Homebrew PCBs

On Wed, 13 Jul 2005 21:17:01 +0200, Mike Phillips <mikep_95133@...>  
wrote:

> Hi all,
> Been a silent member for a while. Just picked up an old HP 6L laser
> printer to start my project. Glad I read up on the laser printer
> process first in this group, as I made the guy put in a toner
> cartridge that actually printed out dark black not gray as the first
> one did. Score one for the group!
> The project is an electric truck. It has 104 12v batterys. It needs a
> bit of overvoltage regulation to prevent it from toasting 104 $60
> batterys. So that means the potential of making 104 pcb's plus spares.
> It's fairly simple with all the parts on just one side, and smt at that.
> It looks like since I originally joined, that using a heat press for
> doing badges and such has become quite helpful. Not sure what you call
> the machine. I will look into that as well. I planned on using just a
> standard teflon coated clothes iron to press the toner to the pcb. But
> after printing out the pcb's in a 4 pcb x 5 pcb pattern, it occured to
> me that the 12 mil traces are too narrow for this type of pcb
> manufacturing. The pcb is about 2.3 x 2.8 or so. So far 20 of them fit
> on an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet. Seems that the rolling press might pay for
> itself over 104+ pcb's. More research. Any brands that stand out? At
> this point I'll take any tips you guys have.
> Thanks,
> Mike


that rolling press is called a laminator, and it is much better than using  
an iron (more consistent results).
There are brands that are known to work, but i use a old fuser from a  
copier so i dunno.
Others will surely comment.


For such a large number of PCBs even i would consider a commercial  
service, as they are incredibly cheap now, esp. if yoou need more than 20  
PCBs or so. look in the links section, and i know futurlec is pretty cheap  
too, though it takes a while.

ST