Yonderknight Posted June 7, 2007 Report Share Posted June 7, 2007 Hi,I have a couple of questions about etching PCB's. I've never tried it before, and I've read through the various methods of masking them. I don't have a laser printer, and I don't want to order any special paper. Also, the whole transfering process with a hot iron seems like a real pain, which I would probably mess up.I have a friend with a vinyl sticker plotter that can cut pretty intricate designs on sticker paper, and I was wondering if it would be possible to mask a PCB by cutting out the track patterns onto a vinyl sticker and sticking them onto a copper board. I figure if permanent marker works, then stickers should too, but I've never tried this so I wouldn't know.Any ideas?Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Twin-X Posted June 7, 2007 Report Share Posted June 7, 2007 For uv process you can do this. But you can't etc with the vynil on it ;).It should be no problem if the Vinyl leaves no residu.Why don't you try it on a small piece of pcb and tell the outcome of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yonderknight Posted June 7, 2007 Author Report Share Posted June 7, 2007 Hrm yeah, I guess I'll try it out. I was just wondering if anyone had any guesses as to what would happen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaicen Posted June 8, 2007 Report Share Posted June 8, 2007 As TwinX said, for photoetching it would work, but it wouldn't be cost effective. Nor would it work for intricate, small pitch stuff. I don't think you'd be able to use it as a stencil either. I use a photocopier and standard photo paper, which works just fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vicentiu Mincior Posted August 14, 2012 Report Share Posted August 14, 2012 As TwinX said, for photoetching it would work, but it wouldn't be cost effective. Nor would it work for intricate, small pitch stuff. I don't think you'd be able to use it as a stencil either. I use a photocopier and standard photo paper, which works just fine. I use a laser printer and vinyl sticker, which works very well. Look at this: http://electroni-city.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shuriken Posted August 19, 2012 Report Share Posted August 19, 2012 I use a laser printer and vinyl sticker, which works very well. Look at this: http://electroni-city.com Looks good. I did some similar pcb making with photopaper. But lately the results are less then optimal. Maybe i give this vinyl foil a go. Now where do i find Oracal 641 in W-Europe.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nebula Posted August 19, 2012 Report Share Posted August 19, 2012 Don't forget that for boards that aren't really intricate, you can usually get decent results drawing the traces with a permanent marker (like a "Sharpie") If you want slightly more controlled results, maybe you could find some dry-transfer (letraset-style) circuit board markings. Radio Shack used to sell them, I don't know if they still do. Look at the pictures on "step 5" on this page: http://haroldsbeambugs.solarbotics.net/Index3.html ... you just rub them on to the copper clad board with a pencil. Years ago I had GREAT results doing this, but now I'm using toner transfer for the rare occasions I make boards. You can get AMAZING results submitting your Eagle files to Laen's group panel order, where for $5 per square inch you get 3 copies of your design, double-sided, solder masked. I have used his service a few times and the quality is excellent, and it's a great value if you don't need a huge board. His website url recently changed (from dorkbotpdx.org): http://oshpark.com/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ilmenator Posted August 20, 2012 Report Share Posted August 20, 2012 Laen's PCBs are really excellent, I recommend them whenever I can, so I do it here as well! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shuriken Posted August 20, 2012 Report Share Posted August 20, 2012 (edited) Laen's PCBs are really excellent, I recommend them whenever I can, so I do it here as well! For prototyping i use the toner transfer method. However if that is successful i def. want to try Laen's service. Those pcb look really good. Edited August 20, 2012 by Shuriken Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vicentiu Mincior Posted August 22, 2012 Report Share Posted August 22, 2012 Looks good. I did some similar pcb making with photopaper. But lately the results are less then optimal. Maybe i give this vinyl foil a go. Now where do i find Oracal 641 in W-Europe.... You can try not Only 641 but any other Oracal type: 640, 651, 8800. You can go to your supermarket and search for it. Try search for Orafol or Orapaper. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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