Electronics > Projects, Designs, and Technical Stuff

Toner Transfer

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Gandalf_Sr:
I have used pcbway in China, I've had great results and very low pricing.  Messing around with toner is not even worth the effort these days.

I use (a fully licensed version of) Diptrace for all my designs.

cdev:
I use used glossy paper.

Its the cheapest paper imaginable, you know the ads they send you in the mail? the really thin sheets of paper totally printed with color ads. Its glossy and thin and free. It works great. It comes off well, with a little gentle rubbing.


--- Quote from: KL27x on January 15, 2019, 03:00:56 am ---*unless you are one of those guys that stumbled upon the mythical legendary Photo Paper. The one that they changed the fomula of and/or discontinued by the time you posted about how great it is. :)

--- End quote ---

KL27x:
^I tried several photo papers. Some said it was the glossy that worked, some said it had to be matte. I dunno. I spent $60.00 on photo paper and gave up.

Prior to switching to PnP, and ultimately to Pulsar, glossy clay-coated magazine paper was the best transfer medium I have used. But for me it's worth the cost to buy the Pulsar.

You can use more heat than with regular printer paper, but if you get it too hot, the glossy magazine paper does eventually stick and turn your pcb into a chia pet. And it suffers greater dimensional distortion when it heats up and dries out. So on anything larger than a couple square inches, my thru holes and vias never lined up quite right. But it works really well, if you want to try toner transfer for free. It has some advantages over PnP, even. Just nothing on Pulsar.

When I buy Pulsar, it's not the cost of the paper I see. It's the amount of time and effort it will take to use up that paper. The donuts don't make themselves.

Gandalf_Sr:
I used to do cheap inkjet photo paper used in laser printer.  Now I see the cost of all the materials plus the massive amount of time involved as a complete waste of money and time.  Learn to use Diptrace and just have the PCBs made.  My first quote for 25 boards from PCBway was so low that I had to check with them whether the price they quoted was for 1 or 25 PCBs, the answer was 25.

AE7OO:
Hello,

I use the cold method of Toner Transfer and have had zero problems getting 10/10 (I can do 8/8 for single sided with a ground plane) boards made once I worked out the various ratios to use for my transfer liquid.  I've got three marked cups I use to mix it up, 1 for acetone, and 2 for alcohol, one for cheap 50% dollar store stuff and the other for the better 91% stuff.   It's mixed about 8 to 3 alcohol to acetone using the 91% stuff.
On the printer side I use a Brother HL-L2305 using stock toner printing onto FedEx/Kinko's Glossy paper using the darker print unless I've got to print at 1200 for the finer stuff.
I clean the board using a fine grain sanding block and then do a wipe down using acetone.
I pour the transfer liquid down, apply the diagram, smooth down and clamp between two old PCBs for about 5 min, release the pressure and allow to air dry.  If I'm making a double sided board I make sure I've got at least two ref holes.  I then plop the board into a tray with water and wait for separation.  I'll then clean the board using alcohol.
I then bake it  for about 30 min at 125C and let cool in the oven(This is a toaster oven I also use for SMD work).  This takes care of it being porous.  Then I etch using HCL/H2O2.  I don't use fuming HCL, but rather the muratic acid meant to change PH in pools.  It may take longer but it is quite mild.
Then clean with acetone and drill any holes needed.  I use leads from old resistors for my through hole, with flux I can get solder into holes.

I've done many boards for STM32 mcu including 32, 48 and 64 pin types with nary a problem.  The board I had the biggest problem getting right was for a Nordic Semi nrf24L01+ which really pushed the size down.
 
In less than a hour I've got prototype boards to confirm design params.  Maybe your good enough to create a perfect board every time, but I know I'm not.  More than once I've ended up doing 2 or 3 boards before I get it right.  Then if I need more than one or two I'll send it off knowing it will work when I get back.

GB

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