Homebrew PCBs

On Thu, 08 Dec 2005 12:53:29 +0100, soffee83 <soffee83@...> wrote:

> Hey again Stefan and all,
>
>
> I think I do have that same color and type of board as you in some
>
> single sided stuff I was using. I've got some cheap single sided now
>
> that's more weird looking, but seems to do quite well. It's a
>
> totally opaque light beige, sort of a flesh tone, with a fairly tight
>
> weave of whatever's in it.
>
>
> I'm not sure if I'd try that iron rolling. I'd be afraid of trying to
>
> get enough heat up through the board bottom to melt what was on the
>
> paper a few layers away. I saw the acetone thing mentioned a few
>
> times, but it could have been all for "toner to metal" transfers. I
>
> also remember one thread with someone who couldn't get any acceptable
>
> results from it and decided it was "toner dependant".
>
>
>      -George (who still hasn't gotten his no-stick Reynolds wrap)


The really whitish board stuff is probably FR1, with only one layer of  
glass and phenolic paper in between. I've got some of this too.

I think our "not so transparent" but full glass material is G10 or XPC.  
Both have the usual 8 layers glass, XPC uses phenolic resin and G10 uses  
epoxy, but not the same as FR4. I don't think it matters much for homebrew  
projects, as i usually don't design for my boards to catch fire anyway ;-)

It should be possible to identify this via the logo in the middle layer,  
but i have not had any luck with that yet since it is red, which means  
FR4, but isn't FR4 at all....

Anyway, what i have found is that the real FR4 i have seems to take the  
toner badly, especially if you use single-sided stock and try to transfer  
on the smooth side.

ST