Homebrew PCBs

Overview:

        Review of a water-soluble printer-compatible paper for use in
        toner transfer based PCB creation

Product:

        WashAway Foundation Paper

Manufacturer/Distributor:

        W.H. Collins, Inc - www.dritz.com

Bought Online From:

        http://store01.prostores.com/servlet/fivesistersquiltshop/Detail?no=563

Price:

        USD $8.95 for pack of 10 letter-size sheets

Review:

        After seeing mention of this paper product on this mailing list,
        I decided to give it a try.
        
        My online order to www.fivesistersquiltshop.com was processed
        very quickly, and the product arrived promptly - especially
        considering it was shipped from the USA to New Zealand.
        
        I printed out a small (45mm x 30mm) PCB artwork onto a pilot
        sheet, then cut a strip of the WashAway paper, placing it on top
        of the artwork on the pilot sheet with sticky tape on the
        leading edge - the same technique used by myself and some others
        when using glossy inkjet card.
        
        The artwork printed faultlessly onto the WashAway paper using my
        HP Color Laserjet 2550L.
        
        After four passes through the laminator, the toner adhered very
        firmly to the copper on the board. (In retrospect, I should have
        given it 6-8 passes - see below).
        
        With previous boards at this point, I had needed to soak the
        board+card, peel off gently, then rub with fingers, worrying
        about damaging fine traces. This step, which took up to 15
        minutes, was always a risky and unenjoyable point of the
        procedure.
        
        But this time, with the WashAway paper, I just put the board
        under running water, and the paper disappeared completely within
        5 seconds. No need to rub, and no need to risk damaging toner
        deposits. All that remained was jet black toner, with good
        quality artwork reproduction.
        
        Following this, I etched the board in FeCl as normal, and ended
        up with a near-faultless board. The only fault was a small break
        in one trace, which proved quick and easy to solder-bridge. I
        would like to try more boards, with more passes through the
        laminator - 6-8 instead of 4, and suspect this will give me a
        zero-defect board.
        
Verdict:

        On the positive side, the price is way less than press-n-peel,
        and comparable with gloss card stock. This paper saves up to 15
        minutes in the board creation process, and eliminates a
        significant source of defects.
        
        On the negative side, there was minor distortion in the artwork
        on the finished board, comparable to that which happens when
        using thin glossy 'time magazine' paper (which is why I've
        tended to use gloss card stock).
        
        It's possible that if I put a sheet of thin gloss card over the
        WashAway paper when feeding into the laminator, this distortion
        could be reduced or eliminated. I'm using PDIP and other
        through-hole components - the minor distortion was no major
        problem, but if I'd been using fine SMD traces, it could have
        given me much trouble and forced me to revert to glossy inkjet
        card.
        
        However, I'm happy with the overall result, and grateful for the
        time and labour it saves. I'll be leaning towards use of this
        paper from now on, especially for simpler boards, and hope the
        retailer keeps up their stock.
        
Conclusion:

        I give this product 4 out of 5 stars.
        
        Definitely worth a try, and well worth having in one's home PCB
        manufacture toolkit.
        
        For myself, I'll experiment with the thermal transfer stage and
        see if I can reduce artwork distortion. Maybe others on this
        list might like to do similar and share their results.

--------------

Cheers
David

Thanks for the review, I just ordered some to try.  It's less than
Pulsar and Technics, I can afford cough cough    [:((]   $1.00 per sheet
vs $1.50 a sheet for the others.
For the "harder" boards I'll use this but mostly I use the 80lb paper @
work and just do the old fashion tonner transfer method.

