Tried a couple of things today, I'll lump them together here. Since modding my GBC to have temperature control, I'd wanted to try toner transfer again. Today I ran the laminator up to 350 F (the default was 320 F before, so this is 30 F hotter than my previous TT attempts). The paper was Pulsar blue, the printer HP 2550N, just like before. The paper stuck the first time, but I did all four passes anyway (once in each direction). Got a perfect transfer! Granted, this board used larger traces than normal (23 mil) but before I'd have traces just floating away rather than stick. I added the green TRF with only one pass, it stuck perfectly. Since it was a SS board (recall that I etch the two sides separately, then sticky-tape them together), I used some double-sided tape to stick the board to the end of a stick, and used that to dip it into the etchant and swirl it around. Handy - I could just lift it out, inspect, put it back in. Etched fine. I also tried something new with the UV photofilm. I set the laminator at 240 F (I'm really liking this temperature control). I went extreme wet method - after cleaning the board with a scrubbie and some 2000 grit sandpaper, I rinsed it well and dropped it into a container of water. Yup, fully submerged. I removed the one backing off the film, rinsed that as well (on a transparency as usual), then submerged that in the water as well. While both the film and board were underwater, I swirled them around to make sure there were no air bubbles sticking to either, lined the two of them up, held one corner together, and lifted them out of the water. There were some weird creases in the film (it wasn't sticking yet, so I took it off, looked at it, and redid it) but otherwise, the film stuck better than it had ever before. I put the combo on a flat board, covered with transparency, and squeegied the remaining water out. One pass through the laminator and, except for the weird creases, it stuck great. I let it sit while doing the other board, and it's nearly (but not 100%) perfect. I suspect that warming the water to room temperature might be better for the film; my cold water is pretty cold.
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Today's TT/photo/laminator notes
2009-04-26 by DJ Delorie
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