technobreath Posted May 14, 2012 Report Share Posted May 14, 2012 I have been doing some PCB making the last days, and I thought I'd just share a couple things I learnt along the road when it comes to the toner transfer :). 1. Use a paper type that leaves no fibres when separating if from the PCB after laminating. I have used normal paper that u find in every office around the world. Not very good, because it leaves fibres. Instead I have begun using photopaper specially designed for laser printers. Works very good for me. 2. When u have printed out a design - never touch it with fingers. 3. Find the piece of PCB that u want to use. If it is full of oxi, then use a piece of steelwool (soap-less is prefered) for cleaning it off. After it looks all shiny, clean with a strong cleaner - like aceton or other laqcuer thinner. Alcohol may work too - don't know - I always use aceton. If u don't do this, it can cause the design to not stick good enough (or not stick at all) to the PCB. 4. Some say that u should preheat the PCB with the clothes-iron before applying the paper to it. It makes the toner stick to the pcb immediatly - in theory that is :). So judge yourself wether to preheat or not for ur project :). When etching the boards in FeCl like I do, there are a couple of important ones. Always use gloves. Never spill ANY - I really mean it - ANY of the FeCl! It will stain both your fingers and everything else it hits in a signal yellow color that won't wash off at all. On skin, ok - it will wear off eventually - but on kitchen counter - no, on walls or curtains - no... so no spilling antyhere! :). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kHz-tone Posted May 15, 2012 Report Share Posted May 15, 2012 Very nice method, I use same way to make my PCBs and also use it to make my own silkscreen Cheers Philipp Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shuriken Posted May 15, 2012 Report Share Posted May 15, 2012 If you want to improve over a clothes-iron, there is a simple mod for a GBC Heatseal H65. You then feed the pcb through it a couple of times from different angles. It works quite well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
technobreath Posted May 15, 2012 Author Report Share Posted May 15, 2012 Yep, I have been sniffing on modding one of those laminators, but haven't got to that yet. In the meantime I use my wife's clothesiron - she never uses it for clothes anyway :P So it's now a permanent tool @ my workbench :P hehe. But a laminator would be far less work, and faster. PS. I had to read through what I wrote first to check if there was something totally "off" in there, coz I wrote it last night, and I was so tired my eyes crossed... luckily it looks ok :P. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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