SUCCESS: Toner trasfer 3rd try

FINALLY!

I finally have the toner transfer method for single sided boards down! The important thing is to use PHOTO PAPER... I was trying to get away with standard printer/copier paper...
I used HP Everyday Photo Paper, on an HP LaserJet 1012 printer. 25 sheets cost me R75, so R3 a shot. Let me explain why you need to use photo paper instead of normal paper... Toner is plastic particles... that get burned on to the paper by the laser in the laser printer. On the normal paper the plastic toner particles get infused with the paper fiber & then they dont seperate properly in water... maybe if I left a board in water over night normal paper could work...? (I'm not really patient enough to find out...) With photo paper... & if you look click the packaging phtoto to enlarge it, you will see it is SEMI-GLOSSY... I think this means that there is only 1 glossy side... which is perfect for me... the glossy side is glossy enough... so the toner gets burned onto the thin plastic layer of gloss on the phtoto paper... which allows for this... :)
The paper layer magically seperates from the thin plastic layer! I just pulled one corner of the paper & it all came off at once together!
I rubbed the rest of the paper residue off with my thumb, took the board out & dried it... it looked like this! What you see is a thin layer of burned gloss! so I...
Re submerged the board in the water, got an old tooth brush & scrubbed that all off... scrubed pretty heard... the toner was firmly attached to the copper.
& the finished result :) pretty much perfect... there were two tracks that had a small gap in them...
It was a hot day, not a cloud in the sky, probably 35 degrees Celsius! I heard the ferric chloride reaction works better the warmer it is & in direct sun light... which it did. I used another tooth brush to rub the copper. It was a much faster reaction! Probably under 10 minutes... & yes! I am fed up with the smell of ferric chloride & the fumes that it releases. I decided to use the protective equipment I have! Because I was using a tooth brush in the ferric chloride, some ferric chloride sprinkled its self onto my cloths :(
This is the result after rinsing in water. I'm told another way to speed up the reaction is to put a second paint tray with boiling water under the paint tray with ferric chloride! This also work, I made a stepper driver this weekend using the hot water in the bottom paint tray, it was a cloudy day that day... the reaction was very quick, also around 10minutes or less!
Left: the new PCB etched, Right: an older PCP.
I left the toner on, so I could identify where to drill the holes a bit easier... I think all the holes, pads & via's should be 1mm! getting hold of 0.7mm, 0.8mm was difficult... I couldn't find any 0.9mm bits! My drill press is still on its way! I used a drill press for the first stepper board! A drill press makes a 1hr40min job complete in 20 minutes! I am seriously considering trying a board with an SMD component! since I have my toner transfer method working well... I dont want to WASTE time drilling holes!
I placed all the components on the board just to make sure all the holes were drilled & that everything could fit where it was supposed to. I have 5mm LED's, but now see that i need 3mm LED's instead.
View from the side.
View from under.
I decided to put the top ink on!
I didn't align it 100% but it was good enough, also I didnt let the paper soak in water long enough so some markings stayed on the paper...
I then cleaned the toner off with thinners & soldered the most exciting componet first... I now realize that the smallest components should be first... resistors...
capacitors & the choke
I started tinning as I went along. I now know a better technique! Tin the whole board first, then put in the components!
resistors & diodes...
tin
tin for more components. my soldering iron's thermostat was still broken at this time so the tracks started lifting off the fiber glass :(
Finished top view
Finished bottom view.

I read somewhere that opaque transparencies can be used... when you iron the PCB layout onto the coper, just the toner moves off the transparency then you submurge in cold water & the plactic transparency just seperates from the copper, leaving the toner on the copper & then you can reuse the transparency :) I might trie this...

so im waiting for my soldering iron to come back from repair before make another arduino, & then make some stepper motor dirver boards!

FAILED: Toner trasfer 2nd try

I am so close to getting this right now... but not quite yet.

