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I use #65 size bits for most of the board and #59 for wires and large diodes and some bigger parts leads. Denatured alcohol works for cleaning and is less smelly. Cut out your paterns and leave about an 1/8th inch border all around. There's no need to waste the glossy paper on this, ordinary office paper will do. The soap is a wetting agent and will help the water penetrate the paper. You must print the design on the glossy side of the photo paper. Print as dark as you can without getting foggy areas. This will make it easier to verify that the patterns are still aligned once you have sandwiched the PCB between them. I would stay away from dual sided paper as you only need and want one side to transfer. There are many webpages explaining how to create printed circuit boards (PCBs) without having to use UV light and photoresist. The softer the paper the better really. An adaptor to replace the stupid batteries in the tail light of a bicycle with a connection to the perfectly good factory-installed hub dynamo. A small band saw is much safer. A blank PCB, without a photoresist layer. If you don't want to reuse the etchant, it should be properly disposed of. It turns and plain paper into parchment paper.". If you can plan out your builds you will save material by making a few transfers at once and on the same board. Whatever etchant you use, you should wear safety gloves, because you don't want to get any substance that dissolves metal on your skin. Speaking about holes, if you're going to drill them manually, try to align as many holes on the same lines parallel with the edges of the PCB as possible. A better way to perform the toner transfer would be to use a laminator like the one used in laser printers: a roller which is heated and presses down on the paper with a large force. The circuit image on the transfer paper is then laid face-down over the copper where heat and pressure are applied making the toner image re-fuse again to the copper. Second, as your line traces gets thinner, it would be more difficult to transfer the toner prints to the copper clad. Once the board looks good you can fix any flakes of toner that come off inevitably. Strictly spoken, holes are not necessary because you'll drill them anyway, but small holes in your design will make drilling a lot easier, first because you can see where to drill and second because the small hole in the copper will 'guide' the drill when biting into in the PCB. If you don't have access to a laser printer, you can also go to a copy center and make a copy of your print. (may vary depending on paper or PnP blue.). A sharpie will work but I have found that Staedler "Lumocolor" pens work better. If you're going to create a double-sided PCB, you will need to include some reference points that match on both sides. If any of the glossy layer still remains inside small holes or between nearby traces, it will show up as white (see bottom right of the image at the right). Take the iron tip and press down on the corners of the paper. If the PCB is only a disposable prototype, you can simply solder it and use it. Same business day shipping if ordered by 3pmPST. #69 size bits work for most resistor and cap leads. Drop the board in a tub or sink with hot water (just not too hot to put your hands in). After a couple minutes you will see the edges of the board clear of copper. An inkjet printer will not work because the ink in an inkjet printer is liquid and has no plastic to bond to the copper. If you have trouble getting through the first layer, rubbing it with the toothbrush can help. The next step is drilling the holes, unless you would be brave enough to go for SMD components all the way. Please ensure that JavaScript is enabled in your browser to view this page. Color laser printers may work but I would not think so. Mind that the H2O2 in the solution will break down rapidly into water and oxygen (visible as bubbles on the walls of your container), because it's unstable in an acidic environment. The paper I use is Staples brand Photo Basic Gloss (red package Item# 471865) You can often find it on sale and it comes out to around 20 cents per sheet 8.5"x11". For this last effect to work, you should keep holes small, I use a diameter of 1/60" (0.42mm or 5 pixels in a 300dpi image). When the board gets close to finished you can get ready to wash it off with water. Make sure you have all the paper and coating off the copper. I've had perfect results for many boards using this procedure. Take some #0000 steel wool and polish the copper side of the board well. Casimiro's full guide can be found on Instructables. Indicate on the bottle what it contains so it can be properly processed. The copper should be very shiny everywhere, corners and all. The backing resists water so getting though the initial layer will help saturate the paper which will come off quicker. if you're careful enough, you could drill the holes by hand, but a drill press will make your life a lot easier and reduce the risk of breaking the thin bits. If you only have an ink jet printer just print out your patterns onto a sheet of inkjet or plain paper paper, then take this to a copy place and make a photocopy of it on coated glossy inkjet paper (see the material list at the bottom of the page) The thicker the ink deposit the better. There are a few different products, but the most common one is from Seno, and is called Seno 3211. It readily takes all of the toner the printer can give. The ink jet