PCB Toner transfer?

I have a HP LASER JET 1018 that the toner is running out. I see staples and the regular chains sell replacements for in excess of $100.00. That is more then what I paid for the printer $48.00.

I was wondering if anybody tried any of these discount toners like this.

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This is only $25.00.

If they have does it still work are do they use some kind of sub standard toner and the process wont work with the cheap toner? I know people report problems with some of the brother printers is this because of the toner or the printer.

Reply to
Hammy
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I've yet to encounter a problem with cheaper toner cartridges in my Brother laser printer.

I also used "remanufactured" cartridges in my HP LJ III until it died of old age.

John

Reply to
news

My printing needs are light and I don't use third-party toners, but I know several people who use them regularly. Some are very good and others are acceptable. Some of them also buy the toner powder and refill the cartridges themselves. Output quality varies but, as with inkjet refills, it's usually quite good as long as care and common sense are applied. (I've done it myself once). The cost comes to the equivalent of about $3-5 US per cartridge.

Reply to
pimpom

Thanks for the input.

For $25 bucks I'll give it a try. I'll get some ink for my Cannon printer too. Cartridges there are only $6 for all 4 colors.

Reply to
Hammy

Just an update.

The cheap toner does work. I used it so far to do a multiple output

10W flyback. There doesnt seem to be any quality difference in the toner. Traces to 8mil with a TPS40210 in a 10 pin power pad MSOP.

So anyone else using a 1018 for PCB toner transfer method save yourself a couple of bucks.

Reply to
Hammy

Somehow I missed the "PCB" part in the subject line earlier. I did notice the "toner transfer" part and at first thought that it was for transferring PCB art work to Cu-clad board. But when there was no mention of PCBs in the message body, I thought you were talking about general printing jobs on paper and the "transfer" in the subject line was just a poor choice of expression for changing the toner cartridge. No, I wasn't drunk. :-)

Anyway, can you tell me what medium you use for printing? Are special media specifically meant for transfer to PCBs common nowadays? I ask because I use the toner transfer method from time to time, but in the remote location where I live, I'm having a hard time getting suitable media consistently.

Reply to
pimpom

I've been using staples "Photo Glossy Paper" item#471861. I've heard people have used magazine paper but I stick with what I know works.

I get thirty sheets for about ten bucks; multiple PCB's can fit on one piece for me anyway's, most of my PCB's are as small as I can get them. The flyback I just did is 1.8" x 2.9".

Reply to
Hammy

This is the good stuff:

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My first efforts were with clay-covered paper (the glossy stuff, like magazine pages). I got advertising flyers in the mail that were blank on one side and I used those. Tom Gootee's page on this is an old standard:

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Soaking the paper thoroughly in warm water is what makes it easy to get off. Soaking it again if it isn't all coming off is the trick.

An old thread on this:

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Reply to
JeffM

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I had good success using the backing sheet from Avery Labels (after I used the labels). I used transparent tape to tape the backing sheet to a sheet of plain copy paper so it would feed through the printer. Temperature and pressure of the iron used for transfer to copper are the hardest parts of the process to get right. The label backing sheet seems to need less heat and pressure than photo paper. The Press'n'Peel sheets also make sharp images.

Ken Fowler, KO6NO

Reply to
Ken Fowler

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Inkjet glossy Photo paper!., Print on the glossy side. Iron on. Its water soluble.

Works a treat for prototyping or single unit/home project.

Reply to
Jamie

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The only PITA I find is getting that last thin transparent when wet coat of paper off. The link JeffM posted has a possible solution I'll try next time.

Alan said

Reply to
Hammy

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I've experimented on and off with release paper too, either peeled off the back of sticker paper or bought separately from local silkscreen printing shops. The advantage of using such non-stick (teflon coated?) material is that it peels off cleanly after ironing. But, as you implied, it's too slippery to feed into a printer by itself.

The release paper backing of some sticker papers are also non-stick on the back side and I've used those without peeling off the front (normal paper) side, with limited success. They go in, but are still too slippery to feed to the exit rollers reliably in my LJ1020 printer.

I've also tried hard glossy paper and they transfer well but, as a lot of people will undoubtedly have experienced, getting it all off again can be a real pain.

Reply to
pimpom

That sound like it's worth trying. MS Word prints a blank page without protesting or the need to put a dot somewhere, at least with my LJ1020 printer.

Reply to
pimpom

I've used several types of glossy paper and the transfer goes well with most of them, but removing the paper is the PITA.

Your use of the term "clay-covered" (I didn't know they are called that) reminds me of something. I once bought a blank sheet of sticker paper from a small local stationery shop with the intention of using the release paper backing for toner transfer. On close examination, the surface looked different from other glossy types. It was smooth and somewhat glossy, but there seemed to be a surface coating that somehow looked as if it was not very tightly bound to the paper substrate.

I tried it and it worked very well. The paper came off much more easily after ironing than with other types, and there's no feed problem as with teflon-coated paper. I exclaimed a silent 'Eureka!'. But alas, I bought just that one sheet and the shop had disposed of the few sample sheets they had. They said that they have no intention of stocking that type again as there's very little demand for it.

Reply to
pimpom

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