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

Stefan Trethan wrote:


In typing up the last reply it just hit me..

Paper is different than copper! LOL of course! :)

Corona wire acting on copper will pull lots of opposite charge toward it. If
isolated so same total charge on the copper, it may actually cause a local
opposite charge near the wire with one or both far ends having the other charge,
instead of charging the whole sheet up to one voltage. The induced charge may
be opposite of what's wanted near the wire and drum, even with an isolated
instead of grounded roller setup. I can see another possible reason now why
foils etc won't print well, and direct charge on the metal should fix it. It
may need less voltage than normal direct to not pull off toner before it touches
it but will probably work ok.

Heck it's time to go get some aluminum foil and tape and see what my 6L will
do normally. Then see about a drag wire from the corona wire to touch the taped
on aluminum just to see if that'll work better. Hopefully it won't screw up the
drum, it's my good laser but it's easy to get inside. Think I'll try a vertical
strip on the far side of the page to minimize any drum problems for normal
printing though.

Alan