Discovered a new PCB transfer paper, I think

[thumposaurus]

I tried out someone else's suggestion of useing lable paper backing and it worked ok had a couple of traces I needed to touch up, but it got me to thinking again about other papers.
I finally thought about parchment paper, I gave it a try a little bit ago, and I think it's going to become my new chosen product.

-It's cheap it comes on big rolls, I ended up tapeing a small piece of it over top of an already printed page like some people's press and peel method.

-It's heat proof, it is made for lining bakeing pans so you don't have to worry about burning it with the iron.

-As you are ironing you can see where the toner is pulling away from the paper, and it pulls right off no scrubbing needed.

The traces looked like they could have used going over with a sharpie, but I threw it in the etchent anyways and it came out fine, I think next time I will try ironing more, or useing a higher heat setting.

I need to get some more copper clad board and try out a bigger layout with it, hope someone finds this helpful.

[Tajmoben]

Sounds like a good idea. I think I'll try it and see how it works for me. Thanks. If I remember I'll let ya know how it works for me.

[David]

So run through the process for us.  How did you get the image onto your parchment paper?  Does it come in 8.5 x 11 inch sheets, or did you have to cut it down and feed it into the printer manually?  Does it make a difference which side the image is printed on?

[cd]

So run through the process for us.  How did you get the image onto your parchment paper?  Does it come in 8.5 x 11 inch sheets, or did you have to cut it down and feed it into the printer manually?  Does it make a difference which side the image is printed on?

No way in hell parchment paper comes in 8.5" x 11" sheets, it's made for baking, not writing

[David]

No way in hell parchment paper comes in 8.5" x 11" sheets, it's made for baking, not writing

The question was reasonable.  It might not come that way in Hell, but I was hoping it might be available in that form here on Earth...    :roll:

[Torchy]

I think this is what we in the UK call greaseproof or baking paper. We have a roll of this at home, and its 30 sq. ft. - 15" wide.  :wink:

Now as to recipes to use it with I recommend ... ... ... ...

[David]

...  the EasyVibe PCB pattern, en croute, right?

Followed by chips and a healthy slug of ferric chloride?

[Torchy]

At 30 square feet it would have to be a
Tubescream-o-viberingmoduflanger a la wahwah (en Papillote)  :lol:

[Nasse]

Thanx for the tip. I have done few with glossy photo paper with good results but if this works might be nice

[bwanasonic]

No way in hell parchment paper comes in 8.5" x 11" sheets, it's made for baking, not writing

There is indeed parchment paper made for writing as it was used for this purpose for at least 1000 years or so. The type of parchment paper you are talking about is a silicone coated parchment made for cooking purposes:

http://www.dinnerunplugged.com/reynoldskitchens/kitchenconnection/products/parchment_paper/index.asp

Your local stationers/offfice suppliers may have parchment paper in 8.5 X 11 sheets, but is not of the heat resistant variety needed for PCB transfer.

Kerry M

[Jason Stout]

The type of parchment paper you are talking about is a silicone coated parchment made for cooking purposes:

...Sometimes wrongly called "wax paper."

[StephenGiles]

Greeseproof paper - I'm sure my mum used that for spotted dick!
Stephen

[thumposaurus]

You could take the roll and cut it down into 8 1/2x11 sheets, but that's not really practical, what I did was cut out a piece a little larger all around than the layout I was printing, then took some tape, and taped it over top of the image that I had printed out on the sheet already, and feed it back through the printer.
I don't think it matters what type of tape since it won't really stick to the parchment paper anyways, it's just to hold it in the proper position on the page.
It's kind of an adaptation of the tonepad press 'N peel photo-essay.
Then after it's printed I took the PCB blank and cleaned it then put the layout on it and wraped the edges of it around the board and taped it to the back so it can't move around while ironing.
Then I just ironed it like any other transfer method, after I noticed it had all pulled away from the paper I ran it under cold water let it dry and put it in the etchent.

Any other questions?

[jorginho]

I use high resolution glossy paper with a laser printer.
It works just fine.

[David]

Any other questions?

Actually, yes.  What kind of printer - laser or ink jet?  Did you have to take any special precautions?

[bwanasonic]

Greeseproof paper - I'm sure my mum used that for spotted dick!

Over here we use penicillin.  :twisted:

Kerry M

[The Tone God]

...Sometimes wrongly called "wax paper."

Actually I never heard anyone mixing up wax paper and parchment paper. The two are used for very different purposes. Wax paper is usually used for wrapping and keeping things from sticking like to your cutting board. Popular before plastic film came along. You can't cook with wax paper since the wax will melt at a very low tempature making everything taste like crayons. Parchment paper on the other hand can be used for cooking and is rated up to 400 degrees F so its useful for baking, bakery work, pouch cooking, etc. I even use it in a variation of asian salt crust grilling.

There is writting paper called parchment paper, often made out of various types of animal skin not wood fibers so the name paper can be miss leading, but I doubt anyone would use one of these speciality papers for PCBs so I think that is not a problem of confussion.

There are styles of cooking parchment paper before the advant of silicone impregnation. In the old days they would soak the same wrtting parchment paper in oil to give it the heat resilience needed. In a cooking pinch one could do something similar using paper, like a brown paper bag, and cover/soak it with oil like canola, peanut, or grapeseed but don't use extra virgin oilive oil for this purpose. This is where the cooking version of parchment paper inheirented its name although these days they don't share the common base of course but still keeps its name sake

Thats it for todays cooking lesson.

Interesting idea. My concern would be for the cost and sometimes hassle of running around finding this paper. I think other substrates that are all ready to go for printing (i.e. photo paper, transperency, peel n' blue) maybe be easier. My other concern is with the consistency of the paper. There is a difference in quality amoungst different brands of parchment paper. It could be hard to source a good quality one for PCBs. It would be nice to see some results though.

Andrew

[StephenGiles]

Now look here bwanasonic, spotted dick is a well known English pudding!
Stephen

[thumposaurus]

Any other questions?

Actually, yes.  What kind of printer - laser or ink jet?  Did you have to take any special precautions?

Laser printer, the only thing I noticed is that you have to be careful after it's printed not to crease it or the toner will come off.

I still have more experementing to do with it, I'll try and keep everyone updated and take pictures as I go on the next one I make.

as a side note the board I etched yesterday useing this method I just finished up a few mins ago and it worked perfectly on the first try, it's a 4ms Tremulus Lune, very small and simple build.

[Jason Stout]

Actually I never heard anyone mixing up wax paper and parchment paper.

.....Until now.

I'm glad none of the recipies I have tried called for the use of parchment paper! Thanks, I'll never make the mistake again!