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

Since Stefan first posted his idea I've played around with this on and off... mostly off, but here's what works well for me.
Your mileage may vary.

1. Use high temp automotive gasket silicone (red).

2. Use two layers of masking tape at the outside edges of the paper to hold the squeegee .008" off the paper.
I'm using a 2" bar of acrylic as a squeegee. This of course gives you a coating of silicone 8 thousandths of an inch thick. Thinner than this and the toner can get in to the paper. Thicker and the transfered lines get mushy and distorted.

3. Let it cure -completely- for 4 to 7 days. Longer doesn't hurt.

4. I'm printing with a HP2100 laser printer, factory cartridges only. Off brands of toner don't always work.
The first time I use a piece of silicone paper I run the whole sheet, tape and all through the printer.

5. Lightly sand and clean PCB stock with lacquer thinner, not acetone. I've gotten very poor results using acetone, I don't know why. Trim the printed silicone paper to fit.

6. Run it 5 to 6 times through GBC Laminator.

7. Let cool and peel.

The results are 99.99% perfect, there's very little touch up.
To reuse the silicone paper, clean it with lacquer thinner and stick the leading edge to a carrier piece of paper with a glue stick.

That works for me every time.
Good luck,
Denny