Wednesday, June 1, 2005

How to make PCBs with a laser printer

First thing to do is make a schematic in EAGLE Layout Editor. Once you have done this you can then design the layout using Eagle too. Making schematic first helps because Eagle will show you clearly if you make any mistakes with the PCB. Here is an example I will use, it is the prototype line stage used in my preamp:

Nothing specific, just stuff I w anted recorded somew here so other people could find it. I do not regularly update this blog.

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Print it out onto some semi glossy photo paper. Be sure to select "solid black" in the eagle printing preferences and also un-select silk screen layers so that you only see pads and traces:

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Then quickly take this paper, cut out your design and place it face down onto some blank PCB board. Then use an iron and press the design on to the board. Use A LOT of pressure and ensure all parts of the design make good contact with the blank PCB. Keep it pressed for at least 5 mins. I have found that having steam on/off makes no difference.

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Then take your blank PCB with the design stuck on to it and soak it in soapy water for about 10 mins to loosen the paper:

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Then CAREFULLY remove the paper. Be sure not to remove any of the black ink traces because these are what stops the acid in the etching process. I use a kind of rubbing motion to remove the paper. Keep it wet all the time so that it separates easily from the copper board.

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Done and ready for etching:

Get some etchant and just follow the instructions for the dilution level. I just use a normal ceremic or glass bowel. Ghetto style:

Add boiling water from a jug:

And slowly swirl or rock the bowl around. The liquid must be always moving over the copper board to get it to etch properly.

Done!

Now give it a rinse in cold water and scrub the black ink off the PCB with a scratchy dish cleaner thing or steel wool. Voila, you have a custom designed PCB:

Then all you need to do is drill out the holes and start mounting the components:

It will take maybe a couple of tries to get the hang of it but once you've got it you can produce perfect PCBs every time. Tips for making PCBs: www.expresspcb.com/ExpressPCBHtm/Tips.htm Another guide like mine: http://homepage.tinet.ie/~ei9gq/pcb.html Some points to note: You can't do it with Inkjet printers, the ink doesn't stick, don't bother trying. OKI LED and regular laser printers work well. I have only used matt photo paper and have always had perfect results, although glossy would probably work too. Otherwise you will have to experiment. Once the design is stuck to the PCB put a blank piece of paper over the design and then rub and twist the iron while pressing the print on the PCB. This gives better coverage and makes sure it sticks on all parts of the PCB. Here is some pics of another design I made (the soft-power circuit in my preamp):

42 comments:
Anonymous said... You're a genius man... thanks!!! February 7, 2009 9:02 AM Anonymous said... Ditto. Thanks so much for sharing. This seems like a fast, cheap, and effective way to turn out a protoype board. February 28, 2009 11:38 AM Anonymous said... I'm having problems with this method. I tried this with Staples Photo Basic paper and with regular paper, and a household iron set on full (linen). I cannot get the toner to transfer well at all. There are a few spots where there is good transfer. Any suggestions? March 2, 2009 1:59 PM Sleepy said... Are you sure you are using a laser printer? Try pressing the iron real hard and keeping it pressed. Like even sometimes with mine the paper would turn a a bit brown with the heat. March 2, 2009 2:12 PM Anonymous said... ...mmmh... and trying pre-heating the copper of the blank PCB board with the iron before applying the paper? March 5, 2009 3:04 AM Mohammed said... Have you tried the Muriatic acid method? March 6, 2009 7:57 PM Anonymous said... Sleepy, Thanks for your response. I pressed like a banshee and tried several times. The board got hot enough to feel like it would burn you. What kind (brand and model) of paper are you using? I tried Staples Photo Basic Matt and Staples Photo Basic Gloss. The gloss worked, but the gloss coating actually melted onto the board also and was impossible to get off without damaging the toner traces. The toner transfer was unreliable with the matt. I think I just need the right paper. If you could tell me the exact paper you used, that might make all the difference for me.

