An easier way to build: Press and peel on the *component* side

[Dave_B]

In a recent Polyphase thread, I mentioned that I did a press'n'peel on the component side of the board.  This isn't anything new but for those who've never tried it, it really speeds things up on larger builds. 

I printed the layout on magazine paper so it was basically free.  Press'n'peel paper is really overkill for something like this.

Check it out at the bottom of my Polyphase page.

[sta63bmx]

Very crafty, you!  I commend you on that nice looking "silkscreen".  I usually work while looking at a layout, but it can get annoying after a while. 

Questions

1. When you say "magazine paper", did you cut a glossy page out of an actual magazine, print on it, and then iron it? 

2. Did you print that "magazine paper" with an inket printer or a laser printer?

That's really cool.

[Mark Hammer]

Damn, that's smart, Dave.

Since I've been buying ultra-cheap glossy paper at the dollar store (10 sheets for a buck), I'm much less reluctant to "waste" an entire sheet on printing out an entire project pdf file to photo paper. Whereas, with $2-3/sheet PnP I tend to make a space-efficient paste up of *just* PCB patterns all nicely fit together like a jigsaw, and photocopy THAT.  Even though what will get ironed on with glossy photo paper will be white rather than dark blue when it shows up, simply being able to locate what goes where a little more easily will be a real time-save.

Thanks!!

[Dave_B]

Thanks guys, but I can't take credit for it.  I probably read it here. 

1. When you say "magazine paper", did you cut a glossy page out of an actual magazine, print on it, and then iron it?

Yes, I used a catalog, but as long as it's the glossy stuff (like People magazine, for example), it seems to work.  That paper is typically thin, so I taped it to a sheet of standard copier paper.  I only taped the leading edge.  It doesn't matter what's printed on the magazine page, so don't bother trying to find a blank one.

2. Did you print that "magazine paper" with an inket printer or a laser printer?

I used a laser printer.  If it helps, it's exactly the same process as you'd follow for press'n'peel on the copper side. 

[David]

OK, so you printed the "silkscreen" onto a recycled glossy page from a magazine, right?  How were you able to see the bloody thing after you'd printed it?  I would have thought that the original contents of the page would camouflage what you printed quite effectively.  Lineup is crucial, isn't it?

[QSQCaito]

OK, so you printed the "silkscreen" onto a recycled glossy page from a magazine, right?  How were you able to see the bloody thing after you'd printed it?  I would have thought that the original contents of the page would camouflage what you printed quite effectively.  Lineup is crucial, isn't it?

Lineup can be easily made with pilot holes.

Drill 3/4 holes to your recycled+printed gloss printer.. you could align them with your pcb very easily with ehmm how is it said in english.. ahh got it, tooth pick. For example align holes in the of caps, resistors that are in corners to make it more accurate.

bye bye

dac

[Skreddy]

Looks great, and I admire the work.

I'm wondering whether or not a laser-printed, ironed-on component layout would conduct a bit of current given just the right circumstance, though?  What is the composition of laser toner?  Is is only plastic, or is the black color actually derived from carbon?

[Dave_B]

OK, so you printed the "silkscreen" onto a recycled glossy page from a magazine, right?  How were you able to see the bloody thing after you'd printed it?  I would have thought that the original contents of the page would camouflage what you printed quite effectively.  Lineup is crucial, isn't it?

On the page I used, there were a lot of images mixed in with the text.  The images weren't that dense and the paper was thin, so it wasn't a problem seeing the components.  Locating the boxes around the IC's, along with the pots, it was easy enough to line everything up.  That's a good point, though.  Steer clear of pages with really dense text or line art if you want this to go easier. 

For what it's worth, I found this to be much easier than doing a P'n'P on the copper side.

QSQCaito: I put alignment marks on the board, so it would have been smart to use them.  I didn't.   

[cakeworks]

so this'd work instead of pnp blue in all contex'?

[markm]

Dave,
That looks very cool!
Tremendous idea there my friend!

[nelson]

Again, great idea Dave.

How exactly did you arrive at the mask image given the PDF you had to work with?

[Dave_B]

Thanks again everyone, but I didn't think of it.  I poked around and found this link posted by forum member zjokka back in May.  The pertainent text:

You can have finished boards in less than an hour,
including printing, preparing the copper board,
transferring the pattern, removing the paper,
etching, and drilling. You can also use this method
to print the component markings onto the non-copper
side of a single-sided PCB.

I probably got it from there.  I'm not really sure at this point. 

Regarding how I made it, I used Photoshop to "extract" the components (Select > Color Range), then I copied them to their own layer and did a little touch up.  I wouldn't mind going into a little more detail if I thought someone would benefit, but it seems like there aren't a lot of folks here using Photoshop.  It's not a perfect way to do it but it gets the job done.

Skreddy, you're makin' me nervous.     I just measured across a few points on the board.  Thankfully the plastic in the ink isn't conductive.