New PC Board Transfer Method

[tranceracer]

Not sure if anyone's done this or posted this method here but I accidentally stumbled upon a very easy way to transfer circuit traces from laser jet print to Cu board.  Previously to today, I use the inkjet photo paper trace transfer method which is provides excellent results but takes a lot of time to soak and peel the paper off the board. 

I was at work printing out some Avery labels on a Laser printer.  Half of the sheet had exposed waxy backing.  Well my label covered the whole sheet and to my surprise it printed very clearly on the non-stick (waxy) portion of the paper as well as on the labels.  I scraped the lettering that was on the waxy side and noticed that it was easy to scrape off.  "TWANG" a dim light went off in my head and I thought, I wonder if I can transfer this to a Cu board using the iron-on inverse image technique.  Well today I tried it and got very very good results.  Here are the steps:

1.   Find laser printable labels and save the non-stick paper.
2.   The paper may be a little thin so tape the top portion to another sheet of paper to secure the leading edge going into the printer (Scotch tape works fine.).  (Print on waxy side of paper.)  Print your favorite trace as a mirror image
3.   Clean Cu board
4.   Pre heat Cu board w/ iron
5.   Carefully lay trace on the board
6.   Rub trace with paper towel or cotton cloth (be careful the Cu board will be HOT!)
7.   Carefully remove paper and trace should stick Cu board.
8.   Etch.

Disclaimer:  I have no problems with running the non-stick paper thru my laser printer.  It's best to manually feed the paper. 

-tR

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

yeah, adhesive backing paper has been used before ( avery toner pcb gets quite a few hits when googling).
I did some volunteer political work peeling lables off & sticking them onto envelopes - they were amazed when I asked them to save the backing sheets

Incidentally, a hint from a robot building list about the ironing:
"I iron my boards on a good hard chunk of wood (piece of a 1x6) with a piece of scrap denim laid over the wood for just a little "give". "

[audioguy]

hmm what about kitchen parchment paper???

[tranceracer]

Hey Paul, thanks for response!  I didn't think to search on "avery toner pcb"

hmm what about kitchen parchment paper???

Ahhh, been there done that... don't do that.  It's too thin and even if you tape the leading edge, the paper contracts and shrivels up.

I just need to find out where I can get a bunch of the avery label backings...  (;

-tR

[GREEN FUZ]

Some people report good results using glossy magazine paper though I`ve never tried it myself.