Thanks. March 12, 2009 9:03 AM Sleepy said... Hey, I wrote this ages ago and can't remember what paper I used. It was matte photo paper though and barely looked different to normal paper apart from it was a bit thicker. Might be a case of trial and error! Best of luck. March 12, 2009 3:11 PM Anonymous said... Thanks a lot for attempting to help me, Sleepy. I appreciate it, and I appreciate you sharing your successful project here. How about pitting? A guy that's selling a DIY PCB kit/system swears that if you don't put a plastic film over the toner, like the one he sells, the copper will pit really badly from the etchant because it (the toner) is porous. I am wondering if what he is telling me is correct. Did you notice any pitting or thinning (partial etching) of the copper under the toner? Thanks. March 12, 2009 3:52 PM Sleepy said... No worries mate. I noticed pitting initially when the toner did not transfer very well. But after practice I could get it to work well every time without pitting. Make sure you set your printer settings to use a lot of ink. There are a few printer settings that relate to this such as ink saving and quality. Just go through all your settings and change them accordingly. March 12, 2009 5:30 PM NuMcA said... +1 THank you from Greece!! March 19, 2009 2:13 PM fami said... instead of using matt/gloss paper, why not using inkjet transparency film. its quite cheap, but u still have to print it using laser jet. just my 2 cents.. March 24, 2009 6:17 AM Anonymous said... Hi all, you can use magazine paper also ! Cheers. March 25, 2009 3:59 PM Anonymous said... Hey Everyone, You could buy transparencies for laser printers specifically designed for PCBs in the following website http://www.mgchemicals.com/techsupport/index.html I also read above someone was having trouble with the hot ironing process. They also sell kits for photo-transfer process which does not involve using the hot iron at all (to see an example of how the photo process works follow this link: http://www.mgchemicals.com/techsupport/photo_demo.html) I am not affiliated with the site I recommended but I have used their stuff before. Their kits are more expensive than the laser printer/hot iron one-off-method but if you make PCBs often enough it will save you time and ensure consistency. If you only want to put out one or two PCBs for a project their kits may not be practical for you. Having this information handy can't hurt either way. I hope that helps! bye! April 25, 2009 2:08 PM Trev or said... Im not sure if its the Paper or what but some of the Fine lines go together after i iron it onto the board. so instead of say 7 lines running next to each other its more like 2-4 lines and sometimes it makes 1 line. Or maybe its the iron since it doesnt fit over all of the board and i have to move it around some to get all of it. not really sure on what to do. Also sometimes some of the lines dont transfer over. it could be any thing from big to little lines i have no clue on what to do does any

body else have any ideas i can try? May 4, 2009 10:13 PM PCB design, Printed Circuit Boards said... kewl post, could make my bathroom a bit messy and smelly though May 26, 2009 7:59 AM a.dhanush said... what model laserprinter you used? was that a glass epoxy pcb? May 27, 2009 10:38 AM Anonymous said... sorry dude, but this is not a genius - i know this method for many years pit June 27, 2009 1:43 AM v fdv gf said... July 9, 2009 10:46 PM Rolf said... The PCB must be clean, use copper / brass cleaner to make it shiny. Burnish the edges. Place PCB face up on a folded section of newspaper, place pattern face down and cower with a clean piece of copy paper. Set the iron to 300F, set iron on top for a minute then rotate iron 90and let sit for another minute, then make sure you put moderate pressure on all of the board for about another 30-60sec's. Boil the paper / PCB to get the paper off. If you want to make DIY toner release paper do a Goggle search and include my name. August 9, 2009 6:16 PM Anonymous said... Thank you August 27, 2009 12:16 AM Anonymous said... Hello everybody! Can I use an inject printer Canon iP4300 for this methor or it's a bullshit? Thx! arosamia September 5, 2009 10:20 AM aususer said... Make youtube your friend for an alternative I saw a method on youtube that converted an epson(?) bubblejet to "print" PCBS. Uses specific PIGMENT ink (not the standard shop bought) and, once you convert the bubblejet to accept the PCB thickness, you just print directly to the PCB.. When you cook (yes, in an oven) the PCB - the pigment-based ink goes hard and becomes resilliant to the etchant... Might be worth a look (and cheaper than buying your mum/wife a new iron - ooops.. did I say that my wife irons my shirts?!!) September 14, 2009 8:01 PM Alex said... I think it's important to find a laser ink that sticks to the copper well when it is heated. Maybe people can experiment and see which brand of ink works better and post their results here? Also, I think the paper should not be too porous otherwise the ink will have trouble to detach from it. Maybe we can put a bit of wax on the paper or use a waxy paper directly to make the ink easily detachable when heat is applied. This look like a fast and easy way to make PCBs. It's worth trying to discover the proper materials and techniques. October 12, 2009 9:41 PM

