Homebrew PCBs

I may have a possible solution to using Brother Laser printers for Toner Transfer PCB's. I was at Staples and was able to get a sample print out of a Brother HL-2240 laser printer. The paper was standard 20lb laser printer paper, nothing special. The MSDS for the toner cartridge says it is polyester based. I found that acetone dissolved the lettering on the printed paper and is a solvent for this toner. I tried the following experiment.

1. I took a sample of the printed paper and exposed it to acetone  fumes for 20 minutes in a sealed plastic food container. The toner became slightly tacky to the touch.

2. I ran the paper and pcb through a GBC laminator 8 times.

3. I soaked the board in warm water for a few minutes and peeled off the paper. The toner fused to the copper very well. You can feel the raised toner on the copper with your finger.

4. The paper left a film on the toner which I removed with soapy water and a soft tooth brush. While the toner does have some pinholes, it is definitely fused to the copper.

If you have a Brother laser printer it would be interesting to experiment using a known good type of paper and finding an optimum exposure time to the acetone fumes.

The results are in the photo section in the Brother "HL-2240 experiment" folder.

Happy experimenting!

leeleduc,

I use Brother Printer(s) HL-5250 and HL-3570 for all of my Toner Transfer
Projects, because they are the only printers I have access. And besides,
when I started (several year ago), I did not know they could not, or should
not, be used for TT.

See my Blog, showing many of my Toner Transfer Projects:

http://wa0uwh.blogspot.com/search/label/TT

or, the Home Page, at:

http://wa0uwh.blogspot.com/

and,

http://goo.gl/yxvaJ


Regards,
Eldon Brown

72 - Eldon - WA0UWH - CN88xc - http://WA0UWH.blogspot.com/


On Wed, May 2, 2012 at 8:41 AM, leeleduc <leeleduc@...> wrote:

> **
>
>
> I may have a possible solution to using Brother Laser printers for Toner
> Transfer PCB's. I was at Staples and was able to get a sample print out of
> a Brother HL-2240 laser printer. The paper was standard 20lb laser printer
> paper, nothing special. The MSDS for the toner cartridge says it is
> polyester based. I found that acetone dissolved the lettering on the
> printed paper and is a solvent for this toner. I tried the following
> experiment.
>
> 1. I took a sample of the printed paper and exposed it to acetone fumes
> for 20 minutes in a sealed plastic food container. The toner became
> slightly tacky to the touch.
>
> 2. I ran the paper and pcb through a GBC laminator 8 times.
>
> 3. I soaked the board in warm water for a few minutes and peeled off the
> paper. The toner fused to the copper very well. You can feel the raised
> toner on the copper with your finger.
>
> 4. The paper left a film on the toner which I removed with soapy water and
> a soft tooth brush. While the toner does have some pinholes, it is
> definitely fused to the copper.
>
> If you have a Brother laser printer it would be interesting to experiment
> using a known good type of paper and finding an optimum exposure time to
> the acetone fumes.
>
> The results are in the photo section in the Brother "HL-2240 experiment"
> folder.
>
> Happy experimenting!
>
>


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Very nice web pages!

I gave this a try because I had a student that was having trouble with this toner. The toner would not transfer very well. I use a Samsung ML-2525. I have used a similar technique mentioned in this group on boards that have a lot of ground plane and it seems to minimize the pinholes. Just passing this info on to those that may want to experiment with the Brother printers.

--- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, Eldon Brown <eldonb46@...> wrote:

>
> leeleduc,
> 
> I use Brother Printer(s) HL-5250 and HL-3570 for all of my Toner Transfer
> Projects, because they are the only printers I have access. And besides,
> when I started (several year ago), I did not know they could not, or should
> not, be used for TT.
> 
> See my Blog, showing many of my Toner Transfer Projects:
> 
> http://wa0uwh.blogspot.com/search/label/TT
> 
> or, the Home Page, at:
> 
> http://wa0uwh.blogspot.com/
> 
> and,
> 
> http://goo.gl/yxvaJ
> 
> 
> Regards,
> Eldon Brown
> 
> 72 - Eldon - WA0UWH - CN88xc - http://WA0UWH.blogspot.com/
> 
> 
> On Wed, May 2, 2012 at 8:41 AM, leeleduc <leeleduc@...> wrote:
> 
> > **
> >
> >
> > I may have a possible solution to using Brother Laser printers for Toner
> > Transfer PCB's. I was at Staples and was able to get a sample print out of
> > a Brother HL-2240 laser printer. The paper was standard 20lb laser printer
> > paper, nothing special. The MSDS for the toner cartridge says it is
> > polyester based. I found that acetone dissolved the lettering on the
> > printed paper and is a solvent for this toner. I tried the following
> > experiment.
> >
> > 1. I took a sample of the printed paper and exposed it to acetone fumes
> > for 20 minutes in a sealed plastic food container. The toner became
> > slightly tacky to the touch.
> >
> > 2. I ran the paper and pcb through a GBC laminator 8 times.
> >
> > 3. I soaked the board in warm water for a few minutes and peeled off the
> > paper. The toner fused to the copper very well. You can feel the raised
> > toner on the copper with your finger.
> >
> > 4. The paper left a film on the toner which I removed with soapy water and
> > a soft tooth brush. While the toner does have some pinholes, it is
> > definitely fused to the copper.
> >
> > If you have a Brother laser printer it would be interesting to experiment
> > using a known good type of paper and finding an optimum exposure time to
> > the acetone fumes.
> >
> > The results are in the photo section in the Brother "HL-2240 experiment"
> > folder.
> >
> > Happy experimenting!
> >
> >
> 
> 
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>

I have only used brother laser printers for toner transfers for 6 yrs now and never had any problems with it. I used photo and magazine paper and it works bout the same both ways. I even tried with bonded paper the other day just messing around for a minute and parts of it bonded to the copper clad board too :) 

--- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, "leeleduc" <leeleduc@...> wrote:

>
> I may have a possible solution to using Brother Laser printers for Toner Transfer PCB's. I was at Staples and was able to get a sample print out of a Brother HL-2240 laser printer. The paper was standard 20lb laser printer paper, nothing special. The MSDS for the toner cartridge says it is polyester based. I found that acetone dissolved the lettering on the printed paper and is a solvent for this toner. I tried the following experiment.
> 
> 1. I took a sample of the printed paper and exposed it to acetone  fumes for 20 minutes in a sealed plastic food container. The toner became slightly tacky to the touch.
> 
> 2. I ran the paper and pcb through a GBC laminator 8 times.
> 
> 3. I soaked the board in warm water for a few minutes and peeled off the paper. The toner fused to the copper very well. You can feel the raised toner on the copper with your finger.
> 
> 4. The paper left a film on the toner which I removed with soapy water and a soft tooth brush. While the toner does have some pinholes, it is definitely fused to the copper.
> 
> If you have a Brother laser printer it would be interesting to experiment using a known good type of paper and finding an optimum exposure time to the acetone fumes.
> 
> The results are in the photo section in the Brother "HL-2240 experiment" folder.
> 
> Happy experimenting!
>