Homebrew PCBs

I picked up some tips off Thomas Gootee's page and have done some 
experimenting. Below are some things I have come up with that make 
the process a bit easier.

I purchased the Photo Basic Gloss paper from Staples. It is the best 
paper I have used, no pinholes. The problem was getting it back off 
the board. Sore thumbs!!!

I found that after laminating the toner onto the board, putting the 
board and paper into water at a full boil will totally release the 
paper in less than ten minutes, it just floats off. Saves all those 
sore thumbs. Just a quick going over with a toothbrush leaves a very 
clean board. I tried some of the toner trasfer paper I used to use 
and it came off in less than a minute. Toner Trasfer paper and all 
other papers I have tried leave pinholes in the toner. 

One problem with the Photo Basic paper is that it takes a lot of heat 
and time to get it onto the board cleanly. I have some of the 
Hammermill Office Glossy on order. It is 34# paper, the Photo Basic 
is 52# paper. The thinner paper should take less heat and time. It 
should also work better with the laminator I am now using.

I bought one of those document laminators. The one I bought was - 
QuickFinish PL100 (about $50), made by Banner American. I purchased 
this one because you can set the temperature, and it was not too 
expensive. I did a minor modification to get the temperature a bit 
higher. Open the case, 5 screws in the bottom. Remove the two small 
screws holding the temperature control to the lid, pull off the dial, 
lower the board. On the board in addition to the main pot is a small 
trimmer pot, adjust it fully counter clockwise. This increased the 
total resistance seen by the controller, and thus increases the 
temperature on the laminating roller. I would have liked to have gone 
even higher, but this seems to work ok. Tape the artwork onto the 
board and make a couple of initial passes thru the laminator. Remove 
the tape. Make four or so more passes until the pattern can be seen 
thru the paper. Moving from end to end on each pass helps keep the 
heated roller up to temperature. I am hopeing that the thinner 
Hammermill paper will transfer faster. The copper on the board sucks 
the heat up on the first couple of passes. After that the board is 
pretty warm. Then just drop it into the boiling water until the paper 
falls off. Will repost results with the Hammermill paper.

As an alternative to the PL100 or a cloths iron, I use one of those 
toner transfer tools, a 25W soldering iron with a copper disk on the 
end. This gives me a better transfer than the cloths iron. I am never 
able to get the edges laminated with a cloths iron. Not sure if it is 
the smaller area of the head that allows more pressure or if it is 
just a bit hotter. Worth the investment of $25. 

Link to toner transfer supplier -

http://www.treelineusa.com/cgi-bin/shopper?preadd=action&key=196-7310



RDHeiliger

--- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, "rdheiliger" <rdheiliger@...> 
wrote:
>
> I picked up some tips off Thomas Gootee's page and have done some 
> experimenting. Below are some things I have come up with that make 
> the process a bit easier.
> 
> I purchased the Photo Basic Gloss paper from Staples. It is the 
best 
> paper I have used, no pinholes. The problem was getting it back off 
> the board. Sore thumbs!!!
> 
> I found that after laminating the toner onto the board, putting the 
> board and paper into water at a full boil will totally release the 
> paper in less than ten minutes, it just floats off. Saves all those 
> sore thumbs. Just a quick going over with a toothbrush leaves a 
very 
> clean board. I tried some of the toner trasfer paper I used to use 
> and it came off in less than a minute. Toner Trasfer paper and all 
> other papers I have tried leave pinholes in the toner. 
> 
> One problem with the Photo Basic paper is that it takes a lot of 
heat 
> and time to get it onto the board cleanly. I have some of the 
> Hammermill Office Glossy on order. It is 34# paper, the Photo Basic 
> is 52# paper. The thinner paper should take less heat and time. It 
> should also work better with the laminator I am now using.
> 
> I bought one of those document laminators. The one I bought was - 
> QuickFinish PL100 (about $50), made by Banner American. I purchased 
> this one because you can set the temperature, and it was not too 
> expensive. I did a minor modification to get the temperature a bit 
> higher. Open the case, 5 screws in the bottom. Remove the two small 
> screws holding the temperature control to the lid, pull off the 
dial, 
> lower the board. On the board in addition to the main pot is a 
small 
> trimmer pot, adjust it fully counter clockwise. This increased the 
> total resistance seen by the controller, and thus increases the 
> temperature on the laminating roller. I would have liked to have 
gone 
> even higher, but this seems to work ok. Tape the artwork onto the 
> board and make a couple of initial passes thru the laminator. 
Remove 
> the tape. Make four or so more passes until the pattern can be seen 
> thru the paper. Moving from end to end on each pass helps keep the 
> heated roller up to temperature. I am hopeing that the thinner 
> Hammermill paper will transfer faster. The copper on the board 
sucks 
> the heat up on the first couple of passes. After that the board is 
> pretty warm. Then just drop it into the boiling water until the 
paper 
> falls off. Will repost results with the Hammermill paper.
> 
> As an alternative to the PL100 or a cloths iron, I use one of those 
> toner transfer tools, a 25W soldering iron with a copper disk on 
the 
> end. This gives me a better transfer than the cloths iron. I am 
never 
> able to get the edges laminated with a cloths iron. Not sure if it 
is 
> the smaller area of the head that allows more pressure or if it is 
> just a bit hotter. Worth the investment of $25. 
> 
> Link to toner transfer supplier -
> 
> http://www.treelineusa.com/cgi-bin/shopper?preadd=action&key=196-
7310
> 
> 
> 
> RDHeiliger
>