CW







-- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, David McNab <rebirth@...> wrote:
>
> Overview:
>
> Review of a water-soluble printer-compatible paper for use in
> toner transfer based PCB creation
>
> Product:
>
> WashAway Foundation Paper
>
> Manufacturer/Distributor:
>
> W.H. Collins, Inc - www.dritz.com
>
> Bought Online From:
>
>
http://store01.prostores.com/servlet/fivesistersquiltshop/Detail?no=563
>
> Price:
>
> USD $8.95 for pack of 10 letter-size sheets
>
> Review:
>
> After seeing mention of this paper product on this mailing list,
> I decided to give it a try.
>
> My online order to www.fivesistersquiltshop.com was processed
> very quickly, and the product arrived promptly - especially
> considering it was shipped from the USA to New Zealand.
>
> I printed out a small (45mm x 30mm) PCB artwork onto a pilot
> sheet, then cut a strip of the WashAway paper, placing it on top
> of the artwork on the pilot sheet with sticky tape on the
> leading edge - the same technique used by myself and some others
> when using glossy inkjet card.
>
> The artwork printed faultlessly onto the WashAway paper using my
> HP Color Laserjet 2550L.
>
> After four passes through the laminator, the toner adhered very
> firmly to the copper on the board. (In retrospect, I should have
> given it 6-8 passes - see below).
>
> With previous boards at this point, I had needed to soak the
> board+card, peel off gently, then rub with fingers, worrying
> about damaging fine traces. This step, which took up to 15
> minutes, was always a risky and unenjoyable point of the
> procedure.
>
> But this time, with the WashAway paper, I just put the board
> under running water, and the paper disappeared completely within
> 5 seconds. No need to rub, and no need to risk damaging toner
> deposits. All that remained was jet black toner, with good
> quality artwork reproduction.
>
> Following this, I etched the board in FeCl as normal, and ended
> up with a near-faultless board. The only fault was a small break
> in one trace, which proved quick and easy to solder-bridge. I
> would like to try more boards, with more passes through the
> laminator - 6-8 instead of 4, and suspect this will give me a
> zero-defect board.
>
> Verdict:
>
> On the positive side, the price is way less than press-n-peel,
> and comparable with gloss card stock. This paper saves up to 15
> minutes in the board creation process, and eliminates a
> significant source of defects.
>
> On the negative side, there was minor distortion in the artwork
> on the finished board, comparable to that which happens when
> using thin glossy 'time magazine' paper (which is why I've
> tended to use gloss card stock).
>
> It's possible that if I put a sheet of thin gloss card over the
> WashAway paper when feeding into the laminator, this distortion
> could be reduced or eliminated. I'm using PDIP and other
> through-hole components - the minor distortion was no major
> problem, but if I'd been using fine SMD traces, it could have
> given me much trouble and forced me to revert to glossy inkjet
> card.
>
> However, I'm happy with the overall result, and grateful for the
> time and labour it saves. I'll be leaning towards use of this
> paper from now on, especially for simpler boards, and hope the
> retailer keeps up their stock.
>
> Conclusion:
>
> I give this product 4 out of 5 stars.
>
> Definitely worth a try, and well worth having in one's home PCB
> manufacture toolkit.
>
> For myself, I'll experiment with the thermal transfer stage and
> see if I can reduce artwork distortion. Maybe others on this
> list might like to do similar and share their results.
>
> --------------
>
> Cheers
> David
>




[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

On Fri, 2007-01-12 at 20:47 +1300, David McNab wrote:
> Following this, I etched the board in FeCl as normal, and ended
> up with a near-faultless board. The only fault was a small break
> in one trace, which proved quick and easy to solder-bridge. I
> would like to try more boards, with more passes through the
> laminator - 6-8 instead of 4, and suspect this will give me a
> zero-defect board.

I tried this with a second board - putting thin card over the WashAway
paper when feeding into the laminator, and giving it 8 passes. Result is
a defect-free board.

Attached are 3 small images, of boards under a 200x digital microscope:

* gloss-inkjet.jpg - toner transfer via inkjet gloss card
* washaway.jpg - toner transfer via washaway paper, fed directly into
  laminator
* washaway-card.jpg - toner transfer via washaway paper, enclosed in
  thin card prior to feeding through laminator

As you can see, the inkjet gloss gives much better resolution, even
sufficient for SMD boards. The WashAway paper gives much uglier toner
transfer, but adequate for simpler boards with larger traces and
through-hole components and taking much less time to create.

Cheers
David





[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

On Fri, 12 Jan 2007 11:01:02 +0100, David McNab <rebirth@...>  
wrote:

> * gloss-inkjet.jpg - toner transfer via inkjet gloss card
> * washaway.jpg - toner transfer via washaway paper, fed directly into
>   laminator
> * washaway-card.jpg - toner transfer via washaway paper, enclosed in
>   thin card prior to feeding through laminator
> As you can see, the inkjet gloss gives much better resolution, even
> sufficient for SMD boards. The WashAway paper gives much uglier toner
> transfer, but adequate for simpler boards with larger traces and
> through-hole components and taking much less time to create.
> Cheers
> David


Hi, the list does not allow attachments, please upload to the group or use  
something like www.tinypic.com and provide the links.

