20 May 2013 18:04
[EE] Toner transfer weirdness
Bob Blick <bobblick <at> ftml.net>
2013-05-20 16:04:01 GMT
2013-05-20 16:04:01 GMT
I don't make PC boards at home very often, but when I do it's usually something simple and I'll do toner transfer with my laser printer. The method I've had the best luck with is to print onto a piece of slippery backing paper from labels. I'll tape(using an address label) a board-plus-size piece of slippery paper to the appropriate place on a sheet of regular paper and run it through the printer. But I got a new used laser printer and wow, did it not work! It looks like the toner did not deposit on the slippery paper at all, stayed on the roller another revolution, and deposited a few inches further down the sheet. I then tried the same process but substituted thin paper from a TIME or Newsweek magazine. Still taping it to a regular piece of paper by the leading edge. This time it printed on the thin paper, strong at the leading edge but weaker further down. I tried again, this time cutting a "window" in the plain paper behind the transfer paper. It worked great. My working hypothesis is that the transfer charge was getting blocked. Anyway, for those who do toner transfer, you might try the "window" method and see if you get better transfer. Cheerful regards,(Continue reading)
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