I'm just getting the last of my bugs out of my C84 printer. It sounds like, one, you need to get more ink down smoothly, and two, you need to cure it better.
I messed with my printer settings till I got the maximum ink output I could. I sand my boards with 400 grit sandpaper (wetted with water), then clean with windex, then clean with methyl ethyl ketone (acetone will do too). Do not use isopropyl alcohol or water to clean the board with directly before printing - there are water marks left behind that will keep the ink from sitting evenly. I might start sanding with 1000 after the 400, because my ink isn't sitting perfectly smoothly. Don't touch the board after its been cleaned, use it immediately. You want to make sure there is no dust on the board or around the printer, it'll cause the ink to short tracks out.
Curing is very important. It has to get up to about 230C (I believe thats the magic number, its published here somewhere). I measured my toaster oven with a thermocouple, and it didn't get near that, even though it said it would - but when I used the toast function, it got there perfectly. So all I have to do is put the boards in, and set to a medium toast. At that point, that ink will not come off! In fact, tonight, I finally found how to get it off - a soak in cleaning ammonia for a few hours. Works wonders.
If your getting etching through areas that have been inked over, either they are too thin (not enough ink), or the ink hasn't cured.
Just keep playing with it, it takes a lot of tweaking...
asiido <
ebay@...> wrote: I bought an epson R300 printer, and a Mispro yellow spongeless cart.
Now I have tried to make PCBs with it but no success.
I've tried to prepare the pcb with Bora's HCL method, and sandpaper
but seems like the problem isn't this because the results are equally bad.
I tried to cure the ink in an oven, and with a heat gun but again, the
results were equally bad.
After etching, the board shows just a faint image of the layout I
tried to get, almost all the copper is gone and just small dots remain
so that I can see the layout. I etched with a strong ferric chloride.
I don't know if the problem is printing. Because I've heard that the
mispro YELLOW is the best one, I bought a yellow cartridge. At first I
wanted to install that in the black ink position but my printer won't
allow me to do so. So I have to export my design from EAGLE editor as
an image, and I change the color in Paint shop pro to Yellow...
Please help, I really need to get this system working because it
allows so much faster production of PCBs.
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