ink soaks into the paper and does not sit on top of the paper as with laser or photocopier toner. The only precaution you need to exercise is to keep fingers off the lighter blue side (coated side). Unfortunately you'll have a hard time finding a laminator which allows a hard and thick PCB between its rollers. Nevertheless, some types that have been reported to work well are the Picture Paper from Staples in the USA, and the HEMA 170g Photo paper for people living in Belgium or the Netherlands. For modern irons linen may work best. If it's not a too large or delicate part, you can repair it with a good permanent marker. This is how I know I've heated and worked over the board enough. Dextrin is the coating on the top of the paper that lies between the fibers of the paper and the toner image printed on top. A dedicated folder works well here as well. You may also want to print several designs on the same page to use the rather expensive photo paper more efficiently. You could simply solder your board without flux or tin plating, and immediately cover the finished underside with lacquer or varnish. This page is an attempt to document the process in a concise way. A kind of abrasive sponge, like a scotchbrite pad, or steel wool. To remove the toner after etching and clean the boards before etching. You must use a photo copier or a laser printer. as well as being able to find them later. Do no heat the solution, it works perfectly at room temperature. Don't expect your first PCB to be perfect! You can feel the toner on the papers surface (don't touch a section that you are going to use because the oils or dust on your fingers will inhibit the transfer). The more the paper is soaked the more the toner and the surface of the paper will separate cleanly. A laser printer with ordinary toner, 600dpi is recommended. There is probably an optimal mix of sugar and salt, and perhaps adding starch to the mix could help as well, but it would take more experiments to find it. Keep it soaking if the paper is sluggish to come off. I try to dab the pen a little to get the most ink on the board. Special tinning brush tips exist for soldering irons, which make this process even easier. Dangerous! I tried a generic window cleaning product myself, and although I'm not sure whether it had any positive effect, the transfers were perfect, so it certainly doesn't hurt. Brian reported me that he tried the Staples Photo Supreme Gloss Paper - Inkjet compatible instead of the basic paper and it was terrible, so there is certainly a lot of variation between different papers. A file is a better tool but sand paper can be used as well. Let the ink dry a few minutes or give it a quick blast with a heat gun or a hair drier. If you only have boards with such a layer, you need to remove it first with a solvent like acetone. Be careful with your printed photo paper and do not get finger prints or dust on it. The paper gets yellowed with heat. I use this method for building PCBs with line traces reaching down to 10mils (0.254mm).". The heat will bond the toner enough so it won't move. Hold them against a bright light and once aligned, stick or staple one or two edges together. (small pits where the etchant gets under the toner transfer and eats up your board). I use it for other things so it's justified. Try not to press too hard with the pen as this removes ink when the second coat softens up the first coat. Finally, lacquer or varnish will also adequately protect the copper. Agitate the solution a bit to speed up the process even more. If after repeated attempts it still won't work, try a different type of paper. Remove all labels and print on the greasy side of the backing paper. If you want to process the solution yourself, you first need to remove the copper from it. Most laser printers allow to adjust the density of the toner. This will let the water soaking penetrate faster. Hold the print up to a bright light . Quicker but more difficult is to do both transfers at once, by sandwiching the pcb between the two sheets. The reason why this works might be that the product slightly dissolves the toner, making it more sticky. It's obvious that you can't use a metal container to perform the etching. If you see through it it's not thick enough. There are many variations on this process. The trace is still visible usually and you can easily draw the missing toner in on the board. Scoring with a razor knife works but it's too clumsy and inaccurate for me. For really stubborn parts like the space between parallel traces, you can break the glossy layer with a needle. Table saw for cutting boards. This removes the oil left behind from the steel wool and your finger prints as well as the copper dust.. Don't touch the copper side of the board from now on. You can either use plastic tweezers, or drill a hole in the PCB before etching, and stick a nylon cord through it, which will make fishing out the board piece o' cake. You will have to try them out and vary iron temperature and time ironing. --, Variacs | Variable and adjustable voltage transformers, Bench Power Supplies with Adjustable Current Limiting, Powered Breadboard with LCD Voltage Displays, Through-Hole Suction & Desoldering Stations, Programmable Logic Controllers from Array, Affordable PCB Etching System with Agitator and Heater. Mill bastard file For smoothing off rough edges and cleaning up the lip of the copper side of the board before ironing. Check ebay as there are some great deals! The coating of the ink jet paper is somewhat crucial to the transfer as it is another layer which blocks the etchant from getting to the copper coated board of your PCB. It also means that if you want to store it, you should use a bottle with a cap that's not perfectly airtight. I've used 5 different papers and this is the one I like best. #65-#69 for most general parts. Some papers come right off without much soaking at all. Before soldering, you'll want to make sure the traces are clean and free of oxide. Usually a couple coats with the pen works well. Wear rubber dish gloves and even goggles if you're clumsy. 