--- In
Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, Alan King <alan@n...> wrote:
>
> They depend on the high insulation properties of paper to hold the
> charge, and it's induced by the corona wire.
>
> Yes copper will redistribute the charge. Instead of inducing a charge,
> directly contact and give about what's needed at the drum.
>
> Might want to look back at the discussions Stefan and I had last
year or
> so on it, probably everything you're likely to hit anytime soon and
then
> some..
>
> End conclusions:
>
> Tape your board edges, and with reasonably good surface you're not
> scratching your drum, or not much. Cost of doing easy prints is
maybe a
> toner cartridge sooner rather than later, $20 now and then.
>
> My HP6L prints great onto large areas of aluminum foil taped to a
> page. Get wrinkles from not being attached, and flakes off here and
> there from being too smooth and also flexible. Way, way better than I
> expected to print on straight metal. Transfers rather well, metal
beats
> the heck out of paper for getting heat to the copper. Thin copper
sheet
> and adhere to board would probably work fairly well for me, but other
> things do well enough and haven't worked on it too much beyond tests.
>
> With mods for straight board and keeping the right weak charge on the
> copper, it's likely it will work, at least on my 6Ls. Even straight
> path printers aren't straight, major work required on the path for the
> board. TT works ok enough, so while it'd be great and I have extra
> printers at hand for it, it's still a very back burner project.
>
> Heck not too much point reading the old discussions now. That's
where
> mine was at, and I think mine was going as well as anyone's trying it.
>
> Feed direction alignment is easy enough, do it optically at the same
> point on the board edge, and top and bottom should be aligned well in
> the feed axis. Other axis would be mechanically aligned, but still
> should be able to get it pretty good too.
>
> Alan
Ok, this is probably a Real Dumb idea, but I'll toss it out, just
on the chance that it might work. How about printing directly to
copper foil, and then gluing the copper foil to a fiberglass
substrate, and then etching to make your board. I know that you
can get Copper foil at some craft stores (I currently have a sheet
of 2 mil Copper foil.). Yeah, it sounds like a LOT of work. And,
it probably won't work. But, it might be worth a try.
Dave