Homebrew PCBs

Tony,
Good link to the eBay sources of ES paint powder. A pound of paint will do
acres of pcbs :)

That is the standard process for ES painting. In this case we are "cheating"
a bit by using the wet inkjet ink as a temporary adhesive.

Overall, it works very well. I found it a lot easier than regular toner
transfer. No fighting with multiple runs through a laminator and removing
the paper afterward..

Myc

On Thu, Oct 30, 2008 at 6:34 AM, Tony Smith <ajsmith@...> wrote:

>   > I knew from Voltan's work that he was able to print a solder mask. (I
> was
> > never able to correctly cure the ink) and decided to try the Toner
> Dusting
> > process instead.
> >
> > I was looking at replacing the black toner with other fusible fine
> powder,
> > hopefully a white or yellow one, to use as component legends. I had seen
> > some electrostatic painting on a TV show and thought it might work,
> though
> > most of the time the metal items were baked at a very high temp. I did a
> > search and found that the ES paint was also used on MDF, so a lower temp
> > fuse was possible. There are a few different types of ES powder.
> >
> > I found some ES powder paint at SEARS for only $6 and am trying it. I am
> > told it also is available at some auto parts stores. The SEARS version
> has
> > slightly larger particle sizes.
> >
> > I've just started playing with it. It seems to give a very thick coating.
> > Try to avoid the gold fleck version, The goldish particles are very small
> > and are hard to remove.
> >
> > Toner dusting is a very simple process and easy to try. Like toner
> > transfer you have to fine tune it to your set up.
> >
> > Myc
>
> You're describing powder coating, searching for that will turn up more
> stuff. As you say, it's not that hard.
>
> Plenty of powder on eBay, in any colour you want, typically under $10 per
> pound, and a pound goes a long way.
>
> The standard way to apply is blow the powder past high voltage (say
> 15-100kV), this applies a charge to the powder which causes it to stick to
> the metal. To do wood such as MDF it needs to be coated with something to
> make it conductive first. You may have trouble finding that and the low
> temperature cure powder.
>
> The other way is to heat the part up (~150C / 300F) and either dip it in
> the
> powder or sprinkle the powder onto it. Either way the powder will melt and
> stick to it. I'm not sure if it'll stick to the PCB material (copper traces
> are ok), someone will need to try it. With a mask you could do it cold, put
> the mask over the PCB, sprinkle the powder, then put it (very carefully!)
> into an oven to cure.
>
> Powders are typically cured at 200C (~400F) for about 10 minutes, although
> you can trade temp for time, eg 350F for 15 minutes etc. The oven can just
> be one of those little toaster ovens. This is to cure it properly, it'll
> still stick if not properly cured, it just won't be as resistant to
> chipping
> etc.
>
> It also needs to be absolutely clean otherwise the powder may not stick. In
> this case it's not a huge drama, and the normal PCB cleaning procedures
> (wipe with acetone, rinse with distilled water etc) are ok.
>
> Powder coating is good fun, it beats painting hands down.
>
> Tony
>
>  
>


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