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| Thread ID: 120700 | 2011-09-21 12:06:00 | Question about what laser printer for PCB production? | braindead (1685) | PC World Chat |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 1232707 | 2011-09-21 12:06:00 | Hi all, Has anyone here used the toner-heat-transfer method of applying laser printer toner to PCB boards, ready for etching? I'm wondering what type and brand of laser printer I would need for doing low quantity PCBs. There's a heap of laser printers here (www.elive.co.nz), ranging in price from $67 to $4500. I'd prefer to stay in the lower price range :) Any suggestion much appreciated! |
braindead (1685) | ||
| 1232708 | 2011-09-21 21:40:00 | Yep, I do :) I have a Lexmark T522 ($35 on TradeMe) which works great. Black and white (You could probably use colour but why pay for that, unless you already had one?) Apparently it should be able to to do 600 dpi at least, as for 300 dpi printers, some thinner traces may not come out properly because they are not a multiple of the dpi value (or so I hear) - anyway my Lexmark seems to go up to 1200 dpi so no problem there! I wouldn't actually recommend the T522, though, as while it gives nice results, the toner cartridges are quite expensive. Definitely take that into account. Laser printers aren't cheap at the best of times. Another thing - most toner (for old\current printers) melts around 170 degrees C - but some of the newer printers (especially Brother) require something higher, around 210 degrees C which makes it harder to use them for the toner-transfer method (though not impossible) For transfer to the PCB, I use a laminator at 170 degrees (as you've no doubt seen on my Flickr page) Some people seem to dump the entire idea of having their own printer, prefering to take a printout, or PDF etc to a copyshop and get it printed\copied for them. Saves on having to buy, feed and care for a laser printer of your own. Just don't expect them to accept weird paper types like old magazine pages! Of course if you can find some photo-paper that works well, or buy some Pulsar Pro FX stuff you'll be fine. |
Agent_24 (57) | ||
| 1232709 | 2011-09-21 23:37:00 | Thanks for coming to the rescue once again Agent_24 :) Great info - much appreciated! |
braindead (1685) | ||
| 1232710 | 2011-09-22 00:06:00 | No worries - by the way, a lot of laser printers can't handle large solid fills (like ground planes etc) very well (you may already know this) To solve that problem, you could make the planes an outline etc instead, and fill it in after transfer with a Dalo pen or similar - packing tape is apparently quite good too for even larger areas. |
Agent_24 (57) | ||
| 1232711 | 2011-09-22 00:16:00 | I didn't know that. You're a goldmine of the useful-to-know Agent_24. | braindead (1685) | ||
| 1232712 | 2011-09-22 21:36:00 | For the benefit of others interested in this toner transfer technique, more info, links and vids can be found HERE (www.eevblog.com) | braindead (1685) | ||
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