Homebrew PCBs

--- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, Mark Lerman <mlerman@...> wrote:
>
> For anyone interested, there is absolutely no reason that laser 
> printers cannot directly deposit toner on pcb boards. The practical 
> problems are the fuser and the paper path. As a proof of concept, I 
> took a Brother HL2140 laser printer that has a manual feed for 
> thicker media and fed a sheet of thin (8 mil) laminate through the 
> printer. Nothing printed.

I'm not sure I understand why nothing printed here...


> I then removed the fuser, using appropriate resistors to simulate the 
> correct fuser temperature and thereby fool the printer controller 
> into thinking the fuser was still there. I ran the same test, and 
> sure enough, it printed perfectly! Of course, the toner was only held 
> to the board by electrostatic attraction, but I then put the board 
> into my trusty toaster oven and "fused" it.
> 

That is very interesting... Why did removing the fuser cause it to print? 

<SNIP>

> If anyone is interested in more details, I am happy to share.
> 
> Mark
>


I would be VERY interested in pictures, and descriptions of the modifications you made.

--
James Newton
http://techref.massmind.org/techref/pcbs.htm