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Press'n'Peel problems, and "Hi"

Press'n'Peel problems, and "Hi"

2013-11-18 by Geoff Wood

Hi folks,
New here. I'm Geoff from New Zealand. Have been doing PCBs on and off for maybe 35 years, first by resist-pen, then Bishop Graphics and Riston.
After a lull of many years have now tried Press'n'Peel (blue) with a distinct lack of success.
Printing on Konica-Minolta C353 laser onto dull side of film. Good solid toner coating. Ironing onto nice shiny clean board at various temperatures, for up to 4 minutes. Film comes of leaving incomplete tracks on PCB, some toner and/or some thin remnants of the blue film coating remaining on film.
Don't know if a factor, but film was purchased over 3 years ago, so may be quite old.
Here are some pix of my results ( some of film after pressing, and some of pcb after press. Last pic is 3 patches done at the iondicated temperatures.
Grateful any suggestions.
Also, I see on YouTube others have tried a similar process using glossy photo paper, and soaking off - anybody here had with success with that method ?
cheers
geoff

Re: [Homebrew_PCBs] Press'n'Peel problems, and "Hi"

2013-11-18 by <n0tt1@...>

Hi Geoff,

(You asked if anyone had used Glossy Photo paper for
toner transfer.)

I tried the glossy photo paper after a member of this list
strongly recommened Staples brand, part number 19899.
It was the worst stuff I've ever used. I tried it several times
using different pressure, heats, etc and it was a "non-performer"
compaired to the much thinner inkjet paper I had been using. I used
my LaserJet-5000 to image both papers.

Best,
Charlie



On Tue, 19 Nov 2013 12:05:24 +1300 "Geoff Wood" <geoff@...> writes:

Hi folks,

New here. I'm Geoff from New Zealand. Have been doing PCBs on and off for
maybe 35 years, first by resist-pen, then Bishop Graphics and Riston.

After a lull of many years have now tried Press'n'Peel (blue) with a
distinct lack of success.

Printing on Konica-Minolta C353 laser onto dull side of film. Good solid
toner coating. Ironing onto nice shiny clean board at various
temperatures, for up to 4 minutes. Film comes of leaving incomplete
tracks on PCB, some toner and/or some thin remnants of the blue film
coating remaining on film.

Don't know if a factor, but film was purchased over 3 years ago, so may
be quite old.

Here are some pix of my results ( some of film after pressing, and some
of pcb after press. Last pic is 3 patches done at the iondicated
temperatures.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/dzuddajqn3nibwb/nN5rgfe3lt

Grateful any suggestions.

Also, I see on YouTube others have tried a similar process using glossy
photo paper, and soaking off - anybody here had with success with that
method ?

cheers

geoff


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

Re: [Homebrew_PCBs] Press'n'Peel problems, and "Hi"

2013-11-19 by James

Fran Blanche has this video where she uses press-n-peel to good effect:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GoCNKzhWVs#t2m20s
she uses a proper heat press but a flat plate sandwich press would probably be just as good if you can find an old one on trademe (or a really cheap deal at The Warehouse).

Have you tried dry film photoresist? I can send you a few offcut samples for free if you fancy giving it a try, you can apply it easily with a clothes iron (set to about 80 degrees C at the hottest part of the plate) and expose to negative artwork (traces transparent). Detailed instructions for use: http://sparks.gogo.co.nz/dry-film-tips.pdf

Just for kicks, here's a PCB I made with dry film applied with an iron, artwork a single tracing paper laser print coated with a "White Knight Crystal Clear Acrylic" spray can from bunnings, exposed with leds, developed with the assistance of an electric toothbrush in a wood deck cleaner product containing sodium carbonate from the local $2 shop, etched with some completely unscientific cupric chloride ("bit of this, bit of that, eh, I guess looks about right shade of green") heated over an old camp stove in a pyrex dish while being rocked and brushed periodically with a paintbrush, tinned with a solderpaste:flux mix at about 1:3 ratio on my upturned clothes iron and wiped with a dry paper towel, drilled with a 0.9mm bit attached to a DC motor ripped out of some printer running at 24v off a step-up converter powered by a 12v wall wart from the junk bin. Thin traces are about 12mil, a couple of the clearances are that or less where I had to sneak between pads.



On 19/11/13 12:05, Geoff Wood wrote:

New here. I'm Geoff from New Zealand. Have been doing PCBs on and off for maybe 35 years, first by resist-pen, then Bishop Graphics and Riston.


Re: [Homebrew_PCBs] Press'n'Peel problems, and "Hi"

2013-11-19 by Geoff Wood

----- Original Message -----
>From: James
>Fran Blanche has this video where she uses press-n-peel to good effect:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GoCNKzhWVs#t2m20s
> she uses a proper heat press but a flat plate sandwich press would
> probably be just as good if you
> can find an old one on trademe (or a really cheap deal at The Warehouse).

Have decided that I have been unable to get a reliable consistant heat/time
over the board area with my domestic iron. Have purchased a heat-press off
eBay (from oz) for A$150ish. Works out economical for my particular project
in comparison to getting my boards done commercially. And I'll still have it
for future pcb projects, printing T-shirts, or can sell it on.

> Have you tried dry film photoresist? I can send you a few offcut samples
> for free if you
> fancy giving it a try, you can apply it easily with a clothes iron (set to
> about 80 degrees

No, but may give it a try. You could send me a few square inches sample if
you lilke

> Just for kicks, here's a..........

Makes me feel (inadequately !) hi-tech, given your results versus mine !

cheers

geoff