I have tried pre-drilling boards in the past, but unless your drills are
exceptionally sharp (mine weren't, I was using HSS) you get a little bit
of burring around the edges of your holes. Any little disturbance here
is enough to stop the transfer sticking around the holes, so it meant a
lot of touch ups.
My preferred method of double sided registration is to print both sides
of the layout on the same bit of paper with a 2mm gap between then, then
simply fold the paper over the edge of the board. I had an extra border
printed around the board about 2 mm off the edge of the actual artwork,
and peeking under the edges of the paper after folding lets you sight up
the borders pretty easily to ensure they're lining up. It took a little
practice but I found it incredibly repeatable without any extra drilling
steps etc. Haven't done any for some time but for a period I was doing
on average 3-5 boards a week this way.
Andrew
On 8/08/2011 8:58 PM, abuakif wrote:
>
> I did try using toner transfer technique (laminator + magazine) but my
> drill stand is not really fixed. I am thinking on getting the Proxxon
> later. In Malaysia, all the tools are probably a lot more expensive
> than the one in the States (I used to live and studied in St Louis for
> almost 10 years back in 1995 - 2001).
>
> Anyway, I just came back from a hardware store getting a airbrush
> compressor and just ordered Pebeo Vitrea 160 from Kuala Lumpur. Also,
> I just purchased an oven. These few days will be focused on getting
> the solder mask and silkscreen using the technique described by
> Retromaster.
>
> --- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com
> <mailto:Homebrew_PCBs%40yahoogroups.com>, "Harvey McRae" <hlmcrae@...>
> wrote:
> >
> > I have made a little tin template for my little PCB's I bend the one
> edge and one end to act as a guide, place the pcb into the corner ....
> go to my little dremel drill stand, and within a minute or two (I'd
> say a minute) I have all 20 + holes drilled. My tin template was the
> top of the vegetable can that we had for lunch.. Remember my board is
> only 1x 1.5 inches.. I drilled ten night before last, with all the
> change of pieces in less than 15 minutes.
> >
> >
> > Harvey L. McRae
> > 838 McKenzie Rd.,
> > Kelowna, B.C. V1X2B3
> >
> > Web: www.harriscreekcentral.webs.com
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: sailingto
> > To: Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com
> <mailto:Homebrew_PCBs%40yahoogroups.com>
> > Sent: Tuesday, May 11, 2010 9:26 AM
> > Subject: [Homebrew_PCBs] Re: Printing on a solder mask
> >
> >
> >
> > > sense. How will you know where to drill the holes without a CNC?
> Or do you
> > > plan to get one? Perhaps I am missing something.
> >
> > Well, not sure if drilling first will work or not, my idea was to
> print drill pattern on thin paper so holes 'n vias could be seen from
> back side, put TT paper on one side of PCB, run thru laminator once to
> stick paper in place. That would cause the drill pattern of all holes
> to be visible, then drill thru this thin paper.
> >
> > With all the holes drilled, I was hoping lining up both sides of TT
> paper to the existing drilled holes would improve hole registration.
> Currently my double sided boards have most of the traces on one side,
> with only a few on the other side. This keeps the holes to a minimum.
> >
> > As I write this, I'm not sure it will work - maybe I'll get to try
> later this week.
> >
> > Ken H>
> >
> >
>
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