Hello,

I've tried using the toner transfer method at least 6 times for simple PCB's but I keep getting crappy results . I've seen over 6 tutorials including on youtube and also Bill-Marsden's post but none mention my following problem :

I keep getting my traces smudged when ironing the design on the board .
I use thin (I think 125g glossy paper for laser printers) .
I don't own a laser printer myself so I print it at my friends house who has some xerox workstation for 250 bucks.
At first I thought that the iron was the problem so I got myself a completely FLAT bottom iron and still I get smudged results .
Here are some pictures :





You can see how the trace width is very inconsistent and wavy like in some places.
What am I doing wrong? Am I pressing too hard (I don't)
I've tried using a lower temperature , that doesn't help either.

Should I use thicker paper maybe??

The pictures were taken through a magnifying glass with my phone ( I just realised that I can actually do that )
The traces are coated with silver.

The thing is that it's not sooo much of an issue for simple stuff with wide spacings , but I cannot make smaller pitch and finer pcbs because i'll be getting shorts everywhere.

Any advice or help is welcome.

 

Likely you are getting a miniscule shift in layers when you slide the iron over them. Try lifting and lowering the iron in a pattern to cover your transfer...

 

Put a towel or cloth over the transfer, your iron is sticking to the paper and moving it. It could also be varying temperature too much. This is why I went to a laminator instead.

You may also need to play with temperature and duration. If you melt the toner too much it will smear.

 

Likely you are getting a miniscule shift in layers when you slide the iron over them. Try lifting and lowering the iron in a pattern to cover your transfer...

It's likely . But I try to follow tutorials where they say that I should Drop the iron on for a minute or so until it sticks and then I can ride around all I want .


@ BILL_M

Will putting something as thick as cloth still transfer the heat to the transfer?
I was thinking of putting a metal plate or a thick piece of paper at least between the iron and the transfer .

In tutorials they always advise to go to max temp . I tried using half temp and 75% temp and still get same crappy results .

I ride around on the transfer for quite a while because if I stop to early then the tracks don't always transfer.


There is one combination that I haven't tried yet and that is very high temperature and low Riding time. Maybe that would work

 

Yes in your tutorials You use a laminator .
So if I get some cheap second hand laminator you think it would work good?

Also i'm thinking of trying thicker glossy paper and higher Iron heat . What do you think?

 

Yes in your tutorials You use a laminator .
So if I get some cheap second hand laminator you think it would work good?

Likely not... I "acquire " used / castoff technology, for a hobby / mad money... Hence my Nom de Plume

I had 6 laminators discarded by a local school system, and was only able to cobble one working unit out of all 6.

If you could find a used unit that was not beat to hell, or allowed to idle hot for weeks on end, you may get lucky.

 

Likely not... I "acquire " used / castoff technology, for a hobby / mad money... Hence my Nom de Plume

I had 6 laminators discarded by a local school system, and was only able to cobble one working unit out of all 6.

If you could find a used unit that was not beat to hell, or allowed to idle hot for weeks on end, you may get lucky.

I meant If i got a working second hand laminator

 

I use a paper towel folded in half as a cushion to distribute pressure and distribute heat across the laser printed paper.

If you are still seeing the issue, try lowering the iron temperature. Don't expect to get traces under 10 mil (0.010 inches).

Finally, don't expect to get to quality boards from some cheap PCB material from eBay. Some material is on there because it is off-spec. The material that smells like sh!t will give off a bunch of gases when you iron it and blister the board and the traces.

 

Hmm , yes paper tower might work .

Can't expect to get traces under 10 mil? That's 2,5 millimeters in metric .
I've seen people on youtube get less than 1 millimeter without using any special equipment :/


Nah my pcb's come from a reliable source (at least I think)

 

You got the decimals wrong 10 mil =0.254mm

 

The traces will bleed out a little bit. If they do too much, you are using too high a temp. I put my iron at about 4.5 where 6 is the highest setting.

Bob

 

You got the decimals wrong 10 mil =0.254mm

hmmm... I guess 0.25mm is acceptable

 

The traces will bleed out a little bit. If they do too much, you are using too high a temp. I put my iron at about 4.5 where 6 is the highest setting.

Bob

Ok thx i'll play around with the temp .

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Has anyone compared Toner transfer method to Photoresist exposure in terms of quality and precision?
I'm guessing the photoresist gives a higher quality . Can anyone confirm this?