PCBs without a printer

[retrojim]

You should use the paper I recommended here.
http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=104307.0

I also had awful results until I saw this post and ordered some of this paper. It works great. I iron it until I can see all the traces through the back of the paper and then soak it for some time in cold water to get it to release. I also found preheating the copper clad with the iron a little bit before I put down the paper seems to help.

One final tip: with my laser printer anyway, I found that the farther out to the edges of the paper I print the worse transfer I get so I try to use the center of the paper not the edges. That HP paper is so cheap the 300 sheets I bought will last me a very long time.

--Jim

[bloxstompboxes]

Where the hell am I gonna get a laminator in 2015?

Uh, wal-mart, or ebay. I'm sure there are many other places like office supply stores.

[greaser_au]

Funny how a rather nasty kludge has become everybody's standard method, I blame the proliferation of cheap, good quality laser printers!!!!   

I'm currently trying my first toner transfer onto a piece of sheet aluminium to etch a pattern on a vane to repair a windchime for She Who Must Be Obeyed. All the negatives: using a brother laser printer AND regular copy paper. Still trying to get the magic to a point where this will work for PCBs (though I have an old IBM printer to dig out of my museum & I'm getting some glossy paper to test),  but in this case the pattern is not fine (a kanji and some largish lettering), so the incomplete transfer with pinholes will do the job, with the help of a fat texta (sharpie) and some electrical tape*. I hope she likes it!!!

david

*All those years ago I used electrical tape to mask the non-etch side when making double sided boards, until I was game enough to lay out both sides with the texta and do the etch it all at once!