Clean a piece of copper board with thinners & some mutton cloth or a rag.
Use scotch bright bad to clean the copper to a shine. The scotch bright pad is very abrasive & leaves a thin layer of copper partials all over the board. You wont be able to see them but wiping the board down again with some cloth will show... I know this because i tried *this* method of toner transfer & the transfer was patchy... I rinsed the board in water, then wiped it down again.
Turn you iron onto the hottest setting. It's probably better to use a NON-STEAM IRON, but mine was a steam iron, so I had to drain out all the water first.
Print the positive mirror of the board you want. Use the highest print settings. I used standard copy paper & a laser printer.
Use masking tape to tape on end of the print out to the board, then stretch the other end & tape it. Tape everything so that it is tight. this ensures that there will be no air bubbles in the paper when you iron it.
Center the iron over the board, & leave it there for 2 minutes.
Use your 2 minutes to fill up the kettle & boil the water.
Iron the board in every direction putting pressure. You can stop ironing once you hear the kettle has boiled.
So after a total of 5 minutes of ironing my board looked like this. I left it to cool for a bit while I...
Plugged up the kitchen sink & emptied the kettle into the sink.
Let is sit in the boiling water for about 13 minutes, you should be able to see the tracks through the paper.
Rub the paper with your finger. the paper should easily dissolve & come off.

1. Don't rub in the same spot for too long. The toner tracks will break.
2. Don't rub too hard. The toner tracks will break.
3. Don't rub too fast. The toner tracks will break.
4. Once there as some paper balls, shake them off so that the don't roll over the board again. If you don't, the toner tracks will break.

Here you can see the paper balls forming.
After all the paper is off, this is what the board looks like. Some of the tracks were damaged, so...
I tried my best to touch them up with a permanent marker, but the tip was to fat!
pore half a bottle of ferric chloride in a paint tray.
Submerge the board in ferric chloride. This photo angle shows there was still some paper residue on the board!
I wish i had a shake table! The fumes were so strong! I sat there for 45 minutes shacking the paint tray to agitate the solution in the hope that the reaction would go faster. I Did this for 25 minutes which was not enough. so then I checked on a 5 minutes interval.
Put on a glove & rinse the board in a separate paint tray containing tap water.
Once my board looked like this I decided it was done etching. In some places it was over exposed & the copper tracks were eaten away. Dry the board with a paper towel.
Pour the ferric chloride back in the container. The solution becomes weaker but that's ok. When this solution begins to take too long to do reactions I will try the pool acid & hydrogen peroxide! At least that is clear. (so you can see the reaction happening)
Take some thinners & a cloth & wipe off the toner, leaving the developed PCB. As you can see from this picture there are broken tracks everywhere. The next day, the board looked like it was oxidizing again. I should probably mention it has been raining a lot lately & there is a lot of moisture in the air.

So if anyone has read this & has a working method for toner transfer PCB etching & wants to save me some trouble, please let me know! Photos of each step would be really nice, but at this point I would settle for very explicit, clear & unambiguous instructions.

And Yes, I am aware that the exposure time for the board in the acid depends on:

1. the size of the board
2. the amount of exposed copper that needs to react
   
3. the strength of the acid
4. the temperature of the acid - (there is no ways I will heat up any acid! That's where i draw the line)
   

This is painful!

FAILED: toner transfer

I found some WEAK instructions on the net on how to do toner transfer. All the instructions are week. I followed them as best I could. When i get my method right I will document it unambiguously & very explicitly!
so after ferric chloride, I thought this was a complete reaction... The color of the original copper was different to the reacted copper... Since i know no better, I continue with the next step.
I cleaned the toner off with thinners, cut a piece of chip board, clamped the PCB to the board so that I wouldn't drill holes through my Mom's kitchen table. Got out my manual hand drill & a pack of 0.7mm HSS drill bits.
I start the first hole & snap my first bit imediately!
My Dad decided to help me & we got a bit clever! We unscrewed the handle of the manual drill, then took put the power drill's chuck over the manual's handle. We balanced the drill combo on some masking tape & a small box, there was just enough spring to push down on the manual (red) drill to drill a hole, then it would spring back easily when done. This method worked for a while... then the manual drill's gears, which i assume are made from plastic started failing. All this hassle just because I don't have a drill press... yet...
So I think I'm done drilling... I find out later that i missed about 5 holes. It took 1hr25 to drill all the holes of a Arduino Serial.

HUGE DISAPPOINTMENT!

After all that trouble, I realize that print out was not 1:1! I'm furious now! In my mind I still think that the board etched properly... The next day the board is black with oxide... So then I realized that I took it out the ferric chloride too soon!
I decided to just place in as many components as I could... just for some motivation... My holes we not straight... some of the headers would never fit no matter what! The manual drill "walks" a bit when you start drilling. The position you intend the hole to be in is seldom where it ends up.

Eventually I will either succeed with my own etching or I will go back to trying to figure out how to lay everything out on vero board. Either way, I have ordered an Arduino with my reprap kit order from the RRRF. I just have to wait for my brother to bring it back from the USA.