It is good to hear someone tried this paper, but i think you should work  
on the soaking/peeling process. That should not take 15 minutes. I have  
never timed it, but i would be very surprised if it is more than 2 or 3  
minutes for me. I will describe how i do it:
After the board comes out of the fuser i'll put it flat on a table, and  
brush the paper with a brass wire brush ("spark plug brush"), only 2 or 3  
times, just to scratch it. While still hot i'll throw it into a container  
with water in it. At this stage you can leave it as long as you like (e.g.  
if you have more boards to make), soaking will make it go slightly easier  
later on. But if you don't have the time you can take it out after a few  
seconds, and start to rub in the center of the board. Soon a layer of  
paper will peel off and "roll" under your thumb. Roll this layer off over  
the whole board, now you should still have a thin paper layer left that is  
virtually dry. Dunk it into the water again to wet it, and start rubbing  
"through" in the middle of the board. Now you can "roll" this last layer  
mostly off the board as well. Now most of the paper is gone, but there  
will be some remains between tight traces and stuff. Dunk the board again,  
and rub it firmly either with your finger or with a piece of foam (foam  
rubber works just fine). After this dunk your board to rinse, dry with a  
towel, and blow on it or set it on the residual heat of the fuser to dry.  
Drying makes any remaining paper very obvious (white). Remove any paper  
you spot by localized rubbing with the moistened foam. ready.

Seems like lotsa steps, but i'm sure this is only a matter of a couple of  
minutes. I do the major "rolling away" of the paper layers holding the  
board above the paper bin, so that i don't have to clean up and the water  
container isn't filled with paper fragments.

I will time this when i make the next board, in a couple of days.

ST

On Fri, 2007-01-12 at 11:41 +0100, Stefan Trethan wrote:
> Hi, the list does not allow attachments, please upload to the group or use  
> something like www.tinypic.com and provide the links.

Ok, thx for that link.

200x magnification of boards:

TT using inkjet gloss card:
http://i12.tinypic.com/2vxj2uv.jpg

TT using WashAway paper, fed directly into laminator:
http://i13.tinypic.com/30ddpxz.jpg

TT using WashAway paper, fed into laminator but enclosed in thin card:
http://i14.tinypic.com/4ggakqc.jpg

> I will describe how i do it:
<snip>

Many thanks for that, especially for the idea of using moistened foam
rubber on the dried board. Shall try.

Cheers
David

--- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, David McNab <rebirth@...> wrote:
>
> On Fri, 2007-01-12 at 11:41 +0100, Stefan Trethan wrote:
> > Hi, the list does not allow attachments, please upload to the
group or use  
> > something like www.tinypic.com and provide the links.
> 
> Ok, thx for that link.

Another option is to use a free photo server like Flickr.com

Dave

On Fri, 12 Jan 2007 20:13:08 +0100, Dave Mucha <dave_mucha@...>  
wrote:

>
> Another option is to use a free photo server like Flickr.com
> Dave


I like tinypic because there's no signup required.

ST

> seconds, and start to rub in the center of the board. Soon a layer of  
> paper will peel off and "roll" under your thumb. Roll this layer off over  
> the whole board, now you should still have a thin paper layer left that is  
> virtually dry. Dunk it into the water again to wet it, and start rubbing  
> "through" in the middle of the board. Now you can "roll" this last layer  
> mostly off the board as well. Now most of the paper is gone, but there  
> will be some remains between tight traces and stuff. Dunk the board again,  
> and rub it firmly either with your finger or with a piece of foam (foam  
>   etc etc etc

I am surprised on how obvious it is for many people to 'rub' the paper off.
My experience (mainly with Epson Glossy Photo paper) is never 'rub' any paper.
Of course some white residues keep staying between traces and in small holes,
nothing an old toothbrush doesn't take care of. But 'rubbing'?, no Sir!
Soak it long enough and it floats off or you can peel it very gently (under
water).
My point of view is that if you have to rub, the paper is no good for TT.



 
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On Sat, 13 Jan 2007 02:16:42 +0100, Herbert E. Plett <cachureos@...>  
wrote:

> I am surprised on how obvious it is for many people to 'rub' the paper  
> off.
> My experience (mainly with Epson Glossy Photo paper) is never 'rub' any  
> paper.
> Of course some white residues keep staying between traces and in small  
> holes,
> nothing an old toothbrush doesn't take care of. But 'rubbing'?, no Sir!
> Soak it long enough and it floats off or you can peel it very gently  
> (under
> water).
> My point of view is that if you have to rub, the paper is no good for TT.


Ahh, but you have the virtue of patience!
I can't be bothered to wait several minutes for the paper to soak, usually.

If the toner isn't stuck fast enough to withstand rubbing (or your  
toothbrush for that matter), then it's no good anyway.
Also, if you allow some rubbing you can use many more paper types that  
would never float off.

ST