Homebrew PCBs

I'm new here, but seeing as how many people still use toner transfer
I'd like to share my ideas.
The boards I make have very good results, I'd say that 95% of the time
I don't even have to do anything to the board after I iron it (meaning
that I don't need to go with a pen and fill in gaps). My method is
pretty simple tough: I just print it on a laster, with as much toner
as possible and on a normal sheet of paper. I cut the board in the
appropriate size, sand it with a light sheet of sand (sorry, I don't
know the proper terms in english for it...), the clean it with cotton
balls soaked in alcohol (92.8º minimum!). When the board is fully
clean, i place tha paper on top of the board, toner on the copper and,
again with cotton and alcohol, make the paper stick to the copper.
Then I just iron it as strongly as possible. After I've ironed it
well, I spray it with water mixed with a cleaner (sorry I can't be
more specific in it... I'm in Brazil and the only description I have
for this product is cleaner... I think maybe detergent would also work
well... I do a mixing of 4/5 of water with 1/5 of cleaner)... while
it's still hot! Let the paper wrinkle a bit and, with an old
toothbrush, I'll remove the paper, making circular motions on the
paper, not too hard so the toner won't leave with it, specially since
it's still hot. That's it... Pretty good home made boards right at
home. And I've done dual layered boards with no problems...
A couple of pics of my boards:
http://img262.imageshack.us/my.php?image=20070724foto09oj0.jpg
http://img262.imageshack.us/my.php?image=2007-07-24-foto01.jpg
Those were made with a thicker kind of newspaper paper... But I found
out later that with plain paper and even recicled work just as good
(even better actually, with printers that can only print at 600dpi)
and are easier to find.
My only problem is with the etching, which takes forever with ferric
chloride, and I don't have access to an alternative solution I saw...
The white thing on top of the toner is just reminescent paper... It
won't do any harm, but you just gotta make sure it's not
short-circuiting your tracks!

Bob, you mentioned a gerber tool you use to print multiple circuits on
one sheet of paper... What is this tool? I have a problem with
scaling... what I do is export as an image (bmp, jpg, or the likes)
then insert into Word and manually adjust the size to the boards size.
But it isn't 100% accurate and on IC's I have alingment problems and I
usually have to use a bigger drill on the corner pads. This is pretty
much the only problem I have with my boards.



--
[]´s
Felipe Baldner
fbaldner@...

On 10/15/07, Bob Macklin <rottenrobbie0@...> wrote:
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> I have a gerber Tool that allows me to make a panel of
>  patterns. In this case I set it up to make 12 patterns
>  an a full sheet. I used one sheet for the top and
>  another sheet for the bottom.
>
>  I am glad that I did set it up for 12. I used 8 of the
>  tops before i got a good transfer.
>
>  I make the Gerber prints on my inkjet then I go to
>  Kinkos's to make the TT sheets. In this case I could
>  have put 6 tops and 6 bottoms on the same sheet.
>
>  This was the best for me. Until I have more confidemce
>  in this process it is easier for me to waste some
>  paper.
>
>  I have 2 pacls of DynaArt paper I bought about 10
>  years ago. I had no idea how well it would work. The
>  board i made today is good enough for testing the
>  design. It also showed me I migh be able to use 0805
>  components instead of 0603s.
>
>  Bob Mackin
>  Seattle, Wa.
>
>                    



-- 
[]´s
Felipe Baldner
fbaldner@...