Homebrew PCBs

I have been reading about the toner transfer method, however I do not
have access to a laser printer.

From what I understand, the key element if the plastic content of the
toner.  Following that line of thought, t-shirt transfer paper should
also contain a level of plastic as it is designed to withstand
washing, and sun-bleaching.

Has anyone attempted to use this method?

1. It is meant for inkjet and may melt in your laser printer.

2. You'll end up with a board 100% covered in soft polymer, regardless
of where you printed.

I had heard of some kind of transfer meant for color laser, but
requires a 2 step process.

And in the end, most people seem to be able to do standard toner
transfer just fine.

Steve Greenfield

--- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, "Wayne" <warp_kez@...> wrote:

>
> I have been reading about the toner transfer method, however I do not
> have access to a laser printer.
> 
> From what I understand, the key element if the plastic content of the
> toner.  Following that line of thought, t-shirt transfer paper should
> also contain a level of plastic as it is designed to withstand
> washing, and sun-bleaching.
> 
> Has anyone attempted to use this method?
>

On 15 Mar 2008, at 01:24, Wayne wrote:

> I have been reading about the toner transfer method, however I do not
> have access to a laser printer.

Print your inkjet master and take it to a photocopier?

-- 

Cheers

Derryck

--- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, "Wayne" <warp_kez@...> wrote:
>
> I have been reading about the toner transfer method, however I do not
> have access to a laser printer.
> 
> From what I understand, the key element if the plastic content of the
> toner.  Following that line of thought, t-shirt transfer paper should
> also contain a level of plastic as it is designed to withstand
> washing, and sun-bleaching.
> 
> Has anyone attempted to use this method?
>

It just makes a sticky mess, I tried it once.

Leon

--- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, "Wayne" <warp_kez@...> wrote:
Wayne,

I know of at least 3 types of T-Shirt transfer paper: The first is a
special paper sold by screen supply shops that is intended to be used
as a carrier for silkscreen ink and then transferred to a shirt using
a heat press. I have tried this paper for the toner transfer method
with dismal results. The next type of paper is for ink jet printers
where you print on the paper and heat tranfer the image to a shirt.
The transparent ink gets transferred to the light colored shirt and
the image is set by the heat. This paper is rather costly, about a
buck a sheet. You are better off with the blue press and peel stuff. I
have not tried this paper with my laser printer. The last paper is for
dark colored shirts and is a white backing that gets heat pressed to a
dark shirt, showing off your ink jet image (like printing on white
paper and glueing it to a shirt). This must be the paper you refer to
as it seems to contain some kind of plastic. This process would be
useless for making PCB's because the whole board would be covered with
white backing paper and therefor not etched at all. You could hand cut
a stencil from it but that kind of misses the point of the toner
transfer process.

> From what I understand, the key element is the plastic content of the
> toner.  Following that line of thought, t-shirt transfer paper should
> also contain a level of plastic as it is designed to withstand
> washing, and sun-bleaching.

Thanks for the replies.  Early this morning (Australian time) I
realised that the surface would be entirely covered with the "paper".