This is an update on my previous post. 

I have done a comparison between the Staples Photo Basic and 
Hammermill Office Glossy.

Used the following process:
Minolta 1250 laser, this is a $100 copier, it is 5 years old
   I am using a generic toner refill
   Set at 1200 DPI, both brighness and contrast set to 100%

Use a Quick Finish PL100 laminator with the above modification
    both boards with equal number of passes, 6

Use the above boil the paper off procedure as above
  The Photo Basic paper floated off after about 13 minutes
  The Hammermill did not float off, but was so soft it rinsed off    
under the tap.
  Both boards came out very clean with almost to adhearing paper.

Neither board had pinholes in the toner.
After etching the Hammermill board showed signs of the toner begining 
to fall off at the edges of the traces, a longer etch would have 
reduced the trace size. The Photo Basic did not show any deteriation. 
The Photo Basic had 3 small places where the toner did not adhere, 
belive this is because the laminator is not hot enough to penetrate 
the heavier paper sufficiently or I had some dirt under the paper.

I would recomend either paper. The Hammermill is likely the best 
price/performance choice. With a bit hotter laminator the photo basic 
will produce the best board. The thinner Hammermill works better in 
the laminator I have and so will likely be the one I use the most. 

I have posted 3 photo's of the boards, after laminating, after 
etching and after cleaning. Sorry, but the resolution of my old 
camera is just not good enough to show how good the boards realy 
look. Also the photo basic left the traces so shiny that the 
reflections messed with the camera too.

Richard

> > The copper on the board sucks 
> > the heat up on the first couple of passes.

Preheat the board before laminating. They cool down very quickly so 
right out of preheat into the laminator with the pattern.

On 23 May 2007, at 16:51, James Newton wrote:

>>> The copper on the board sucks
>>> the heat up on the first couple of passes.
>
> Preheat the board before laminating. They cool down very quickly so
> right out of preheat into the laminator with the pattern.

I first pass the TT paper through the laminator a couple of times to  
"tack" it into position, then heat with an iron (just rest the iron  
on top of a kitchen paper/TT/copper laminate/newspaper sandwich) with  
the iron set at hot for about a minute. Then back to the laminator to  
finish the fusing.

-- 

Cheers

Derryck

Thanks for the update, that's cool to know.  I've been having really
good results with the Hammermill paper and the price is great (I don't
even have to cuss when I botch a sheet at this price ;-) ).  It
doesn't float off like the old Office Max paper i had but it wipes off
so easily I don't care. I haven't had a bad board yet (and I use just
a plain old iron). My boards are usually SMD, double sided, and
smaller than 4x6 inches (usually more like 2x4). Even the 32 pin LQFP
IC's are working out good.

I'm going to add another pack to my next Sam's order in case they stop
making this.  
BTW - when I was shopping for this (looking for a similar paper to
replace the Office Max stuff) there was also a paper from HP that
looked good (looked like maybe the same stuff rebranded and marked up
a little). Someone else tried it and said it worked well. Might be
easier to get for some people.  The paper is  HP Glossy Laser 32lb (HP
Q2546A) 300ct for about $15. 

Phil
KA0HBG

> This is an update on my previous post. 
> 
> I have done a comparison between the Staples Photo Basic and 
> Hammermill Office Glossy.
> 

> 
> I would recomend either paper. The Hammermill is likely the best 
> price/performance choice. With a bit hotter laminator the photo basic 
> will produce the best board. The thinner Hammermill works better in 
> the laminator I have and so will likely be the one I use the most. 
> 
> Richard
>