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

Hi All,

I'm glad you found site useful. I've been lurking in this group for a long
time so I thought it was about time I gave something back.

I think for me the dowel is the key thing, certainly as I'm using an hand
iron to provide the heat and pressure. Previously I had tried ironing onto
a flat surface but I always ended up with areas that didn't transfer and
subsequently required a lot of fixing. It really put me off making boards
at all as it just never seemed worth the hassle, especially after fighting
with Eagle for hours to create the circuit layout. But since using the dowel
things have been much more successful.

I think the two important points are.
1). It focuses the pressure into a much smaller board area.
2). The board gets hotter and stays more evenly heated as the only point of
contact for heat sinking is the dowel.

It also makes for a more straight forward production method. Roll 3 or 4
times, rotate 90 degrees, roll again, rotate etc. Which I think leads to a
more even and systematic coverage than just going at it with the iron on a
flat surface.

Best of luck with your boards.

Regards

Matt Casey