toner transfer rant/questions...

[nightingale]

hello all~
my last 4 or 5 toner transfers have turned out really weak... i clean/prep the board the same way i always have... using steel wool>then mineral spirits... and my iron technique has worked perfectly in the past, but i have ended up using the sharpie to "retrace" all of thge traces... and have wasted a few blanks of baord(small bear kind)...

i am using a brother laser printer(1440) that i purchased for this reason alone... but the results are questionable... i populated a kay trem board the other night to find that it was worthless, a wasted of parts! is there a printer setting, or toner type/brand that might help me here?

i am seriously thinking about having express pcb make my boards, or even going back to perf.... i'm pretty frusterated, sorry for the rant!
best,
~ryanS

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

I don't know about that particular printer, but some printers have an 'economy' mode, and you don't want to use that.

[Peter Snowberg]

I might be a really bad one to listen to about this, but I've been so happy having a board house do my fabricating that I'll probably never etch another PCB again..... ever.

If you can fit your layout into a 2.5 by 1.8 inch space, you can leave 0.2 between the layouts, get an ExpressPCB proto run, cut the boards in half, build your circuit, and sell off the remaining 5 PCBs for $15 a piece which covers the whole PCB run and postage for the 5 you ship elsewhere.

You get a great quailty result, boards work 100% of the time (provided your layout is good), plated throughs, and ground plane to boot if you like.

Laser printers are great things none the less, but you just can't beat the quality of the boards you get from a pro shop.

Take care,
-Peter

[zener]

I've never used a laser printer for this. I have a transparency paper (they call it here acetate) and have it printed in a copying machine (like a photocopy).

Just take your time in ironing. Sometimes, it takes time. I set mine at 3 for silk. Be gentle, not pressing too much.

Good luck.

Zener

[ErikMiller]

Search for the "Press-n-Pray" thread. Joe Davisson's advice to me was very helpful.

[nightingale]

yeah~
i always use the technique Joe described in the other thread(prees"n"pray)... and i have had great results in the past... it just seems that the brother 1440 printer i bought is not capable of making a decent PCB transfer... unless i am missing something...e.g an "economy" mode for the toner... i'm just sort of bummed cause i really like designing original layouts, and the simple wiring of the boards... and all of the projects on my plate have chips, and are bigger modulation type circuits that would be quite hellish to conquer on perf... i get back home tonight! i'm gonna give another go!
thanks,
~ryanS