Homebrew PCBs

Greetings.
Out of a lack of interesting things to do, I attempted TT 
I tried about 7 different papers I had laying around, and came 
across something that is working really well. Cannon HR-101 High 
resolution inkjet paper, only catch is, it works best if printed on 
the wrong side, as the good side has a plasticy coating, that tends 
to stick to the board as well as the toner. When used backwards, 
it's kind of gripy to the laminator or iron base, but this seems to 
subside rather quickly, a quick dip in cool water, and the plastic 
film peels off in one piece, and the rest of the paper backing 
washes off quite easily. Using a clinky ole IBM 4019 (ebay for $25, 
at 300dpi, I'm printing .016 traces from eagle, and they are coming 
out solid, better than I could ever hope for printing film from this 
printer. I have an Optra R+ with 64M (6X9 at 1200dpi) I usually use 
for film, but I got this ebay deal - for a couple of reasons, It has 
a straight thru manaul feed, I was going to attempt to feed a board 
directly thu- but I'm not going to try that till the toner is near 
gone, way I see it It'll either work, or totally fudge the drum (in 
this case it's in the tonar cartridge and is replaced with a new one 
(like most laser printers) ot all the toner will wind up on the 
fusers brush. 

JT

Hey JT.
  You know, at our comapany, we use paper-thin copper sheets for the 
in-between layers of multi-layer boards.  One night, I got the idea 
of sending one of these through our LaserJet printer.  It didn't 
work at all.  It's not that it didn't make it through, but the toner 
just couldn't stick to the copper.  I think it must have to do with 
the static charging the printer does to the material it is printing 
on to make the toner stick before fusing.  For some reason, metal 
just doesn't work.  Not to get your hopes down, but just thought I'd 
share my results.

-Josh



--- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, "cdaw01" <jt@j...> wrote:
> Greetings.
> Out of a lack of interesting things to do, I attempted TT 
> I tried about 7 different papers I had laying around, and came 
> across something that is working really well. Cannon HR-101 High 
> resolution inkjet paper, only catch is, it works best if printed 
on 
> the wrong side, as the good side has a plasticy coating, that 
tends 
> to stick to the board as well as the toner. When used backwards, 
> it's kind of gripy to the laminator or iron base, but this seems 
to 
> subside rather quickly, a quick dip in cool water, and the plastic 
> film peels off in one piece, and the rest of the paper backing 
> washes off quite easily. Using a clinky ole IBM 4019 (ebay for 
$25, 
> at 300dpi, I'm printing .016 traces from eagle, and they are 
coming 
> out solid, better than I could ever hope for printing film from 
this 
> printer. I have an Optra R+ with 64M (6X9 at 1200dpi) I usually 
use 
> for film, but I got this ebay deal - for a couple of reasons, It 
has 
> a straight thru manaul feed, I was going to attempt to feed a 
board 
> directly thu- but I'm not going to try that till the toner is near 
> gone, way I see it It'll either work, or totally fudge the drum 
(in 
> this case it's in the tonar cartridge and is replaced with a new 
one 

> (like most laser printers) ot all the toner will wind up on the 
> fusers brush. 
> 
> JT

On Mon, 23 Feb 2004 21:54:08 -0000, joshdewinter <joshdewinter@...> 
wrote:

> Hey JT.
>   You know, at our comapany, we use paper-thin copper sheets for the
> in-between layers of multi-layer boards.  One night, I got the idea
> of sending one of these through our LaserJet printer.  It didn't
> work at all.  It's not that it didn't make it through, but the toner
> just couldn't stick to the copper.  I think it must have to do with
> the static charging the printer does to the material it is printing
> on to make the toner stick before fusing.  For some reason, metal
> just doesn't work.  Not to get your hopes down, but just thought I'd
> share my results.
>
> -Josh
>

I think the copper shorts it out...
The process would work in principle, charging the drum, transfering it 
with high voltage,
but you would need to charge the copper. as it moves through the printer 
it touches a lot of metal parts
before and after the area with the corona wire below.

It was mentioned before that the "ancient" flat-bed copiers would maybe 
work but it is impossible to get
such a unit.


would it work to convert a laser printer?
What would be needed? remove the whole transport / lower part and put in a 
flat carrige?
could it even work? isn't it necessary to have the high voltage 
accelerating the toner
to a "line" under the drum? if the whole copper is charged, wouldn't it 
blur?

If it could be done i think it might be a possibility to get more 
resolution.

ST

joshdewinter wrote:

> Hey JT.
>   You know, at our comapany, we use paper-thin copper sheets for the
> in-between layers of multi-layer boards.  One night, I got the idea
> of sending one of these through our LaserJet printer.  It didn't
> work at all.  It's not that it didn't make it through, but the toner
> just couldn't stick to the copper.  I think it must have to do with
> the static charging the printer does to the material it is printing
> on to make the toner stick before fusing.  For some reason, metal
> just doesn't work.  Not to get your hopes down, but just thought I'd
> share my results.
>
> -Josh
>
>
>
> --- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, "cdaw01" <jt@j...> wrote:
> > Greetings.
> > Out of a lack of interesting things to do, I attempted TT
> > I tried about 7 different papers I had laying around, and came
> > across something that is working really well. Cannon HR-101 High
> > resolution inkjet paper, only catch is, it works best if printed
> on
> > the wrong side, as the good side has a plasticy coating, that
> tends
> > to stick to the board as well as the toner. When used backwards,
> > it's kind of gripy to the laminator or iron base, but this seems
> to
> > subside rather quickly, a quick dip in cool water, and the plastic
> > film peels off in one piece, and the rest of the paper backing
> > washes off quite easily. Using a clinky ole IBM 4019 (ebay for
> $25,
> > at 300dpi, I'm printing .016 traces from eagle, and they are
> coming
> > out solid, better than I could ever hope for printing film from
> this
> > printer. I have an Optra R+ with 64M (6X9 at 1200dpi) I usually
> use
> > for film, but I got this ebay deal - for a couple of reasons, It
> has
> > a straight thru manaul feed, I was going to attempt to feed a
> board
> > directly thu- but I'm not going to try that till the toner is near
> > gone, way I see it It'll either work, or totally fudge the drum
> (in
> > this case it's in the tonar cartridge and is replaced with a new
> one
> > (like most laser printers) ot all the toner will wind up on the
> > fusers brush.
> >
> > JT
>
>
>
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>
>
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>
> most laser printers xfer the image, toner, from a drum or photo roller 
> by puting a high voltage charge on one side of the paper and "sucking" 
> the image from the drum thru the air to the paper.  The paper just 
> keeps the toner from reaching the corona wire where the high voltage 
> is.  Your sheet of copper just killed the charge.