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About a toner transfer technique

After years of using the iron-on technique to make prototype and one-off PCBs, I decided to try another method I found in a YouTube video that doesn't involve heat -

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The essential part is from 00:40 to 5:00.

It works fine and I got a near-perfect result the first time - better in fact than I expected on a first attempt. But a couple of things puzzled me:

  1. I tried it by printing the pattern directly on glossy paper and it worked very well. Why does the author find it necessary to use a two-step process to transfer the laser printout to a glossy magazine paper before applying it to the copper-clad board? I find it hard to believe that his software doesn't have mirror printing.

  1. *After* success with the direct glossy print, I tried to transfer the laser print-out to glossy paper as shown in the video. It doesn't work at all. Not even a trace of toner stuck onto the glossy.

Reply to
Pimpom
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Never mind. A further search revealed that few, if any, others use the two-step approach to transferring the pattern onto glossy paper.

Reply to
Pimpom

He doesn't. He prints first on photocopier paper to find out where opn the page the image will be, then tapes glossy paper over it and prints again. If his printer would just take a full sheet of glossy with no problem I'm sure he'd do that instead.

That's not what he needs, and not why he prints twice.

He transfers the second image printed on tho the bit of glossy directly onto the copper. The original print is never used or transferred anywhere.

CH

Reply to
Clifford Heath

Ah, I get it. Somehow I failed to notice the print on the glossy when it came out of the printer.

Reply to
Pimpom

Remove all of the intermediate crap; print directly onto the PCB...

Reply to
Robert Baer

With a home laser printer? How?

Reply to
Pimpom

Using the envelope mode. It's been tried, and doesn't work; can't get enough heat into it to fuse the toner, and it wrecks the drum. But Baer is a specialist in breaking computer equipment.

Reply to
Clifford Heath

Besides, most (all?) inexpensive laser printers do not have a straight-through paper path, making it impossible to print on a rigid board.

I've heard that some people modify an inkjet printer for printing on a rigid plate, but I wonder if the ink is waterproof enough for etching. And it must be hard on the print heads. Perhaps a plotter could work.

Reply to
Pimpom

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