It is interesting the variety of ways that people have of doing TT. I'm sure others are like me -- once you try something and it works, you stick with it.
In my experience, the green scotch brite scouring pads are more than sufficient in terms of abrasion. Steel wool or wet/dry sand paper are certainly alternatives that I would not hesitate to try. I've seen the reference to using cleanser (Comet, Ajax, etc.) as well, and have thought that would be an interesting alternative to try. As I understand it, whatever you use, you want very fine scratches, but NOT deep/large scratches, and of course you want the board to end up absolutely clean, free of any grease or oxidation, etc.
I've had good results with magazine paper and an iron; my only complaint is that it can be hard to see what you have printed because of the print already on it. I have had color from the magazine print transfer onto the PCB, but it did not seem to affect the etching at all. I am currently using HP glossy laserjet paper (don't recall the exact name), which does NOT soak off worth a darn ... but which WILL peel off cleanly leaving the toner behind if you peel it off right after it comes out of the laminator. I do think the laminator is better, but I got some good results just using an iron.
The first couple of boards that I produced were from Radio Shack. Since then I've been working through a bulk order that I got from EBay, from seller amt33461 -- no affiliation except a very satisfied customer.
--- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, Slavko Kocjancic <eslavko@...> wrote:
>
> andrewmv@... pravi:
> >
> >
> > Thanks, everybody, for the advice!
> >
> > Kerry:
> >
> > I've seen magazine paper used in another tutorial, but didn't see any
> > discussion as to its benefits. It's cheaper than photo paper anyway,
> > so I'll give it a try.
> >
>
>
> It's tinner. The heat comes trought faster. And near dissolve in watter.
> .. and free.
> But it's difficult to print on it. As tend's to wrinkle. I just tape
> part of that thin paper on regular paper with masking tape.
>
>
> >
> > Does Scotchbrite simply refer to those green synthetic dish scour
> > pads? They don't seem like they'd be abrasive enough to scour copper.
> >
>
> I cut 6 circles about 5cm in diameter from "those green dish scour pads"
> and all stack to one M8 bolt. This gone to drill machine and does hard
> work of cleaning PCB. Just set drill to aprox 600rpm and push PCB
> against it. After cleaning turn board 90 degres and reclean.. 10 x 10 cm
> board cleaning time is aprox 2 minute. After that just wipe board with
> paper towel. (no solvents needed.)
>
>
> >
> > Does a laminator work substantially better?
> >
>
> ..Much better than iron!
> But I make hack on mine to heat up to about 180 degres centigrade. I
> make six pass without preheating board.
> After etching I use stell ball (another kitchen cleaning item) like mesh
> of stell to rub toner out. Again NO solvent used. Just rub with stell
> mesh under watter.
>
>
> Slavko
>