Introduction: Toner Transfer Walkthrough
This is a very boring video with no soundtrack and no narration. I really should remove this. Sigh.
CAUTION: the rubber rollers are heated by strong heating elements coursing with mains electricity. If you put a copper board in there, you're in close proximity to mains electricity. Especially if the board has any water droplets still on it from being washed, this can give electricity a pathway to get between the heaters and the rollers. So always DRY THE BOARD THOROUGHLY before putting it into the laminator. Always WEAR RUBBER SOLED SHOES while putting a copper board into a laminator. Make sure you are standing on DRY GROUND.
Toner used is third party. Brother toner does not work.
The tank I'm using is not heated, temp of approx 70F.
Etchant is a mix of ferric and cupric chloride.
Laminator is a stock GBC Creative Personal 9" Laminator, which I purchased for <$25.00, including shipping.
The board in the vid is 0.032" thick, single-sided, 1 oz pour. Since doing this vid, I've found out that it works much better if you shoot the board with a heat gun while it's going through. Also, this specific laminator cannot handle 0.06" boards for very long, before the gears start slipping. The board is too thick. You can take it apart and enlarge the holes for the top roller, and this will allow the use of full thickness boards.
11 Comments
10 years ago on Introduction
Why do you use a magazine page and not just a plain white paper sheet? Thanks.
Reply 10 years ago on Introduction
Color magazine paper is coated with clay. It helps the toner to come away from the paper without lifting from the board or leaving stray hairs.
But if you are doing any type of quantity, small traces, or large size boards, I highly recommend Pulsar dextrin coated paper. It seems like a cop-out to buy this stuff when mag paper works reasonably well, but it really does save a lot of time and effort.
12 years ago on Introduction
I also use a laminator, but I modified mine to increase the temperature so the board only needs to go through once.
Reply 12 years ago on Introduction
Nice. I guess you changed the resistor ladder on the comparator on the control board?
I removed the cover on mine and shoot the larger boards with a 1200W heat gun as they're going through. But the heat gun trick wouldn't work so well with double-sided boards!
Reply 12 years ago on Introduction
I used the instructions here: http://ultrakeet.com.au/index.php?id=article&name=superfuser
Just need to put an 8.2K Ohm resistor in series with the Thermistor.
12 years ago on Introduction
What is that wand thingie you're using to hold the board in the tank?
Reply 12 years ago on Introduction
It's amazing what you can make with some strips of plexiglass, some solvent, and a torch. Isn't it? Actually, the head of the wand is attached with hotmelt glue, so it can flex without cracking the stem. Then the stem is solvent welded to the top/hanger bit. BTW, I finally got hold of some IPS Weld-on #4, and it's 1000% better than acetone for welding plexi. But everything at the time of this vid was welded with plain acetone.
13 years ago on Introduction
where do you get that elbow grease from?
Reply 13 years ago on Introduction
The elbow grease was created here. It would be cheaper to import it from China, but I like to actually make stuff, myself. :)
13 years ago on Introduction
Where did you get that yellow-red plastic box for the acid jacuzzi? It looks bloody convenient.
Reply 13 years ago on Introduction
I made this tank from1/8" plexiglass.
dimensions are 11"x11"x1"
Seams are solvent welded with acetone.
Mine currently holds about 1.25L with room for probably up to a comfortable 1.6-1.7L.
It IS bloody convenient.
It would be much more convenient to just buy a tank, though. I've done a lot of searching, and one of the best bets for a cheap, leak proof tank approximately this size, seems to be the Tupperware 5L Super Oval. The main downside would be that it requires about 2-3x as much etchant for roughly the same max board size. Dimensions are 10" wide, 2.75" deep, and 11" tall. I've got one on standby, in case my plexi tank doesn't hold up to the test of time. (It's going on 2 weeks now, leak-free, with etchant stored in it 24/7.)