner. You can't just print the card again
(with no data) to set it because it will smudge and then set the smudging. A
hot iron may do it through a blank piece of card but again I suspect it will
smudge badly.
Removing the toner is the best option I guess, you can vacuum it off without
touching the card but do it outside because the very fine toner will probably
exhaust through the vacuum cleaner air outlet. How effective that will be I do
not know, loose toner is best removed with a dry soft cloth but the surface of
the card may well hold some toner back.
Good luck.
Tony

 

[LurfysMa]

I can't think of any way to set the toner. You can't just print the card again
(with no data) to set it because it will smudge and then set the smudging. A
hot iron may do it through a blank piece of card but again I suspect it will
smudge badly.

That's what I was afraid of.

Removing the toner is the best option I guess, you can vacuum it off without
touching the card but do it outside because the very fine toner will probably
exhaust through the vacuum cleaner air outlet. How effective that will be I do
not know, loose toner is best removed with a dry soft cloth but the surface of
the card may well hold some toner back.

Here's what I ended up doing. First, I used soft tissues to gently
lift as much of the loose toner as I could. I wish I had waited for
your vacuum idea. That got the loose toner, which was probably 80% of
it, but the card did not release that last 20% and some of it did
smudge and smear.

Then, I got one of those pink erasers and gently passed it over the
non text areas to pick up the smudges. That actually worked pretty
well. I then went back over and over the entire card with the eraser
gradually increasing the pressure.

I then flattened the leading edge and printed a blank page on the card
to ensure that it would feed properly. When it did, I printed the
actual text again. The new text aligned fairly well with the old text.
The result is acceptable. Not excellent, but good enough.

Thanks

 

[Fred McKenzie]

I had a paper jam on my HP 5000 laser printer. I was trying to print
on a greeting card. The text was placed on the card, but it did not go
through the heating process, so the toner is still "unset". This has
happened before. If I brush it with my finger, it will smear.

Is there any way to "set" the toner? I don't have another card to run
through the printer.

LurfysMa-

I had that problem printing business cards on the old Apple 12-600 color
laser printer. It seems that the printer was not capable of fusing the
toner on thicker paper.

What I used was an industrial heat gun. This is like a hair blower,
except much hotter. This type of heat gun is commonly used to shrink
heat-shrink tubing, as well as for stripping paint.

With a little practice, it was possible to print a sheet of Avery business
card stock, and then fuse the toner witout charring the paper. In your
situation, you would have been lucky to have succeeded the first try!

Fred