Heatless (cold) Toner Transfer for PCB Making

Intro: Heatless (cold) Toner Transfer for PCB Making

Toner transfer method for making PC boards is very practical and economical. The use of heat for the transferring is not. Large boards expand with heat (more than the laser print) and heat is applied to the top of the toner and not to the bottom contacting the copper layer. Too much heat melts and deforms the toner, too little heat and it won't adhere uniformly. In this Instructable I will describe a very simple technique I've been using for over 15 years. It is very fail-proof and involves the use of only 2 common chemicals : Ethyl Alcohol and Acetone. You can replace the Acetone with Toluene or Xylene, but you will have to experiment with the proportions.

STEP 1: Toner Is Inert to Alcohol

Alcohol is volatile but neutral to toner or paper. Its purpose is to dilute the Acetone.

STEP 2: Acetone Reacts With Toner

Acetone, (pure, not nail-polish remover) dissolves the toner immediately.

STEP 3: The Formula

Experimentally I found the best alcohol-acetone proportion is 8:3 (8 volumes alcohol + 3 volumes Acetone) Acetone will "soften" the toner just enough to make it "sticky" but not dissolve or blur.

STEP 4: Storage

You can store the preparation for a very long time but the container must be absolutely airtight. Acetone is much more volatile than Alcohol so exposing to air will degrade acetone concentration. The container should also survive the action of acetone. If plastic, it should be HDPE (high density polyethilene, often used in kitchenware)

STEP 5: Cleaning

This step is the same you would do for any other toner tranfer method.

STEP 6: Procedure

Pour the solution on the board (not on the print) and quickly spread to cover all its surface (quick!, acetone is volatilizing). Place the print on the board and center it in place without pushing down. Now press gently down, fully contacting the solution. Wait 5-10 seconds before finally pressing down to adhere to board (only perpendicular pressure). During those seconds, acetone is reacting with the toner rendering it "sticky". Use some kitchen paper to spread pressure evenly and absorb excess liquid. Let dry, and dip in water.

STEP 7: Release the Paper

After a few minutes (don't be anxious) peel the paper off starting from a corner. There should not be any toner on the paper. Rinse the board in water to remove any remaining paper particles.

STEP 8: Etching

STEP 9: Large Boards

For larger boards, I place board and print between two blocks of wood and press together with a C-Clamp. Place a layer or two of kitchen paper between print and wood to distribute pressure and allow for evaporation.

STEP 10: For More Details, Watch the Video. Thank You

Comments

[ew4cm]

Hello. I always have 100% result. I use HP LaserJet 1100 and a colored glossy melted paper from a children's shop. I do not use alcohol, but I use the domestic solvent 647. It does not have acetone, and there is ethylacetate, butanol, toluol and butylacetate. The fee is purified by powder for dishes. After drying, I do copper surface roughness for better adhesion with toner. I put a fee up with copper and pour the solvent 647, then quickly grabs the paper down. Paper is quickly absorbed by solvent. I take a rubber cushion and kick out the air bubbles and an extra solvent from under paper and squeeze the clamp sandwich for 20 minutes. Then I get the sandwich again and dry it in the air until the smell of the solvent disappears. Then I wobble the paper with water until the toner is visible through it. I'm just pulling it off the board, and easily. On the copper surface remains all (!) toner and thin layer of chalk. Then I use the kitchen sponge and layer of Mela easily rejects. Toner's going to get to copper and I don't worry for him. Copper injury : 100ml. hydrogen peroxide, 30gr. lemon acid and 5gr. kitchen salt. That’s all ! Thanks for your attention. With respect, EW4CM(ex.UC2ICM) Good luck !

