The oven cleaner thing sounds interesting - gotta' give that a try.
I've been playing with different chemicals and I've found Lye to work well.
3 Tablespoons of lye
2 quarts of water
Acid resistent brushes
Let the bill soak in it for an hour. After it's soaked, move it to a hot water bath and gently wipe it with the tip of the brush. It's comes off perfectly. There's a small amount of left-over ink, but printing the new face will cover that up. Use $5's. $1's simply have too much ink to work - you can blank the face completely, but the back is just too much for the bill to take.
Make sure the bill goes in all at once and straight. If it enters the solution uneven, part of the bil will be deformed. One good aspect, of this method is that the bill doesn't need to be in pristeen condition to be used. It first few bills I worked through where decently worn and they came out well enough.
The biggest problem I've had in all of this is getting a $10 or $20 of the right age to copy - in good enough condition.
Last edited by shetlan; 03-03-2009 at 03:21 AM.
|