Homebrew PCBs

I picked up some tips off Thomas Gootee's page and have done some 
experimenting. Below are some things I have come up with that make 
the process a bit easier.

I purchased the Photo Basic Gloss paper from Staples. It is the best 
paper I have used, no pinholes. The problem was getting it back off 
the board. Sore thumbs!!!

I found that after laminating the toner onto the board, putting the 
board and paper into water at a full boil will totally release the 
paper in less than ten minutes, it just floats off. Saves all those 
sore thumbs. Just a quick going over with a toothbrush leaves a very 
clean board. I tried some of the toner trasfer paper I used to use 
and it came off in less than a minute. Toner Trasfer paper and all 
other papers I have tried leave pinholes in the toner. 

One problem with the Photo Basic paper is that it takes a lot of heat 
and time to get it onto the board cleanly. I have some of the 
Hammermill Office Glossy on order. It is 34# paper, the Photo Basic 
is 52# paper. The thinner paper should take less heat and time. It 
should also work better with the laminator I am now using.

I bought one of those document laminators. The one I bought was - 
QuickFinish PL100 (about $50), made by Banner American. I purchased 
this one because you can set the temperature, and it was not too 
expensive. I did a minor modification to get the temperature a bit 
higher. Open the case, 5 screws in the bottom. Remove the two small 
screws holding the temperature control to the lid, pull off the dial, 
lower the board. On the board in addition to the main pot is a small 
trimmer pot, adjust it fully counter clockwise. This increased the 
total resistance seen by the controller, and thus increases the 
temperature on the laminating roller. I would have liked to have gone 
even higher, but this seems to work ok. Tape the artwork onto the 
board and make a couple of initial passes thru the laminator. Remove 
the tape. Make four or so more passes until the pattern can be seen 
thru the paper. Moving from end to end on each pass helps keep the 
heated roller up to temperature. I am hopeing that the thinner 
Hammermill paper will transfer faster. The copper on the board sucks 
the heat up on the first couple of passes. After that the board is 
pretty warm. Then just drop it into the boiling water until the paper 
falls off. Will repost results with the Hammermill paper.

As an alternative to the PL100 or a cloths iron, I use one of those 
toner transfer tools, a 25W soldering iron with a copper disk on the 
end. This gives me a better transfer than the cloths iron. I am never 
able to get the edges laminated with a cloths iron. Not sure if it is 
the smaller area of the head that allows more pressure or if it is 
just a bit hotter. Worth the investment of $25. 

Link to toner transfer supplier -

http://www.treelineusa.com/cgi-bin/shopper?preadd=action&key=196-7310



RDHeiliger