Homebrew PCBs

My laminator is PG and that makes my laminator safe, I guess.

What you noticed about the bend of plates is a very valuable piece of 
information. Are you using any shims to keep thos aluminum lips 
apart? I don't thinks because you would have mentioned something.

The staples paper definitely sticks to traces- have you noticed a 
post of Bob Weiss suggesting use of eraser to remove traces of paper?

How many times do you have to pass the 0.062 PCB before toner gets 
transferred?  Mike




--- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, "Radra" <infositeus@y...> wrote:
> 
> In September I purchased the GBC® HeatSeal™ H200 Laminator
> from Staples for $99.99 as recommended by Frank Miller of Pulsar.  
> After processing a couple of  0.031 inch PCBs, I decided to modify 
it 
> to accommodate the thicker 0.062 inch PCBs. I carefully followed 
the 
> TIA modifications provided on the Pulsar web site 
> (http://pulsar.gs/). 
> 
> The directions are not easy to follow, but in all fairness it is 
> difficult to describe this modification without use of pictures or 
> diagrams. The modification took about an hour and a half; I can now 
> do it again in much less time.
> 
> Upon completion, I tried to run a 0.062 inch board thru it, but it 
> jammed. Upon inspection, I discovered the leading edge of the board 
> was hitting the edge of the lower guide plate ("outfeed plate") as 
> the board exited the heating rollers. Both the upper and lower 
plates 
> have a bent edge facing the rollers.  I was about to increase the 
> bend on the lower plate when I noticed the upper plate had a 
slightly 
> sharper bend than the lower plate. So I simply swapped the plates 
and 
> found the 0.062 PCB could then be properly fed thru the laminator. 
> All has been well since then.
> 
> I am quite pleased with the performance of the laminator. It takes 
> the guesswork out of implementing the toner transfer technique.
> 
> Bye the way, I have successfully used two types of paper to do the 
> transfer. The well known Staples picture paper for injet printers 
> (Staples item 471861) has a high clay content which serves to 
protect 
> the toner. But the paper is somewhat difficult to remove requiring 
a 
> substantial amount of rubbing. After completion of the rubbing 
> process, I have to use a sharp thin blade (Xacto knife) under a 
> microscope to remove residual glue from the sides and corners of a 
> few traces. The Epson photo paper for ink jet printers (Staples 
item 
> 380356) will eventually float off the PCB leaving the toner intact. 
> This unprotected toner is more delicate than the clay covered toner 
> left by the Staples paper but there is significantly less residual 
> glue left on the PCB.
> 
> Oh...before I forget, there is a recall notice on the H200 and H300 
> laminators due to a faulty crimp connection. This connection can 
> cause a short circuit that could bypass the temperature regulator 
> circuit and both thermal fuses creating a potential fire hazard. 
The 
> recalled H200 laminators have serial numbers starting with "PI" 
> or "PJ".  GBC will replace laminators with these serial numbers 
(call 
> 800-541-0094).