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

Using my Brother HL-2040 Laser printer and its high temperature toner,
I've had my best results using pages from the Harbor Freight catalog
mailers. The glossier ones from the ones that come loose-leaf, rather
than stapled, and tend to stick to the PCBoard after ironing.

I'm checking my iron temperatures with a digital meter that I got for
$15 at a local high-end organic food market. It has an armored cable
and long probe intended to measure the internal temperature of
whatever meat is in the oven. I start ironing when the temperature of
the iron lying on the probe reaches about 335 degrees F.

I apply moderate pressure to the board while ironing (actually,
picking up and moving the iron from place to place, at first, to make
sure that the image is tacked down. typically, on a 3 x 4 inch
EAGLE-size board, I iron for about a minute. Then, I let it cool, and
then soak in water for a few minutes. With the not-so-glossy
lithographed paper, sometimes the paper will readily peel off in one
piece, more or less. With solid ground planes, not so easily. I
concentrate on getting the fuzzy fibers out of the copper areas,
rolling them off with my finger, and don't bother with the toner
areas, except to touch up the traces with a Lumicolor red pen where
needed.

I'll be adding a couple of recent etched board photos to my folder
shortly.

Regards,
Ted