[sdiy] Warning about PCB transfers

[Tom Wiltshire]

On 5 Apr 2009, at 02:47, Ian Smith wrote:

>
> I've been thinking about getting an HP P1006. It's about $100 at  
> OfficeMax and good for my craptastic budget. Getting that would  
> also mean that the local copy service wouldn't have to look at me  
> like I have 3 heads when I ask them politely to copy my board  
> layouts onto toner transfer paper... yes it's coated. no it won't  
> jam up your machine. the last girl used the color copier over there  
> set on black and white..... Oi!
> -Ian (three heads) Smith


I've been using an HP Laserjet 1020, which was cheap but not quite  
that cheap (although prices have dropped since two or three years ago  
when I got it) and it's been great. It produces a really sharp print  
which is excellent for toner transfer PCBs. It was about the cheapest  
B/W laser printer available at the time.

The only things to watch are the toner transfer paper shrinking a bit  
with the heat (you can run it through once first without printing it  
to "pre-shrink" it) and to be careful when ironing the transfer onto  
the PCB, since too  much heat will make the toner soft enough to run  
and become a bit blobby.

T.