>
> Yes I was thinking more the direct draw method than what's going on
> in a
> laser printer. There are printable foil sheets etc, but I'd assume
> they're
> coated to both protect the drum and cut the conduction. It's still an
> evenly
> conductive surface coming into contact with a surface trying to hold a
> charged
> image, supposed to cause image smearing and other problems. Still it
> was on my
> own list of things to try eventually too. Be sure and try oxide layers
> etc on
> the PCB, may improve the image and or adhesion.
>
i do really think there is no need to isolate the surface.
> As noted in the later messages, the fuser wasn't made for this and is
> much
> too cool to heat up the board fully. Might be able to heat the board to
> say
> 120F then pass it through, don't want to go over 140F or so though since
> that's
> headed towards the toner melt point and you also don't want to damage
> the drum,
> not sure what it's coating could handle.
I would rather not use a fuser at all but a infrared heater lamp.
it is simple to set up if you already converted it to a carriage (flatbed)
printer.
just take the quartz lamp out of the fuser and move the pcb past (slow).
there can be no smearing of the image then.
>
> Can always bake the board for a few minutes later to get a better
> melt and
> adhesion. Since it's much easier to control the temp and time after the
> fact it
> should be possible to melt it just enough to stick well without
> spreading.
spreading is mostly a effect of pressure, not heat alone.
if you just heat it without pressure i assume there will be no spreading
at all.
(to be tried in experiment)
>
> Expect to ruin the drum etc in the short term, but find a cheap
> cartridge
> printer and it's only $60 or $80, so if it lasts well enough for 100 or
> 200
> boards with care it's still little more than a 50 cent paper etc.
>
If you find a cartridge printer, and use ebay, it can certainly be cheap.
if you can keep a slight distance to the drum there would be no wear.
for my LJIIID i get HP toners for around 7eur at ebay nearly as much as i
want.
(~~eur 120 in shop)
I'm looking for a printer for very cheap, i would buy myself another for
the normal
printing stuff and convert the LJiiiD, but it is only 300DPI.
Especially printers with problems like "pulls in several pages at once"
or "always a paper jam" are very cheap, and this is not really something
important
for printing on pcbs.
still, i want it really cheap, as i am not sure if it works at all, so
this will take a while.
ST