Phil wrote:
> thanks. here's the state of my "operations":
>
> paper: I'm using magazine semi-glossy. I'll try some of the coated
> inkjet paper. I did have a couple of sheets that I used a while ago
> and think it had the same problem but I could be misremembering as I
> was fussing with learning the process. by the way, passing the paper
> though the copier multiple times to increase the amount of fusing
> seems to have no effect. it does come out hot so I know its
> getting "cooked".
>
> toner density: I've played with this a lot. really cranked it down
> and even at super light settings I am seeing the blotchiness along
> with complete drop out due to too little toner. In general, I keep
> it on the light side.
>
> heat: I think I've got this right as i started high and kept
> dropping it until the toner was not adhering, then kicked it up a
> bit. I'm getting good aherence. Using the aluminum sheet metal seems
> to improve the uniformity of the heating but there is still some
> blotchiness.
>
> pressure: I still think this, along with uneven heating, is part of
> my problem. Its hard for me to control which is why I thought the
> metal plates would do a more even/uniform job.
>
> I'm not going to obsess over this blotchiness as it doesn't keep the
> board from being usable, it just doesn't look super clean. I'll keep
> at it so Me Etch Pretty, Someday.
>
http://www.jetprintphoto.com/c/graphicgloss.asp Try this, or find the Office Max Hammermill equivalent since this is also a
Hammermill paper. It has a good coating, and a paper sheet. I think Office Max
just bypassed JetPrint and bought their paper direct to make a bit more money.
Note that magazine paper is very thin and dense, and most has a solid
coating. You will easily get the smashing of toner as you're getting, there is
no where for the toner to go but out. There are some who swear by the magazine
paper mainly because it's free, but they also tend to swear you must use a
laminator etc to get good results. You can get great results from this paper
without anything else being special. And the extra fusing is to keep the
coating from this type paper from sticking, I wouldn't expect it to do much for
magazine paper. I'd assumed you were already using good paper, you should try
some just to understand the difference in quality and ease. Even if you can
live with the magazine quality for now you should see this so you know you can
step up if you need to later. You'll spend far more time trying to make the
magazine paper process good than you will just buying the 50 cents a page paper.
And the 20 pages in the pack for $10 lasts a good while if you're judicious
and print tests on normal paper first etc.
Pressure is the problem, but you'll never be able to get it 'right' with such
a solid dense paper. You may find a mag with a thicker softer paper, but
they're few and far between since transport bulk dictates that thin highly
compressed paper is better for a mag. For contrast I can barely make my prints
smash at all or have uneven results, even with intentional wide variations in
pressure. This type paper is your limiting factor, not that you don't have
superhuman or mechanical control over the pressure.
A few sheets of normal paper behind may mitigate some of this. But even then
the coating on the inkjet papers is a bit different and seperates from the
looser page better. My prints leave the coating on the toner with only a little
of the page sticking in the coating, and the extra coating tears right at the
trace edges, and the resulting transfers are nearly perfect, even the holes are
left clear even with almost all the coating sticking on the toner. I don't
think you could get that kind of coating seperation with the highly compressed
tight bonding of the magazine coating and page.
Actually I'll have to try some different magazines and see if there's
anything out there that's as good. Free paper would be good. But from how most
everyone using it says lamination is absolutely critical and knowing the basic
construction of most pages I don't really expect to find it, but worth checking.
Using this paper and fusing an extra time or two so the unprinted coating is
dried better and won't stick are almost my whole process, and hard to consider
that a drawback since the paper and printer do all the work. After that the
ironing etc is all very simple, instead of having to get it exactly right it's
almost impossible to go wrong.
http://photos.yahoo.com/alantak69 Look in PCB, this was a rush job since I expected to have to clean it up and
it was just a proto board anyway, so was going to have wire jumpers etc. Even
with hardly ironing so a couple small pieces didn't stick, it came out nearly
perfect. Note the second photo, smooth even fuzz almost everywhere, but almost
no holes were covered so the copper was properly exposed for etch, and only a
couple had to be picked at by hand. Little secondary touch up or handling
required. Note the first pic, you can see the image in the coating on the page
since the coating seperation was so clean. I only spent about two minutes doing
the ironing, a little bit more would have likely gotten a perfect transfer. The
route through the pins wasn't smashing, I had it drawn a bit wide in Eagle but
it was still not touching and worked perfectly. While the pics are a bit fuzzy
from being close in, the trace edges were sharp. If your results aren't equally
easy and painless with just an iron by hand, maybe this will let you see it's
likely your choice of paper. It's hard for what I'm doing to even mess up. The
stepper board in the other album was a much earlier board, before I knew to fuse
extra and clean the copper better with acetone. Still came out well, but took a
lot more hand work since the coating stuck much more. That's what the extra
fusing is for, almost totally eliminates any unprinted coating sticking with
this easily seperated coating.
Bit of a read but hopefully this will help you bypass the idea that you need
to do a lot of work on heat and pressure, and get you to try some other ideas
with a better paper. It's much easier than fixing the process with the paper
you're using right now, and well worth the 50 cents a page when printing boards
to make everything else much less critical.
It's even hard for me to really work on the print to copper idea too hard,
this really is easy enough for my light to medium use, and doesn't take
modifying a printer. But I think our current ideas on that will coexist with
normal printing now, so if the testing works it'll be worth finding and setting
up one printer that can print fine on paper and also straight on copper board.
Alan