Ad blocker detected: Our website is made possible by displaying online advertisements to our visitors. Please consider supporting us by disabling your ad blocker on our website.
crusty wrote:Just a heads-up. Poundland sell 5m rolls of 500mm wide sticky-back plastic, the backing paper makes excellent toner transfer paper. Laser printer friendly. After ironing the toner on the copper cool and refrigerate for 30 mins, the paper lifts partly by itself and peels without soaking. Cheap as chips and transfers with less ironing than gloss paper. Just modded a Texet laminator, also good results.
Was this the Texet A4 laminator that sells for about £10 - £12 to take up to 160 micron pouches? What thickness PCB do you manage to get through it? Was the mod to change it's operating temperature? I know this is an old post, hope you see this.
Yes Steve, standard £10 laminator from WH Smiths. There's 2 thermal switches mounted inside, I changed the lower value of the two for a higher one from eBay (think it was 190oC, not 100% sure as its rolled off my eBay purchase history), and removed the thermal fuse. Only other modification was snapping the plastic skirt off the exit side as it had a tendancy to snag. Use 1.6mm FR4 with no problems so far. Does get a bit toasty, no sign of melted cogs, but wouldn't leave it unattended.
demir83 wrote:Your board looks good. It looks pretty huge in the picture, could you tell me the dimension of the board? The board looks great, you said one of the cap was shorted. Were you able to fix the problem? You have capacitors on the board, what is the application of this type of board? http://www.7pcbassembly.com/prototype-PCB-assembly.php
That was an excellent troll!
I had a look at your link (which was a blatant advert) and your prices are ridiculous.
There are Uk based sellers that can match your prices.
Still, it WAS an excellent troll.
TRON wrote:That was an excellent troll!
I had a look at your link (which was a blatant advert) and your prices are ridiculous.
There are Uk based sellers that can match your prices.
Still, it WAS an excellent troll.
My first ever attempts at PCB making was as a schoolkid back in the early 70's. None ot the modern stuff then, it was either rub down transfer, or thin tape. I remember making a sound to light from a magazine, the PCB pattern was in the mag, i placed the page onto the copper board with a piece of carbon paper in between and traced the pattern onto the board. Then i put a layer of sellotape onto the board over the traced pattern and with a scalpel, cut away the bits i didnt want etching. Then with nail varnish remover i painted the exposed copper and then removed the rest of the sellotape and etched. A simple board usually took all night!!
Ive been through the laser printer route, and managed to permanently bond card to PCB, ive tried the iron on blue stuff, and left big smudges, although the backing paper from the self adhesive vinyl sounds interesting.
In the end, i built a homebrew PCB milling machine, and with a little practice i can turn out some pretty decent boards in minutes with no chemicals or messing around.
Now ive got it down to a fine art. I can take a PCB pattern from a magazine, scan it and be milling a PCB in less then 10 mins. The whole set up cost me less then £70
Sure, thats not a problem, but im away until early part of next week. I can post either the mods to a Proxxon MF70 micro mill or a ground up home brewed MDF mill that works well.
As i said, it was done on a budget the first one, and the most expensive part was a second hand Dremil style drill. I recently discovered some small steppers with a gearbox attached, complete with the driver circuit board for £1.52 each.
Maybe if there is enough interest, it may be worth the effort kicking off a proper topic on this, i did do this on another site and dozens of CNC's were built from the thread..!
For those of you interested, ive started a topic on CNC PCB making and how to make your own CNC, if there is enough interest, i may post a full series of 'how to's' i posted on another site and make your own CNC.
Basil wrote:All done, I used some PVC tape and it worked OK, one "island" has slight feathering on one edge, but very minor. I'll get better with practice. Need to look into PCB software design applications, any recommendations for something very easy to use, very basic and works under Windows XP? Free would be nice.....
Just go to mount the bleeder resistors, but I am tired tonight, too much of the demon beer with an old pal last night has taken its toll.
Thanks very much for all the great ideas, I may try something a little more ambitious next time. Photo attached for your amusement
Cheers guys, all the best.
capboard2.jpg
capboard.jpg
FWIW You can avoid the feathered edges. If you're using ferric chloride as etchant, you need to heat it a little. Do NOT heat it enough to cause steam or you will rot everything near it, including you!!!
It also helps to agitate it. One guy I knew used to put his in an old sealable ice cream tub and go for a drive with it. The car kept it moving and all he had to do was wash it off with water.
Another tip is that you can partly revitalise ferric chloride by leaving it overnight with an old piece of steel or a large spanner in the tank. Just remove the metal and the copper that was saturating the solution will come out with it.
