Homebrew PCBs

For board cleaning, I have had very good results using "barkeepers
friend", a white powdered cleaning agent with oxalic acid as it's prime
active ingredient. just put some on a wet sponge and rub thoroughly on
the board, then rinse well before laminating. of course as always never
touch the board with bare hands after cleaing.

-Matt

coronasensei wrote:
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> --- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com
> <mailto:Homebrew_PCBs%40yahoogroups.com>, Alessio Sangalli
> <alesan@...> wrote:
>
> >
> > Maybe I ended up having a very good printer/laminator combo?
> >
>
> Annoyingly this is often a case with toner transfer, the differences
> in otherwise compatible equipment does make a difference. I noticed a
> massive difference once when we got new toner for my printer, it just
> didn't stick well anymore - it just so happened that this was cheap
> refill toner which didn't print as heavily/evenly either. If you go
> the photo paper for transfer it can be very cheap but again the
> differences between brand/type of papers is enormous.
> I was also using a bottom dollar laminator, which I'm sure wont have
> the heat output of a decent brand one, hence the extra heat gun
> application. The problem with too much heat however is that paper
> blackens and blue stuf warps as mentioned, and even the toner can
> squash and spread if it's too hot, so it's a balancing act of getting
> the process right for your equipment.
>
> I do agree to an extent with the excessiveness of my cleaning process,
> but I find it best to overdo it for a start then try simplifying it
> from there. I found turps to work better than acetone because of the
> residue, and I prefer to limit my exposure to acetone! But yeah you
> certainly need to clean the board well afterwards to solder to it.
>
> I used to keep a solder bath (camping oven, frypan, lots of plumbing
> solder bars) for tinning the board after etching; flux, dip, wipe with
> windscreen squeegie, but that was when I had a fumer cupboard to keep
> it in. Now I use cool-amp silver plating powder, it's amazing. Only
> catch is silver can tarnish just as bad as copper. Still worth it
> though I feel, and looks real nice.
>
> speaking of soldering, I find supermarket ascorbic (citric) acid, the
> stuff for baking that comes in granules, works wonders as a water
> clean flux when mixed in water and used from a spray bottle, it's
> cheap and safer than most commercial ones. spray it onto dirty copper
> and it'll brighten before your eyes!
>
> Andrew
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>