I picked up an old thermal copier a while back; once artifacts lingering in old public school Audio-Visual closets–next to the overhead projectors–these things are now in high demand by fiber artists (they make silk screens) and tattoo artists (for design stencils):
I got mine on Craigslist for $200.
For a very clear and lucid explanation of how/why you’d want to use a thermofax for fiber art, read this blog post.
Anyway, my machine seems to work fine, and I just made my first silkscreen from a black and white photocopy, here it is:
Since this was just a sample, I made a quick “frame” with duct tape:
And here it is, outside with some fabric and dye paste; but when I made my first attempt at a print, all I got was a rectangular blob of dye paste on my fabric.
I won’t both showing you the blob. I think the problem is that my black and white copy from the copy shop isn’t toner-based. If you don’t use a carbon-based black-and-white original for the design, the thermal copier won’t be able to bind the image to the silkscreen mesh.
I’ll have to try again.