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

I have followed the suggestions of those more experienced then me in
precleaning the pcb, and found that I 'must have' been doing
something wrong.

My first 2 boards were cleaned using the scotch brite pad and dish
detergent and failed when I ran the board through the laminator.
By failed, I mean the toner did not adhere to the board. I had to
repeat the cleaning/transfer 3-4 times before I got good adhesion.
Wasted a lot of TTS paper that way.

I recently ordered some pcb's from abcfab, and on on the EBay page
describing the boards, Bill mentioned that there were a number of
cleaning solutions that would clean the copper, and that the
scotch brite scrub wasn't necessary.

One of the cleaners mentioned was Tarn-X. I went out and bought a
new bottle (the bottle we had must have been 5-6 years old) and
tried it on 4 boards last night. I pre-washed the boards with soap
and water using a cotton ball, dried with a paper towel then using a
cotton ball soaked with Tarn-X , simply applied it to the the boards.
I then washed off the boards with water only and dried them, laminated
them and after 5-6 passes through the laminator I dropped
the boards into cold tap water and, in 2-3 minutes, the paper floated
off and there was no toner on the carrier at all (I use Pulsar TTS)
and the boards were perfect. I had a hard time believing it could
be that easy.

The boards from abcfab were not tarnished in any way so this may be
why this worked so well. Even so I did see a change in the color of
the copper as I applied the Tarn-X. I am so pleased with the
results, I though I better pass it on.

This Pulsar TTS paper, though somewhat expensive, is a dream to work
with. The paper floats off and does not require any work at all. I
have tried other medium but it is just too much work getting the
paper layers off the toner. As I am only making boards for my own
use, I find the Pulsar TTS is the way to go. Using the Pulsar, 1
minute etch method, I can go from printer to finished board in about
15-20 minutes.

Good Transferring!

Wayne