Dammit. PCB printing....

Pens · Post by **Pens** » Fri Apr 06, 2007 6:33 am

Has anyone here done PCB printing with photo paper before? I read about on line that you can use photo paper in place of Press n Peel blue, but I'm trying to print out these board images and they are melting every time in my laser printer. Anyone else done this before?

theshadowofseattle · Post by **theshadowofseattle** » Fri Apr 06, 2007 6:43 am

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Post by **Mike** » Fri Apr 06, 2007 6:48 am

Sorry dude, I've only ever used the pens and a tank on copper sheets (sexy huh?) hope you get it sorted.

Pens · Post by **Pens** » Fri Apr 06, 2007 7:53 am

Fuck it then. I'm going to break down and buy some PnP blue.

euan · Post by **euan** » Fri Apr 06, 2007 8:36 am

Photopaper in a laser printer is a bad idea. Trust me.

Just go with PnP blue

Pens · Post by **Pens** » Fri Apr 06, 2007 4:29 pm

Just put in a second SmallBear order for the PnP blue and a few misc items I forgot about. I considered just trying to iron off the slightly melted photo-paper version to the board and using a sharpie to touch up, but it looks too messy after melting. Plus the lettering of the maker and pedal name are going to be off and I can't have that. Yes, I put text onto the copper boards so they will say what they are on the boards themselves. I need to call my local print shop to find out if they can do decals and how cheap.

I'm just disappointed because I wanted to print boards this weekend so I could show some progess on this. I'm saddened by how long it is taking me to get these all lined up. If I didn't have this problem I could have the boards printed up and shit ready to record by Sunday. I really want to get a finished Boost done so *I* can play with it.

euan · Post by **euan** » Fri Apr 06, 2007 4:36 pm

Again PenPen, photo paper will fuck up you fuser. It's not designed to have toner fused onto it and toner might stay on the fuser giving you some dubious print quality issues.

Pens · Post by **Pens** » Fri Apr 06, 2007 4:38 pm

Why the fuck do all of those PCB print sites tell you to use glossy photo paper then? They bastards!!

EDIT: just tested and at least it doesn't appear to have messed it up yet. Printing is still crisp on normal paper.

Uhh, so if I run PnP Blue through here it isn't going to mess it up, right?

euan · Post by **euan** » Fri Apr 06, 2007 4:46 pm

It's chancy. The reason you can do the whole photopaper thing is because the toner is not properly fusing to the page and can come off easily enough.

You can use laser printers to print on glossy paper, but you usually have to tell the printer to print on it explicitly. Basically a glossy setting will heat up the fuser more and put the paper through slower.

PnP blue is designed for laser printer, it will be fine. I've never done it but I've never heard of any troubles. I've been lucky to make use of a UV box and photosensitive copper boards in the past. The photopaper onto PCB with an iron method always gave me the creeps to avoid it.

EDIT: The photo paper method is chancy, PnP blue isn't

Pens · Post by **Pens** » Fri Apr 06, 2007 5:40 pm

euan wrote:It's chancy. The reason you can do the whole photopaper thing is because the toner is not properly fusing to the page and can come off easily enough.

You can use laser printers to print on glossy paper, but you usually have to tell the printer to print on it explicitly. Basically a glossy setting will heat up the fuser more and put the paper through slower.

PnP blue is designed for laser printer, it will be fine. I've never done it but I've never heard of any troubles. I've been lucky to make use of a UV box and photosensitive copper boards in the past. The photopaper onto PCB with an iron method always gave me the creeps to avoid it.

EDIT: The photo paper method is chancy, PnP blue isn't

Got it. I was just being impatient and didn't want to wait for PnP Blue to arrive by mail, so I tried out the photo paper.

euan · Post by **euan** » Fri Apr 06, 2007 6:01 pm

PnP is the way to go for sure. It seems the most cost effective way to do PCBs. The photosensitive method is the most consistent I've seen, I'm lucky that my father has a small UV box as I say. It was being chucked out at his work and he just acquired it.

They had some of the larger versions too and one of those systems that use bubbles to speed up the reaction and you can etch in seconds rather than over 5 minutes of gentle rocking