Homebrew PCBs

I'm not sure about the charge problem, but the way I planned to 
handle the drum was with soft plastic on the leading edge of the 
board and by beveling and smoothing the other edges. If the board is 
smooth, it shouldn't damage the drum. However, I take back my 
"absolutely" and will let you all know how things go.

Mark

At 10:24 AM 3/14/2009, you wrote:
>Absolutely none is a strong statement.
>I would say there is a number of good reasons why it does not work.
>
>The toner is transferred from the drum to the paper via an
>electrostatic charge delivered by the corona wire. A metallic PCB
>shorts this charge, making the transfer efficiency ~50% (pure chance)
>which is usually not enought to work as resist.
>
>The drum is coated with a very delicate photoconductor. This layer is
>easily damaged by board edges, metal burrs, accidents of any kind.
>
>The only approach that sounded promising to me was presented by
>someone who is no longer a member here. It involved installing a
>silicone rubber coated drum right under the photo drum (in contact
>with it). Below the silicone drum a heated PCB would pick up the
>toner. This transfer drum would solve both problems.
>
>
>Don't get me wrong i'm very supportive of any efforts towards direct
>laser printing, i think it would be very neat. But you have not yet
>identified all the problems.
>
>ST
>
>On Sat, Mar 14, 2009 at 1:30 PM, Mark Lerman <mlerman@...> wrote:
> > For anyone interested, there is absolutely no reason that laser
> > printers cannot directly deposit toner on pcb boards.
>
>
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