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Index last updated: 2026-04-28 23:05 UTC

Message

Re: the naked truth about Laser Jet, warts and all !

2003-07-06 by wheedal99

Well, it sounds like we're talking about the same thing.  10cmx10cm 
is pretty typical for me as well...  The board pictured on the 
earlier site post is ~7cmx10cm.  I'm using a >5 year old HP laserjet 
5L that's been working for me pretty well (2nd genuine HP toner 
cartridge).  I use a paper laminator as the fuser and magazine stock 
as the transfer medium.  I too had somewhat dubious results with the 
press n peel stuff; but I was using a hand iron at the time.  The 
critical part, as with what you say about the spray photo resist, is 
to get the stock very clean  --otherwise the toner doesn't perform 
well.  When I have dropout problems it's usually due to not cleaning 
the board properly, not cleaning the board edges when I cut down 
stock (jagged edges left by the linoleum knife can give the surface 
an uneven pressing in the laminator), or not getting the board hot 
enough (too few passes through the laminator).  All of this can be 
corrected quickly, (clean the board and start again).  With a little 
practice you can get it right most of the time with no dropout.  

One thing that this method won't do is large flooded areas --at least 
with my printer.  I don't think the HP 5L puts down even coverage 
when covering large surfaces.  If I need to have flooded regions, I 
go through with a staedler marker and touch up the fallout.

For quick and dirty boards, you can get a lot of milage out of this 
method.  

I understand you've got a printer/photo process that works well for 
you, but maybe someone who has a different setup might be able to get 
results they're happy with using a laser printer they already have.

-Dal

PS I'll be putting a few more photos and fixing the howto text soon.
http://wheedal.dyndns.org:8255

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