Homebrew PCBs

Hi Elia,

I bought the ML-2010 printer and have been having good results so far. I'm
very happy with it considering the price - it costs about $70 in australia.
Its the only printer I've used for toner transfer so I can't compare it to
others.

The main thing is to get the right paper - the best thing i have found so
far is some advertising brocures from a local computer store. They are quite
thin, and glossy (but not super glossy). They soak off the board easily. I
need to perfect my technique, i've had some variable results like pitted
traces, or sometimes smeared traces. And sometimes it works out perfectly. I
suspect that this is to do with pressure and/or temperature. Currently my
method is this:
1. I put the pcb on an old book, and lay the printout on top of it, and lay
baking paper on top of that
2. I sit an iron at full temperature on top of this and leave it for a few
minutes, not pressing, until the board is nice and hot
3. I then remove the iron and carefully roll a rolling pin over it in
several directions to get it evenly stuck onto the board. Be careful not to
smear
4. At this point i just drop the board into cold water, wait a minute for
the paper to soften up a bit, and then start rubbing the paper with my
fingers to remove it from the board. The toner is usually pretty well stuck,
if you find that the toner comes off then you probably need more heat or
pressure.
5. Check the results, make sure you get rid of any remaining paper fibers.
If it looks smudged or pitted, try again.

With this method i've done some .5mm pitch tqfps.

I havent run out of toner yet, but i've probably only printed about 20 pages
- i only use it for pcbs! If you're going to actually print documents, then
you might want to check the cost of the toner (probably more than the
printer). Also i dont recommend trying transparencies, i put one in the
other day which is supposedly laser-printable and it got totally melted and
wrapped around the fuser, and was quite difficult to extract. Fortunately
the printer seems to have survived. I read on this group that the toner in
these printers has a higher melting point than others, the warning sticker
on the fuser says 180 degrees c.

Good luck...

James.

On Mon, May 19, 2008 at 10:20 PM, eliamady <eliamady123@...> wrote:

>   Hi All,
>
> I am considering buying a laser printer for home that I can use for PCB
> printing as well using toner transfer method. The printer I have in
> mind is Samsung ML2010. Has anyone used it for PCB's? Is it recommended
> for that?
>
> Thank you for your help
>
> Elia
>
>  
>


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