Anonymous said... this is a very nice way, but what is the type of this paper, i used a glossy paper and it didnot work(LAser printing) please reply on : bishoy_25@yahoo.com thnx October 26, 2009 7:50 AM Anonymous said... Laser printers use high heat to transfer your images so it is important to use the correct laser printer paper ie: Staple have a good range Best Regards Tellstar November 13, 2009 10:34 AM buddypress said... November 17, 2009 4:44 AM Buy Research Paper said... February 17, 2010 3:56 AM Anonymous said... This is a great blog post! If you ever need PCBs produced for you instead of trying to make them yourself, you should check out www.sunstone.com. They were really helpful and produce quality PCBs April 8, 2010 9:06 AM TJ Biddle said... Hello! I really enjoyed your article. I'm just starting out and would like to learn more on this topic. Could you fill me in on a few details, such as: -Where you can buy a Blank PCB? -Where can I find the components that I'll be attaching to it? -How do I know what components are needed? Anything else that you find useful please feel free to add! Thanks! If you could email me, that would be great. biddle.thomas (at) gmail.com Thanks again! -TJ May 22, 2010 8:46 AM Anonymous said... one thing i would like to add regarding such topic is that while printing set print configuration to transparency because in this mode printer fuser(heater) section apply less heat instead of normal paper printer. so less heat means raw toner print, which can easy to escape from paper. May 28, 2010 2:00 PM Anonymous said... Hi, My name is JACQUES. I find the method good but as far as I can see that guy should sent us a small piece of paper that is is using so that we can try it using his method and where he got it from???????? May 31, 2010 6:48 AM Anonymous said... hi, this is patrick, is there any chemical i can use instead of using ammonium persulphate coz we can't buy anywhere and it must have licensed to buy it. I really need any idea i can use. thanks. June 8, 2010 8:09 AM

Anonymous said... If you don't succeed the first time can you use the same PCB and try it again or is that PCB pretty much done because of the heat? June 14, 2010 10:52 PM defry said... I have throuble in silver coating. Can U help me explain how to make silver coating in PCB July 22, 2010 7:48 AM Anonymous said... thanks foe all July 22, 2010 4:36 PM Erick said... With your experience what its better: GBC H425 http://www.gbclyreco.com/pdfs/897.pdf H312 http://www.gbclyreco.com/pdfs/906.pdf This its the only options to buy. Thanks. July 27, 2010 10:50 AM Sean said... August 26, 2010 2:30 AM Sean said... August 26, 2010 2:33 AM Anonymous said... So the ink acts as wire for the components January 17, 2011 5:36 AM Anonymous said... Thanks a lot this really helped me with some D.T homework January 22, 2011 11:56 AM Anonymous said... I normally get boards done by PCB shops but this weekend I just needed one fast so I used this same method. It was rather painless. 1. design PCB (I used KiCad because it is open source and allows me to make larger boards with no restrictions) 2. clean pcb (wash it with few drops of dishwasher liquid to get rid of any fingerprints grease of whatever else, then rinsed and at the same time used fine grade steel wool "0000"). the board was sparkling clean, smooth and shiny. 3. printed on gloss paper (it's thicker than normal paper and shiny) using my laser printer. 4. cut the print to size of board, laid it on top of copper and used iron for two mnutes on high (I just counted in my head to 120 and applied about 5kg force. first minute just resting iron on pcb, next minute gently rubbed entier PCB with iron, paper was starting to change color to pale yellow where PCB was). 5. soaked pcb for 2 minutes in hot water (just water from faucet) then gently peeled top layer of paper while letting water run into crack of peeled paper. 6. let the PCB cool for 1-2 minutes then used colder water (room temperature, not chilled) and a pencil eraser. eraser was great to peel layers of paper (they roll off). took about 5 minutes to get it cleaned up really well. the black transfer gets harder and not as sensitive when cooled down. 7. pcb was slightly larger than print so for the kicks, i wanted to see if regular sharpie can be used to protect coper from echant so i made few tiny marks in free space. 7. etched, then cleaned under running water with the same steel wool. everything worked like a charm... everything was perfect but sharpie failed. it left few flaky dots but that was not good enough. it was no match for acid.

August 1, 2011 7:38 PM

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