Hi Mike
(this is confusing - two Mikes!)
Mucilage is a vegetable gum -sometimes called arabic gum - available from office and stationery suppliers. Mine was supplied in a small 100cc plastic bottle with a rubber applicator cap - cost NZ $2.50. Just squeeze the bottle and stroke the applicator over the paper to apply the gum. If the coating is uneven (and it probably will be) smooth it out with a finger, while the gum is still liquid - it gets tacky rapidly. If the gum gets tacky while you are smoothing it you will spoil the evenness of the gum layer, with detriment to the final result.
Glue pens may contain a similar water-soluble gum - might try this later.
I used a matt inkjet photo paper, wiped the gum over it, let it dry, (the paper warped a bit), dried the paper with a hot-air gun, put it through the printer - as a blank - that ironed out the warping, then printed the layout. ( I had to buy another iron - cheapest was best - wife was not at all keen on me using her clothes iron- she had visions of pc layouts all over the ironed handkerchiefs and tablecloths).
I'll try the cheapest copy paper next time.
It's not necessary to coat a whole sheet of paper - besides its hard to do because the gum is slippery and then as soon as it gets tacky it will stick to your fingers - result could be a big mess. I ran a layout on a piece of cheap copy paper to define the location on the paper and then coated only that area of the photo paper.
Applied the hot air again until the paper just began to scorch, ironed on to FR4 with a domestic iron, 6 minutes at maximum heat. No bleeding of tracks. Then tossed the board into a wash-basin of cold water. Left it for about 4 hours, and the paper floated off the board as the gum dissolved.
This was a 100% result on my 1st attempt. I couldn't believe it was so easy. Smallest track was 0.020" between some IC pads. This was a through-holeboard, not surface mounted - will try that soon.
The hair spray sounds promising - but what will the fellows at the shop think when I go and buy that - think I'll try the wife's first!
Cheers
MikeN
----- Original Message -----
From: mikezcnc
To: Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Wednesday, November 17, 2004 4:40 AM
Subject: [Homebrew_PCBs] Re: There is no way that water soluable paper will work for TT.
Mike,
I didn't know what a mucilage is:
http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/sci/A0834317.html
Where do you get that secret stuff and tell us more how well it
works. This one sound promising. Mike
--- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, Mike Newman <mnewman@c...>
wrote:
> My results are achieved by coating the paper with mucilage before
laser
> printing the toner. The mucilage wil dissolve during soaking, and
the paper
> will float away from the board - no further rubbing required -
givung a
> perfect transfer of the toner.
>
> MikeN
>
>
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