26 in stock. This is normal and just enough to scare you a little each time you open the lid to the acid. Laser printer or photocopier any decent photocopier or laser printer will work. Therefore as a general rule, either avoid putting any fine structures near the edges, or cut the PCB to a size slightly larger than required for the design, and saw off the redundant parts after the transfer. However, this requires nastier chemicals, and all the copper to be connected to a single cathode. Use the tip of the iron and press over the whole board alternating between the tip and the whole sole of the irons bottom. (: Angelo Casimiro). Enter the concentrations of the products you want to use in the first two boxes and press enter. Feeding sticky paper to a laser printer would be a huge no-no. Did I mention the corners? The paper is also moisture sensitive so when you need a sheet, open the factory bag, pull a sheet and seal the bag back up. Especially aluminium with a HCl-based etchant is a very, very bad idea unless you're aching to get into massive trouble. It is a good idea to include the edges of the PCB, but you may also put some extra marks outside the PCB area. I use a table saw to cut my boards but this is an expensive tool. Chemical tin plating is nice, but in many cases it's overkill, not worth the expense. This step is essential! On my 60's iron "linen" is too hot. If you use flux to make soldering easier, it may be a good idea to remove it before varnishing, because I'm not sure about how well these two products mix. Whenever you want to do it, use a towel drenched in acetone to wipe away the toner. You will want to be able to get the board out of the etchant as soon as the last bit of copper is etched away, to prevent over-etching. The acid is not good to breath and you should not use it in a small enclosed space. However, if it's meant to last longer, you may want to protect it. To create the mixture without the risk of it splashing around, start with the water, add the HCl and finally the H2O2. Pitting is caused by little pin holes in the toner. Very similar in theory to photo paper. Toner images print perfectly to the transfer paper because the printer thinks is a regular textured sheet of paper. Just darken the copy it until you get shadows and back off one step. Next, rub the entire board with the sides and tip of the iron. Within a minute of being wet, the paper releases the toner and floats away from the board on its own. To avoid that the printer gets jammed by the rather thick paper, you must use the manual feed. After rinsing and drying the PCB, you can opt to remove the toner immediately, or wait until all other steps. Let it soak for at least 10 minutes. The most basic protection is to apply no-clean flux to the copper traces. Needless to say, you must avoid touching the copper after this step. On an 8.5x11 sheet of paper I print 3 of each pattern in a row across the page (depending on the size of the pattern of course). One, is that you would need a toner printer, common inkjet printers simply wouldn't work. Just peel it off, the toner should stick hard enough. Faster speeds (3100) or faster are the best. Surprisingly, the toner sticks to this surface, even though I suspect that not all types of backing paper will work. Fine edges may smear, and/or not stick. Acetone. Some companies like. Paul, a reader of this article, reported a large improvement in making the toner adhere to the blank PCB, by spraying the copper with a fine coat of a product called Clean Screen, right before placing the design on top and performing the transfer. However, I also tried the HEMA paper and it is indeed much better. I use high speed steel bits but carbide bits are better. Some people say that sending the paper through the printer a second time (without actually printing anything, except a tiny dot or line to force the printer to warm up the drum) improves the quality of the transfer, but if you use good paper this should be unnecessary. This acts as a kind of varnish which cleans the copper and makes soldering easier. If the paper is coated on the back (shiny plastic like, not neccesarily double sided) you can rough up the backing after you iron the transfer on the board with a piece of 80 grit sand paper. Scoring with a razor knife, jig saw or hack saw will work but you need to get your skills down to get a smooth cut. Smaller bits work as well. Good for roughing up the back of the ironed transfer to facilitate a better soak off of the transfer paper. Use as much pressure as you can while not sliding things around too much. It'd made for the job at hand, but you pay the price. Ink Jet Photo paper is coated with a compound which the toner sticks to well and will come off the paper when you soak it in warm water. Good and inexpensive carbide bits with 1/8 shanks can be had at Drill Bit City on line. The faster the speed the better the results. Remember, the design must be mirrored compared