Homebrew PCBs

--- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, Alan King <alan@n...> wrote:
> 
>   They depend on the high insulation properties of paper to hold the 
> charge, and it's induced by the corona wire.
> 
> Yes copper will redistribute the charge.  Instead of inducing a charge, 
> directly contact and give about what's needed at the drum. 
> 
> Might want to look back at the discussions Stefan and I had last
year or 
> so on it, probably everything you're likely to hit anytime soon and
then 
> some..
> 
> End conclusions:
> 
>   Tape your board edges, and with reasonably good surface you're not 
> scratching your drum, or not much.  Cost of doing easy prints is
maybe a 
> toner cartridge sooner rather than later, $20 now and then.
> 
>   My HP6L prints great onto large areas of aluminum foil taped to a 
> page.  Get wrinkles from not being attached, and flakes off here and 
> there from being too smooth and also flexible.  Way, way better than I 
> expected to print on straight metal.  Transfers rather well, metal
beats 
> the heck out of paper for getting heat to the copper.  Thin copper
sheet 
> and adhere to board would probably work fairly well for me, but other 
> things do well enough and haven't worked on it too much beyond tests.
> 
>   With mods for straight board and keeping the right weak charge on the 
> copper, it's likely it will work, at least on my 6Ls.  Even straight 
> path printers aren't straight, major work required on the path for the 
> board.  TT works ok enough, so while it'd be great and I have extra 
> printers at hand for it, it's still a very back burner project.
> 
>   Heck not too much point reading the old discussions now.  That's
where 
> mine was at, and I think mine was going as well as anyone's trying it.
> 
>   Feed direction alignment is easy enough, do it optically at the same 
> point on the board edge, and top and bottom should be aligned well in 
> the feed axis.  Other axis would be mechanically aligned, but still 
> should be able to get it pretty good too.
> 
> Alan

Ok, this is probably a Real Dumb idea, but I'll toss it out, just 
on the chance that it might work.  How about printing directly to 
copper foil, and then gluing the copper foil to a fiberglass 
substrate, and then etching to make your board.  I know that you 
can get Copper foil at some craft stores (I currently have a sheet 
of 2 mil Copper foil.).  Yeah, it sounds like a LOT of work.  And,
it probably won't work.  But, it might be worth a try.

Dave