Homebrew PCBs

I thought about using the burger cooker, but couldn't find one at my local 
thrift store. So I built a small press of my own.
I used a piece of "flexible heater" that I got from MSC and stuck it on an 
aluminum plate. Then made up a "press" out of pipe fittings so it would lay 
flat and not move. Got fancy and put a thermometer on it so I could see 
temps. and for a thermostat, use my finger on the switch. To control the 
pressure, the press has a lever arm and I hang a bucket on a fish scale on 
the arm. Based on what I gleaned from the "iron workers:}): on the group, 
guessed at a 10 psi force.

Initial testing looks good as I heat the platen up to 120 Deg C  for two 
cycles and things look great on the test pieces. Making it double sided 
would not be hard.

It isn't fancy, but I can get some quanitative data and repeatibility 
(which is where I think some of the problems with TT lay)

So far my testing has been done on scrap as I am waiting on an order of 
board etc to come in. (I live in the bushes and not even rat shack carries 
blank board). If there is interest, will put up some pictures of the press.


At 09:52 PM 12/30/2003, you wrote:
>Funny you should mention that. I found a small hamburger cooker at a
>thrift store. Both sides are flat, black teflon coated. This is
>precisely what I was thinking about this.
>
>I was figuring I'll need better temp control than the crude thermostat
>in it now, and would need separate temp sensors on each side.
>
>I guess great minds think alike. ;')
>
>However, if you have a laminator it is made to heat both sides. My
>laminator is an older model that works great for its intended purpose,
>but just isn't up to the task of toner onto copper, at least not with
>the toner in my Lexmark/IBM 4029.
>
>Steve
>
>--- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, "gmanca101" <gmanca101@y...> wrote:
> > Hello, I noticed that laminators are being used for pcb's, but how
> > reliable are they when it comes to doing double sided images? I was
> > thinking if using two heating plates and "sandwiching" the copper
> > clad with the images would be better? There should be less mis-
> > alignment because there is no movement. Any ideas? Thanks, Genaro M.

Bubba

OLDER THAN DIRT
Country Bubba
(Actually the inventor of Country and Bubba)
In God We Trust

axtein@...
LaGrange, GA

http://ns1.dicomm.net/~axtein/dro


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