[batchit]

I realise this is a slightly old thread, but I was wondering if anyone can tell me if when printing out the image does it have to be mirrored or just normal. Thanks

[schuylergrace]

The more I thought about this, the more I realized you may be doing something different with your circuit boards than I do. But whatever you see printed on the paper will be reversed when it goes down on the copper clad board. If you design circuit boards from the top down and use surface mount components, you'll need to flip the circuit board image before applying it to the board. The same goes if you are drawing the bottom of the board for through-hole components looking at the drawing from the bottom side of the circuit board. If you are printing the board layout for a through hole board as if you were looking from the top (component side) through the board to the circuit side, the print will already be correct. I hope that isn't too confusing. I usually make a test print to make sure I've got it the right way around. Once you've done a few, it gets to be second nature.

[schuylergrace]

Yes, it has to be mirrored. If you hold the paper with the printed image up to the light with the image on the side of the paper toward the light, it should read correctly looking through the paper. After you get done transferring the image to the copper clad board, you will be looking at the part of the toner what was formerly adhered to the paper, and the face of the toner will be stuck to the copper board.

[elshiftos]

This is great, and it has given me something to experiment with whilst off work during lock down. After many trial and error tests, I think I now have consistent results!

I purchased isopropyl and acetone from ebay, both listed as being 99.9% pure. Mixed in a ratio of 2 parts isopropyl to 1 part acetone using a graduated syringe. Store in an airtight jar and remove the lid only for a few seconds at a time.

Printed on the UK's 'Which' magazine using an old HP 1018 laserjet. Note that the covers won't work, you need to use the inner pages.

Need to work quickly from here, so make sure everything is laid out on the bench close to hand.
Use the syringe to squirt the mix onto the board, lay the printout on top, lay a padded block on top of that and clamp down with a g-clamp or similar. For a padded block I used a piece of MDF wrapped in a kitchen towel.
Leave for 10 minutes, unclamp, allow to dry and then into the water. Be patient and allow to soak for at least 30 mins.

I started off using hand pressure to hold the block down for about 30 seconds but found that the toner didn't transfer reliably - an even clamping surface is definitely the way.

If the toner transfers but appears to spread or creep, try adding more isopropyl to the mix, keeping a note of the ratio as you go - the graduate syringe is great for this.

Thanks!

Edit no.2:
After many failed attempts I was about to give up with this method, until I came across a couple of things that have worked in giving fairly good and consistent results.
-Maybe it's the type of toner I don't know, but sanding the copper with a 400-800 grit abrasive first really helps with toner adhesion.
-The clamp is very important in getting even adhesion. I have started using a block of MDF with a sheet of slightly squishy foam rubber stuck to it, and lots of pressure with the G-clamp.
-2 parts isopropyl to 1 part acetone (both 99.9% pure) is the magic ratio for me!

[Webfangler]

Hi :-) .. I’m a glass engraver looking for a method of transferring template images to glass. This method looks promising. Has anyone tried this on glass?

[Hacro]

I would make a transparant poly carbonate isolating shield for a PCB with some text at the backside. Heat transfer did melt the PC so this excellent solvent method came in.
I tried with 8 parts ethanol 95% and 3 parts aceton. NOP, the toner did not solve at all. With pure aceton it did, but blurred out. Now I use 1 part ethanol to 6 part of aceton. It works.
As for the use of the laser printer: I have a HP MFP 177 mf. In standard printing the black is not good. But I can set the color to VIVIDsRGB and the paper to glossy 120 gram (the HP paper I use). Than the black is thick also in large area's.

[Fairnews]

Hello, where can I get ACETONE Pure ? Does it remove the Adhesive on Paper without damaging the image on the paper and without damaging the quality of paper

Thanks,

Shashikant S

[Velvetblaze]

I made it! It required some fine tuning though. I used 70% ethyl rubbing alcohol and 100% acetone I found at CVS pharmacy here in the states.

