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

I got my daughter's Epson c66 up and running (I thought it was a
C84). I've been running trials all afternoon and evening printing
different Durabrite colors on 0.5 oz flexible pcbs.

For the durabrite Ink's the blue seems to be the most durable. It
ithe inkimportant to heat cure it. The temp is critical

I tried a number of printer settings to reduce the 'puddling" and
get good coverage. The inkjet transparency setting seemed to work
the best

Two additional steps help reduce the puddling considerably. First,
heat the bare board to drive off any molecular garbage on the
surface. and/or give the board a slight pre-etch to roughen the
surface then heat dry and print. This pre-etch makes a world of
difference. the Teflon Frying pan peolpe used the same method to
make the a more durable coating.

The ink does soften in FeCl3 etchant. I was doing 2 small boards at
a time and they rubbed some ink off each other. Sometimes the ink
would wash away easily afterward, i think it is the cure temp.

I won't say my results were as good as Volkans, but getting there.

It does look like the conditions for success will be very fussy, but
repeatable.

I'll repeat the trial in the morning and post some photos.

Myc