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

I went to Kinko's, and luckily arrived at another quiet time. Talked to
a man behind the counter about what I was doing. He did not want to run
the Staples Inkjet photo paper through his machine, but ran his usual
gloss photo paper and made three copies of the artwork you sent
originally. I did not think I should insist on using a paper he did not
want to use...it is his machine, his responsibility. His thought was
that it would damage the machine's fuser.

The Kinko's copies have a different appearance from the Staples copies
of Sunday. The black has a shiny rather than matte surface, and I can
see a slightly raised surface to the black, with a slight stippling of
the surface, similar to a silkscreen image. I can also feel a slight
step, running a fingernail across the white paper to the black image.
With the the Staples copies, the black image appeared to be absolutely
flush with the surface of the paper.

I stopped at Staples to note the name of their copier, which I had used
on Sunday.

Both are "Xerox Docucolor 12" machines. Unless I experienced only a
difference in settings, it is possible that they are using different
toners.

After cleaning the blank with acetone, I ironed a test pattern and got
an image transfer, and also this time the paper with image stuck to the
copper. However, it takes a lot of soaking to get down to the final
paper layer. I am still soaking it and working on it....an hour later,
the last layer of paper is very resistant to removal, ao I would
consider it unsatisfactory. Scraping the paper with a fingernail also
removes the toner image.

I also had a major problem keeping the paper and image from sliding
around on the copper board while applying heat with the clothes iron.
This will take considerably more thought, or at least, more
concentration.

So my final thoughts are,

1) The Kinko's image on the Docucolor 12 machine is good and will
transfer well to the copper, subject to inspection for pinholes or other
blank spots WHEN I get all the paper off, and

2) The glossy laser print paper this Kinko's uses in their machine is
unsuitable for this purpose; it cannot be totally removed without
destroying the transferred toner image.

Steve