to what will be visible on the copper side of the PCB. The reason the the toner transfer method works is because you can iron the toner and re melt it. For most ordinary component holes, a 0.8mm (1/32") drill is perfect. A hack saw will work as well. Iron your transfer for 3 minutes or less over all the board and especially corners. I would think that the coating used to absorb the ink ject ink is better for transfering the plastic laser toner to copper. Decide on the circuits you want to etch. Cover the whole board with the iron. Some are better than others. Drill bits. "Adding baby oil to your plain paper PCB layout would allow more light to pass through during the photo exposure process. An etchant. The copper solution is toxic, hence do not just pour it down the drain. On forums I found that the ideal proportions of (pure) H2O2, HCl and water are respectively 2/8/90. At this point the board is rinsed under tap water and dried ready for GreenTRF to seal the toner, explained in the next menu button, "Toner Foils". You may have some luck finding it in the. Then you should be able to peel off the first layers of the paper. Those types of paper are ideal for photo exposure since it allows more light to pass through," he notes. Use a paper towel or a known clean rag and wipe the board clean with Acetone, Denatured Alcohol or some kind of solvent. Bit sharpness, speed, and how fast the hole is drilled. You should rub very hard on every square millimeter of the copper, switching to clean parts of the towel regularly. Student Angelo Casimiro has shared a method for easily producing single-sided printed circuit boards (PCBs) from inkjet-printed transfers, without the need for any special paper and the secret is baby oil. Try Drill Bit City. Make sure the corners are good and shiny. The paper should start to look shiny at those places you've already rubbed, so you can see which areas you still need to cover. You can't really reuse the acid so it's not the same as with Ferric Chloride where you need to conserve your etchant. Then, while ensuring that the paper doesn't shift, place the hot iron on top of it. I File at a 45 degree angle on both sides of the board to slightly round off the edge when the copper was cut, otherwise the iron may not make full contact with the edge of the board. This is perfect for smaller circuits that involves SMT (Surface Mount) components. Beware: these are extremely brittle, so a stable drill press is essential here. If you have some pitting you can use steel wool to buff out the copper so it shines again. "Pre-sensitised PCBs on the other hand creates the sharpest lines of all the homebrew fabrication methods. The ink is thinner and less opaque. With all the copper removed, you can either dilute the remaining solution or neutralise it with an appropriate amount of NaOH (sodium hydroxide). The fast speed works well to cut and remove the board material. So for those PCBs that really need to last long and/or withstand more extreme environments, you need to protect the copper from oxidizing or a worse fate. Scrub the surface with acetone (no need to use the abrasive pad), clear out any dirt from the holes, and align the pattern using the drilled holes, holding the board against a bright light. A type of paper, coated with a thin wax-like layer on one side, and easily dissolvable in water. Small overlapping circles work well to cover every bit of the board. The thickness of the ink is key to getting a nice solid transfer and not getting pitting with the etchant. Beware: the reaction of the aluminium with the acid will produce heat and vapours, do this outside. If you don't need to drill many holes, ordinary HSS bits will do. My first attempts produced paper that remained sticky even after days of drying. Press and peel blue is a plastic sheet with a blue film over it. You could also use the classic electrolysis way of tin plating. Strictly spoken you don't need to use this photo-type paper, if you can find some plain office paper that dissolves very well in water, it should work too. If there's anything left on the copper, the toner won't stick well at those places. The safest method would be to first transfer one side, and etch it with the other side protected by tape or foil. You'll need to divide the first two numbers by the concentration of the chemicals you can buy, and adjust the third one so they add up to 100. Generally however, office paper dissolves poorly (nobody wants paper that dissolves the instant someone spills coffee on it). A lot of times the pad holes are blocked as well. Update: The cotton setting on old irons is usually fine. At any rate, do not mix together acetone with peroxide etchant. This would be quick, easy and produce a consistent quality. If the ink is wet the etchant will eat right through it. Harbor Freight has some inexpensive ones. Scrub the copper side with the abrasive pad until the copper is shiny and clean. If you did the ironing step well, you can rub pretty hard without damaging the toner. Toner Transfer Paper (or "TTP" for short) is the ideal medium for capturing precise laser printer (or photo-copier) output being fused to the paper up at up to 1,200dpi. Update: I use 40% peroxide now with a 3 part acid to one part peroxide ratio. If you want to etch on a regular basis, it may be more practical to use an alternative method that actually uses the green acid cupric chloride solution you'll obtain from the above method. If you can wait, soaking overnight really helps loosen all the paper.