> I've thought of the photo process, but the price of pre-coated boards
> scares me off. I'd like to be able to cut a piece of board for what I'm
> up to and not have to waste an entire larger board for that. How about
> spray-on resist?
>
A friend of mine experimented quite extensively and came to the conclusion that the spray on resist is garbage, which is probably why hardly anyone carries it anymore. If you try that, you will wish you spent a bit more for the pre-coated boards. The trick with this method is to plan ahead and either keep a stock of the sizes you most often use, or combine several layouts onto a single piece. You can cut it too if you're careful, but you need to be sure you store the unused portion in an opaque container. Another tip with this stuff is print on vellum instead of transparency, and place the print ink side down on the blank, and use a piece of reasonably thick glass to press against it so that the whole thing stays absolutely flat.
>
> I had a modified GBC laminator of the sort that Pulsar advocated. I
> haven't a clue where it wound up. Pulsar suggests that the laminator
> works with their product, but not with Press-n-Peel. I used an iron last
> night with Press-n-Peel and absolutely nothing transferred.
>
How did you prep the board prior to attempting the transfer? I've had great luck using plain glossy paper I cut out of catalogs that come in the mail. I was even able to get usable boards with an ancient Okidata LED printer I had, but the 600 dpi Xerox I have now works FAR better. You might try a different laser printer and see if that works better, a lot of people report good results with the HP Laserjet series using OEM toner, you should be able to find one of those pretty cheap.
I'm wanting to try the inkjet method in order to do fine pitch SMT stuff, but toner transfer is by far the easiest method I've come across so far, you really ought to give it another go.