Homebrew_PCBs

You might want to try suspending the pcb in acetone vapor before etching. I don't use toner transfer, but I do use toner as a resist. If you suspend it over acetone, in the vapor, the toner seems to "melt" and covers small pinholes. I usually leave it in the vapor for 20-30 minutes.

Mark


At 11:18 AM 6/13/2016, you wrote:

My problem isn't getting the toner to transfer well, it's etching. Lots of pinholes. The toner is too porous. I've tried the lighter fluid method of fixing the toner but no workie. The foil method will probably work if I can get the stuff hot enough to transfer. I am using original HP toner. Any thoughts ?

Doug Forbes

From: Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com [Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com]
Sent: Sunday, June 12, 2016 5:41 PM
To: Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com
Subject: RE: [Homebrew_PCBs] First attempt at toner transfer

 

Well, I tried the cold transfer method and… yeah.. no dice at all.  Probably my mixture wasnâ’t working right.

 

Anyway, for sport, I went back to the process I had tried before.  My PCB patterns are bigger than what’s out there on youtube, and I had been printing them on separate pieces of paper.  This time, I printed them together on one piece of magazine paper from Hotrod Magazine (love that magazine).  Then I cleaned the board, let the iron get hotter than the blue blazes of h—ll.. and then went for it.  Spent a good 10 minutes really working the iron – first back and forth nice andd slow like a laminator, then faster, on the theory it would keep the paper hot all the way around.  I looked really closely and could kind of see where the toner was coming off the paper a little bit, and really worked the front end of the iron down on spots I thought were suspect.  Then I dunked the whole thing in a tub of cold water and let it sit for 2 minutes.  Anyway, voila!  The result:

 

http://s1381.photobucket.com/user/unclefalter/media/20160612_172825_zpstl1dzy7q.jpg.html

 

So that disproves that my compatible toner won’t work.. at least for the ironing process.  Don’t know if we’ll have a problem when we etch?  But yeah.. it looks really good, I think.  I kind of figured the problem was ‘operator error’ here since 80%+ was coming off on my previous tries. 

 

Now that I sort of have a procedure that works I think I’ll keep at it and get my other patterns done.  Lots of Hotrods lying around. J

 

Brad