I tried once following the instructions exactly with an 8 to 3 alcohol to acetone ratio but there were some parts of the toner that did not transfer. I hypothesized that was because of variations in toner composition and variations in porosity of the glossy photo paper used. Also, I thought that maybe the acetone-alcohol mixture did not react completely with the toner during the " put it on the plate but don't press down/ get the toner sticky phase"

So, I changed the ratio to 7 parts alcohol and 4 parts acetone. Then, i poured the acetone-alcohol mixture over and completely covered the paper with my toner design ( as it was sitting face/design up next to my metal) and let it sit for about a minute to give it more time to react with the toner and get it sticky. Then I pressed it on the metal. The toner transferred completely and the paper came right off in the water wash bath, although some paper did stick on to the toner and that is why it looks white. I am hoping that using a different ( hopefully a little less porous glossy photo paper will result in a cleaner transfer )

[BhupendraS22]

Why mixing with alcohol is required? I am trying with only acetone but toner is not transferring to copper clad completely.

[NagyV]

Perfect work! :) Thank you. Im used the 8/3 mix as well and it worked for me. "100% Aceton" and 96% Methyl Alcohol (it was a nightmare to get some in urope without recipe -.- but not impossible). On the pictures is my first try and its completely fine (need to experience it

how strong i have to pust the paper, but...hey :D its ok.)

[mduvigneaud]

I think the toner in my printer (I'm using a Brother HL-1440) must be a
little bit different. I've tried 8 times using different ratios of
acetone and ethanol and a few different types of paper and have gotten
0% toner transfer (+/- 0%, looking under a 120x power microscope). I
just refilled an old toner cartridge with a different brand of toner and
I'll try that. Using the hot transfer process I've had about 70 to 90%
transfer using the same toner (meaning it's still 100% failure!)
Hopefully I'll get one of these processes down soon. :)

[doski90z]

Amazing one

[CostantinoC]

Hello
Congratulations to the semplicity !
I would like to find on the Web a site with drawings of various printed circuits but I found
little stuff (hi-fi). Can you please help me ?
Thanks a lot

Costantino

[AvoR1]

I did this to improve the results:

#1 Make the printer output more toner (thicker layer) on the paper (making black really black) by setting max contrast and min brightness in the printer settings in Windows. That prevented the etchant getting through the toner layer.
#2 I use MEK thinner in ratio of 60% alcohol and 40% MEK. The more MEK, the faster I have to work, because toner will get spongy really fast.
#3 Running the water directly on/through the paper also seemed to help better separate the toner from the paper. And the glossy laser paper is absolutely necessary. If you use regular white copy paper, the toner won't come off the paper properly and gets caught in the pores of the paper.

[ajayre]

I'm pulling my hair out with this. I have tried different ratios, different types of paper, pressing with hands, pressing with clamps, soaking for different lengths of time, etc. and the result is always the same. The toner has patches where it flakes off and also once the paper has been removed the toner turns white and the copper gets a white deposit on it that I can't remove unless I scratch it, but then I risk damaging the very fragile toner.

[haq3013]

This solution work great for me although it take some time to master.

[andrea biffi]

I will try that for sure! Thanks!

[charliemyers]

This system works for me consistently! I make a sandwich of: wooden block, 1/2" foam rubber, copper clad board, acetone mix, circuit printed on magazine paper, paper towel, another 1/2" foam rubber, wooden block on top. Compress it together with enough clamps to distribute the pressure evenly, and wait a couple hours.

After removing the clamp, let the board sit until the paper no longer smells like acetone. Soak it in soapy water for a couple hours and the paper almost falls off by itself. PERFECT results each time so far for me. I'm not in that big of a hurry, so the extra clamp & soaking time doesn't bother me. But 100% success is well worth the wait! Better than under 10% success using the iron on method.

[pjs2020]

I tried this will great transfer results but bad etching results. For the transfer I did everything as instructed except used 99% isopropyl alcohol. I did the transfer twice using a Brother laser printer on glossy paper and both times it looked perfect on the board. I was very excited by this, but when I etched it, using 3 parts hydrogen peroxide + 1 part muriatic acid, like 30% of the copper under the toner was evenly removed as well. I've done it 100s of times with the hot iron and same etching solution with perfect results, but with this I can't seem to get the same final result.