I just started doing a pseudo-silkscreen using Cadsoft Eagle.
I turn off the display of the trace layers, leaving all the documentation, vias, etc turned on, and then laserprint on magazine-type paper using mirror image.
Sand the top of the board to roughen it up a bit, clean with acetone, line up the newsprint with the holes, and iron it on with iron @ 300°F.
Soak in hot water and scrub off with worn toothbrush. The "pseudo silkscreen" is black instead of white, but I don't really care - black works for me, and it's neat, too.
Have I read right that some people use this method of the actual traces?
Some use a ink writer to make the etching mask. Could the same method be used for the silk screen?
Are DTG and Plastisol inks available for common, consumer-level inkjets? Do you have any links that describe using them that way?Instead of emulsion, you can print, directly to the screen, (using 220 mesh or higher) allowing you to skip the emulsion. However the price for inkjet ink is exponentially higher than photoresist emulsion and water.
If you decide to try direct to silk printing, you must not use water based inks to screen print with, you will just smear inkjet ink. Plastisol inks can be used with good results.
If you have an inkjet printer than can do straight-through printing of something as thick as a pcb, you can have a much easier time. If you do a bit of pcb making, you can convert your ink supply to DTG ink (Direct to Garment) This allows your inkjet to "silkscreen" directly to the pcb. After a few sec in a toasteroven to set the ink, and done.
by Aaron Carman
by Aaron Carman
by Duane Benson