Archive of the former Yahoo!Groups mailing list: Homebrew PCBs

Howdy,
I have recently just started trying the toner transfer method with
very odd results. I started trying a variety of papers (I am in
Australia) and found that HP Premium Glossy Photo blah blah paper
worked. The first thing I did was a power supply for uni project. Yeah
it worked okay. Fair few pinholes, but I put this down to inexperience.

My next project was a whole heap of gainclones (amps, check
diyaudio.com). Every single one came out perfect, well all except the
super thin traces which I had for a keepout layer. Not important at
all. I was printing with a HP Laserjet with HP toner cartridges.

Just the other day I was making some bodgey circuit and I did the same
process, except the toner wouldn't stick to the board at all. Usually
I would get the paper sticking to the copper, but that wasn't even
happening. I thought it might be my iron, cause my sister constantly
leaves it on when she leaves for work in the morning and it stays on
all day pretty much every day, so I figured it might be stuffed and
not getting hot enough. Tried a few different irons and still the same
result. I eventually got enough toner to etch but still the paper
wasn't sticking like the time when I got the great results. I figured
perhaps the paper might've been exposed to the air too long? I noticed
some other photo paper I got with my printer (can't print on it with
laser though, goes all weird) comes in a foil sealed bag. Maybe all
photo paper has this problem? My other thoughts were that the copper
has to be hot too, and perhaps we weren't getting the copper hot
enough. I was thinking if this is the case, that heating it first with
a heat gun, then pressing the paper onto it, then ironing it would help.

Anyone able to help me explain what is happening here or if anyone
else has had these problems?

Can anyone else in AU suggest paper that works great? Even printers? I
am lookign at a laminator soon from Officeworks. Do they make a big
difference in the results over an iron?

-Mikey