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

I've used press-n-peel with mediocre results and reading this group
got me interested in the toner transfer technique using, of all
things, glossy magazine paper. I have to admit, I was somewhat
skeptical, I mean "magazine pages?!!!?". Like, free. how can that
be right?? Well, as I'm sure no one is suprised to hear, it really
works. And with better results than PNP. But I have a few questions:

- how heavy are people laying down the toner? I'm using a copier so
I have a lot of control over this and found that you really dont need
that much toner. (by the way, no image stretching that I can see)

- I dont have a laminator so I just pulled out the iron and set it on
high. I think this is too hot. Even with the iron set a bit lower
(linen setting) I noticed that the toner still smeared and flowed
easily - especially if the toner was fairly heavy. what is the right
temperature for fusing the toner to the copper? I'll probably
experiment with this a bit but I'm getting tired of scrubbing toner
off of copper.

- is all toner the same? I'm using a "personal copier" (canon PC701)
if that makes much difference. I wonder if the canon toner has a
lower fusing point.

- how do you keep the paper aligned, especially with a laminator.
I've had real trouble with PNP on this for single sided boards, 2
sided is a bit daunting to me. On one of the TT boards I did, the
paper moved a little when pressing with the iron. Guess I just have
to apply vertical pressure and not slide the iron around.

well, thanks for reading this far.

Phil