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

Hello,

I just got a box of Kodak Polychrome recording film PRD on eBay for a
steal. probably $100+ of silver
in it, for $9.99 plus postage. I built a laser photoplotter years ago,
and have had to recalibrate it for film a
couple times as films became unavailable. I have almost used up my box
of Agfa HTR3 film, which worked
great, but Agfa is out of the film business, so I have to retool again.
I get an image with this Kodak PRD film,
but when I put it in the fixer, the clear areas turn quite pink! I
called Kodak, they don't sell this stuff anymore,
but somebody there said to dilute the fixer. I tried that, didn't seem
to make any difference.
I am using Kodak rapid fixer, not really designed for graphic arts
films, but worked fine on the Agfa film.
Anybody who works with litho film ever seen anything like this?

My photoplotter uses a single 670 nm 5mW laser diode and some lenses to
produce 1000x1000 DPI
raster images at 0.6 inches per minute (raster lines can be up to 18"
long wrapped around a drum rotating
at 600 RPM.)

If I can get this film to work, it looks like it will be fine for PCB
master artwork, which I also use for solder
stencils made from .003" brass shim stock. I'm just afraid that reddish
background will interfere with the
UV passing through the film.

Jon