Homebrew PCBs

> So true. If one comes to this forum with little or no PCB experience 
> one will certainly go away believing that TT is the only sensible 
way 
> to go.



Well, I wouldn't say that with any certainty.  When I came here a few 
months back (or however long ago it was), I looked at the variety of 
options presented here in the messages, files, and photos sections.

Being familiar with CNC machines, I figured the most direct route for 
me was to do isolation routing.  However, after some discussions and 
some further thinking, I realized isolation routing is probably not 
the best solution for me.

Then I say the photosensitive boards in the catalogs and thought about 
that process. Having worked in a darkroom and working with 
photography, I figured that would be a good direction to go.  

Then I looked at what I could about toner transfer. I have laser 
printers - 3 of them. I have a pretty wide variety of paper on hand to 
try various methods and I have an iron for use in the shop.  It also 
looks like the cheapest to "Get started" with method - didn't really 
need to purchase anything.

So, in my case, I just looked at the options everyone here has 
presented, I chose a path and it worked great the first time out.  
Then things went south when I bought some different PCB material.  
However, being pretty darn new at this, I can't say if I am even close 
to understanding the problems associated with the process, nor do I 
expect to master it anytime soon.  However, trying various things to 
make the process work better and more reliable doesn't cost me much 
(perhaps paper if I see something I want to try).  But, the toner and 
the paper is pretty much zero cost to me.

In my experience, toner transfer is worth further exploration - I have 
all the stuff I need, just not the understanding what causes certain 
problems.  Slowly I am working through the problems and finding 
solutions.  Photo masking will be something I try at some point when I 
need to, but toner transfer will do everything I need it to as I don't 
do any of the tiny trace stuff.