> I knew from Voltan's work that he was able to print a solder mask. (I was
> never able to correctly cure the ink) and decided to try the Toner Dusting
> process instead.
>
> I was looking at replacing the black toner with other fusible fine powder,
> hopefully a white or yellow one, to use as component legends. I had seen
> some electrostatic painting on a TV show and thought it might work, though
> most of the time the metal items were baked at a very high temp. I did a
> search and found that the ES paint was also used on MDF, so a lower temp
> fuse was possible. There are a few different types of ES powder.
>
> I found some ES powder paint at SEARS for only $6 and am trying it. I am
> told it also is available at some auto parts stores. The SEARS version has
> slightly larger particle sizes.
>
> I've just started playing with it. It seems to give a very thick coating.
> Try to avoid the gold fleck version, The goldish particles are very small
> and are hard to remove.
>
> Toner dusting is a very simple process and easy to try. Like toner
> transfer you have to fine tune it to your set up.
>
> Myc
You're describing powder coating, searching for that will turn up more
stuff. As you say, it's not that hard.
Plenty of powder on eBay, in any colour you want, typically under $10 per
pound, and a pound goes a long way.
The standard way to apply is blow the powder past high voltage (say
15-100kV), this applies a charge to the powder which causes it to stick to
the metal. To do wood such as MDF it needs to be coated with something to
make it conductive first. You may have trouble finding that and the low
temperature cure powder.
The other way is to heat the part up (~150C / 300F) and either dip it in the
powder or sprinkle the powder onto it. Either way the powder will melt and
stick to it. I'm not sure if it'll stick to the PCB material (copper traces
are ok), someone will need to try it. With a mask you could do it cold, put
the mask over the PCB, sprinkle the powder, then put it (very carefully!)
into an oven to cure.
Powders are typically cured at 200C (~400F) for about 10 minutes, although
you can trade temp for time, eg 350F for 15 minutes etc. The oven can just
be one of those little toaster ovens. This is to cure it properly, it'll
still stick if not properly cured, it just won't be as resistant to chipping
etc.
It also needs to be absolutely clean otherwise the powder may not stick. In
this case it's not a huge drama, and the normal PCB cleaning procedures
(wipe with acetone, rinse with distilled water etc) are ok.
Powder coating is good fun, it beats painting hands down.
Tony