On Mon, 08 Feb 2010 22:27:17 -0000, you wrote:
>Hi,
>
>Yesterday, I tried my first PCB. I used Pulsar's "Fab-in-a-Box" system with their GBC "Personal" laminator. After following Pulsar's directions, some traces just floated off after soaking to remove the backing paper. First, parts of the board outline (5 mil) drifted away, followed by some of the traces (10 mil) and pads. Can anyone here tell me what I did wrong and how to fix it?
I have some ideas, yes.
>
>In more detail, I printed their Toner Transfer Paper with a new HP 1005 printer, using the HP demo catridge. I set the density to 5 (max) before printing. The print looked ok. Could the HP demo cartridge be different (cheaper maybe) than the regular HP cartridge? I let it sit around for maybe 30 minutes before laminating, while cutting and cleaning the board. Could that be it?
>
Demo cart is not different, AFAIK, just less toner, of course. I use
a LaserJet 5, toner density 5 (whatever that means to HP, it's the
maximum allowed).
>I cleaned the board, by Pulsar's recommendation, with, first, a little dish soap on a green "scrubby" then with Tarn-X using a paper towel pad, rinsing thorougly after each. I wore latex gloves to avoid fingerprinting my clean board. Could my problem be in cleaning the board? Is there a better method?
That's a good idea for cleaning. I've done that, but gotten good
results with Bon-ami, then buffing with 2000 grit wet/dry paper. Just
started using that, and it seems to help.
I also use denatured alcohol to make sure that there's no grease.
Ditto on the gloves.
>
>I ran the board and TTP through the laminator twice--forward and backward, per instructions. One discrepancy is that I didn't have the water bath immediately at hand and it took about a minute to get some water. Could the board have cooled enough in one minute to cause my problem? Also, I left it in the water several minutes rather than one. Is soaking too long a troublemaker?
I don't think that the water is the problem, although you can just
dunk it in a sink or a baking dish, etc.
I run the board through many times. I'll run one board through 8
times (yes, probably excessive), using the GBC laminator and 0.032
board. Same will work with 0.064 board as well.
I run it through in the same direction (with one edge taped down)
always.
I then run it through using the left hand side, the right hand side,
and the middle of the laminator. If the board is thin enough, I may
use the middle, otherwise I tend to use just the left and right sides.
That's not as critical, but it does allow one side to rest while the
other side of the laminator does the dirty work.
I will run the board through 4x face up, and then 4x face down. The
board is immediately taken from the laminator and fed back in so that
it does not cool.
Dunk it in water immediately, it takes about 15 seconds to get to the
sink.
I let it soak for a while, not needed for the pulsar paper, but I use
thin Avery labels to hold the paper in place, laser rated glue.... I
do not let the label overlap any traces. The board is at least 1/4
inch bigger than the pattern, and about 1/2 inch on one side where the
label is.
I also use the green foil. The little laminator I use is not quite
hot enough, so I use a larger laminator set to "foil".
I run the board through 4 times, and get a 100% transfer. Lately,
I've been running it through the smaller laminator (GBC) 4x, then
twice through the larger laminator, that seems to work. The little
GBC is not hot enough, but has enough pressure. The larger laminator
may not have the right pressure, but does have the heat. Go figure,
it seems to work.
That is allowed to cool completely before removing the green foil.
I also cut the green foil to the pattern size (roughly). I'd been
having problems with the foil wrinkling, and have solved it by putting
a layer of the foil on the board, smoothing it down first, then
running it through. It seems to work better than folding the edge.
Wrinkles in the foil will mess up an otherwise good pattern.
>
>I note that the worst of the problem was at the back end of the board (relative to my first pass), though there was some toner floating off in the middle, too. Does the laminator (which I let warm up over 30 min) lose its heat so quickly that it doesn't do a 4" long board evenly? Would more passes through the laminator help?
I think more passes would help, see above.
>
>Any other problems with my method that could cause this failure?
Only the degreasing, but I'd rather suspect the heating/laminator
issue.
Read the ∗entire∗ website for pulsar, a lot of the most important
things are in the "trouble" section, the questions section, the hints,
and buried in the "how to use".
I've pretty much summarized the results, but not the reasons.
Harvey
>
>Thanks,
>Jim
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