press and peel blue

[michael_krell]

has anyone ever ordered pressandpeel from techniks? i ordred some from them like 1 month ago and i still have not gotten anything. They refuse to answer my emails and when i call them they tell me they will get back to me. I am puzzled.

[Hal]

nope, never.  I ordered from small bear and like the stuff.  You might have more luck if you change your topic to something more decriptive.

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

I've seen a lot worse headings than that! but, on the subject of P&P, someone on a jewellery list was having trouble with the centres of circles not lifting off, and got this advice:

"My biggest problem in application was that some of the resist I did not
want on my metal came off with the part I did want. The best way to
describe this is if I wanted a  O  (donut) shape on my metal I would get a
? (cookie) instead. Sorta freaked me out. So I called the
manufacturer/Techniks, Broken Images, and Bill Seely at Reactive Metals.


The manufacturer said put a piece of scotch tape or better packing tape
(stickier) over your metal and it will pull up the loose blue.
+Scotch tape works really well. Problem solved.


Paul at Broken Images said use a brass bristle brush and scrub around on it
and it will knock out the unwanted blue. This is the one I did the most and
it worked too! I used a new brass brush in a circular motion and it worked
like a charm. Problem solved again. "

[sir_modulus]

Yup, that's what I do. I find gently duct tape also takes off all the paper bits if you use the photopaper method. And to answer the original question: My school bought the PCB press from techniks...they had very good service, but I'd still go with small bear anyday.

Cheers,

Nish

[Jason Stout]

has anyone ever ordered pressandpeel from techniks? i ordred some from them like 1 month ago and i still have not gotten anything. They refuse to answer my emails and when i call them they tell me they will get back to me. I am puzzled.

Michael, I've never ordered from Techniks - but I would expect them to get back to me within a day. Call them back.

[bryantbr]

I ordered some from Electronix Express yesterday.  (5) sheet hobby pack for $9.90.  Minimum $20 order so I got a few IC's and some copper clad board.  Never ordered anything from them before so we'll see.

http://www.elexp.com

[j0shua]

i dunno about P&P , but other way to print PCB is easy .....

you need this :

1- injeck printer
2- simple white paper
3- iron
4- etchant solution ( ferric chloride ) ** Rat schak have code # 276-1576

Just print the PCB on simple paper then fit to the Virgin PCB, put on iron slow for about 5 minutes, after that you only wait to temperature go down and gentle remove the paper ( some traces remain but you can slowly remove whit a knife ) , after then just put on etchant solution , drill and ready to solder

** low cost, easy to do and faster

*if you have laser printer use transparency paper and put on Sun for 2 hours or into white bulb for more time ......

ENJOY!

[bryantbr]

I'll have to try the inkjet.  I've been using the transparency paper and laserjet with poor results.  Thanks for the tip.

Hope you get your order Michael.

[Mark Hammer]

Although there are several substitutes for the *process* of transferring a PCB pattern to copper board, they are NOT equivalent in terms of the *quality* and *resolution*.

I will repeat the lecture for newbies.  Bear with me.

The basic idea of PnP is that you have an emulsion or chemical layer sitting on top of a "carrier" or "vehicle".  In the case of PnP it is an acetate sheet exactly like what one uses for overhead transparencies.

The emulsion is nicely adhered to the carrier, and is made up of extremely fine particles.  We could describe it as "high resolution film".  Laser toner LIKES this emulsion and clings to it.

At the same time, one of the interesting properties of toner is that it also loves copper....nice SHINY copper.

Think of this as a "love quadrangle", where we have four players: the acetate, the emulsion, the toner, and the copper.  Toner loves emulsion, and emulsion loves toner MORE than it loves acetate, BUT toner can't ever let go of copper, so it persuades emulsion to divorce acetate forever and join toner and copper in a "ménage à trois".  The result is that emulsion goes wherever toner goes when heat is applied.

The SAME thing can occur with glossy photopaper.  The glossiness is a result of the paper having its own emulsion covering the surface (which is what makes the paper glossy).  If you print a pattern to glossy photo paper with a laser printer or photocopier, and iron the pattern to a *clean* copper board (making sure to let it cool properly before lifting), the same "ménage à trois" will happen, and the emulsion will "divorce" the paper backing (replacing the acetate sheet), and move in with the toner and copper.  You can use either inkjet photo paper OR laser photopaper, but what is essential is using toner to form a strong enough bond with the copper to tear away the emulsion from the paper.

HOWEVER, the resolution of the glossy emulsion and paper backing is much lower than the resolution of the blue emulsion and acetate backing of PnP.  Not low enough that it is unusable.  Far from it.  I have made some pretty complex and detailed boards with glossy paper.  BUT  I would personally be very reluctant to use it if the pattern involved: a) more than 2 traces passing between the rows of pins of a DIP, and/or b) a trace passing between the pins of a DIP.  For most discrete cicuits, though, it works like a charm.  In those instances where the pattern provider has either used very thin traces, or not provided enough room between pads or traces, you may have to do some pre-printing doctoring of the pattern to thicken or thin up the relevant areas, and you may have to do some X-acto knife work before etching.  It WILL work, though.

If the project you are waiting to etch meets the criteria, I'd recommend trying out photo paper in the meantime.  You can usually bring a sheet of PCB patetrns to a photocopy place and ask them to copy it to photo paper, which will save you the expense of buying a pack of the stuff 90 minutes before your PnP arrives.  PnP *will* deliver a nicer crisp pattern and a more professional-looking result, but many projects don't need anything more crisp than what photo-paper provides to "work".  If you have a thing about stuff looking professional, I can respect that and recommend against photopaper in more instances, then.

[KevinHart]

I have been using the Lazer printer and photo paper method for a few goes now with excellent results.  The key is to clean the board with a solvent and a white cloth until nothing more comes off, then iron on the printed image for about 2 mintes on Max heat.  Make sure you press hard and at the end go around the traces with the tip of the iron.
Allow it to cool and then drop it in warm water and let it soak the paper and clean it off with a tooth brush.

Here is a link to a headphone amp that i made using the above method...

http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/joandkev@btopenworld.com/detail?.dir=/cdb2&.dnm=6dcd.jpg&.src=ph

Kev