I can say he is right, it would take a lot of effort, I use one right now
for regular paper printing and it is picky enough for that, its got quite a
few different systems running inside it and if everything isn't right in the
place it wants it to be, it has a fit and refuses to work. I would much
rather rebuild the upper half of my engine again than try to disassemble a
phaser and modify it to pass boards. pair that with the price of the ink
blocks and the tendency for jets to permanently clog if you use cheap ink,
and you are just better off with laser. Just my personal opinion.
On Fri, Mar 25, 2011 at 10:59 AM, Mark Lerman <mlerman@...> wrote:
>
>
> Well, there is not enough space between the drum and the Transfix
> Roller to pass a thick pcb. I would have to replace the cams that
> raise and lower the Transfix Roller with smaller ones to make it
> work. Coupled with all the other problems, I am not sure it is worth
> the effort.
>
> Mark
>
> At 05:48 PM 3/24/2011, you wrote:
> >A couple of people on the list have mentioned using Xerox solid ink
> >printers to make pcbs, so I thought I'd take a look. These machines
> >print by depositing melted wax on a large rotating aluminum drum then
> >rolling heated paper over the drum to transfer the image. This would
> >seem ideal because the wax is an excellent etch resist so that you
> >should be able to just print and etch. I bought a used Xerox Phaser
> >8400 for $100 on ebay. My preliminary thoughts/observations:
> >
> >1 - These are big, heavy machines, 65# (30Kg). They take up a lot of
> space.
> >2 - They take 20 minute or so to warm up and use (waste) a lot of ink
> >when they start up.
> >3 - There is an incredible amount of system and component checking
> >during the warm up period.
> >4 - There are a LOT of sensors, making it hard to force this machine
> >to do things it wasn't designed to do.
> >
> >That said, one simple way to use them is to print on thin pcb board.
> >I ran a piece of ss .009 mil board through and got an excellent print
> >right off the bat. I could simply glue this to a thicker piece of FR4
> >and I would have a very simple method of making pcbs. I haven't
> >etched a board yet, but others have said this is no problem. Since I
> >don't have a lot of this thin pcb material, I don't want to etch
> >right now, but I'll let you know.
> >
> >After taking the paper path apart, I ∗think∗ I can straighten the
> >path enough to run .062 board through, but I'm not 100% sure. There
> >would certainly have to be a microprocessor to simulate a number of
> >the sensors because there are quite a few paper sensors. In fact, the
> >paper trays even have sensors that tell the printer how wide and how
> >long the paper is as well as when the tray is empty! Another problem
> >is that when the printer is first powered up it prints this very full
> >page that must come from tray 2. Since the paper stops for awhile in
> >the paper preheater before moving onward, the preheater (which has
> >both entrance and exit sensors) has to be emulated in software.
> >
> >Other problems are that every 50 pages the transfer roller is oiled,
> >and every time there is an error the printer prints 'Chase" pages to
> >clean off the drum.
> >
> >Finally, there is the problem of preheating the board. A .062 pcb
> >can fit through the preheater, but I have no idea whether it can heat
> >the copper fast enough for the wax ink to transfer properly.
> >
> >Lots of engineering challenges. I have put a data logger on the
> >relevant sensors and will now try to make the printer print with
> >emulated sensors. If that works, I can then see if full thickness
> >boards can pass. I'll let you know!
> >
> >Mark
> >
> >
> >
> >------------------------------------
> >
> >Be sure to visit the group home and check for new Links, Files, and
> Photos:
> >http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Homebrew_PCBsYahoo! Groups Links
> >
> >
> >
>
>
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