Merge Layer

[whitey]

In my project, I need to make a bunch of screws outlining a steel plate. I've made the screw, and now want to copy and paste it around my plate. The screw is made of three layers. One layer uses layer mode hard light and an opacity of 80.

Heres my problem, when I merge the layers it doesn't end up looking how I want because the layer set to hard light automatically resets to normal and its opacity back to 100% and THEN merges.
There has to be a way to fix this right?

Thanks

[user_deleted]

two ways to solve this problem:
one : group your three layers, and duplicate the group.
two : turn off all the other layers, choose image > duplicate and make sure flatten image is selected, drag the new flattened layer back into your comp.

[whitey]

Thanks