I Can't get the toner to stick to the copper

pnp press and peel removing blue

I have read several topics and I even have a book that discusses the toner transfer method. I am able to print off a really nice looking circuit on to the press and peel blue paper. But when i try to iron on the toner it does not stick to the copper. Does anyone have any ideas?

I am using a Brother HL 2040 laser printer. Is anyone else using the same brand or model.

I am using the Press and Peel Blue paper.

I have set the iron to the hottest it will go and also I have tried to set the Iron to the wool setting which is at the lower end of the steam setting.

I dumped all of the water out and tried to test the iron to make sure that the iron didn't have any steam in the iron.

I tried to clean the copper before I made the transfer.
I used a pice of steel wool and dish soap to clean the surface of the copper.
Then i used a sponge with the rough surface to clean it again.

Thank you for your help.

pnp paper+canada

Dish soap is not ideal. When I used to make my own pcb's I used fine emery paper, metal polish for copper then rinsed with water and degreased with methalated spirits and 1,1,1trichloroethane (now banned, "coldklene" aerosols seem to be a resonable substitite).

The ferric chloride etching fluid worked much better on a deoxidised and degreased board.

Don't know about the toner, I used photoresist and a UV box or put the copper board in a plotter and plotted the tracks onto it with permanent marker ink.

pnp blue paper problems

are you printing on the right side of the press+peel paper.you print to the dull side and the iron should be about in the middle setting-2 to 3 minutes of light pressure is all thats needed

press-n-peel

michaelmoore44

Just in case you did not read this
this was the method I used and the iron I brought from tesco's for a fiver and it was set to the hottest setting well just under and got perfect results on a double sided PCB with mostly SMT components the PCB looked like what you got printed on paper follow these simple instructions and you won' go far wrong. I had the same trouble has you and nearly give up on it. found out where I went wrong I did not leave the iron on long enough and pressed down to hard and did not fully smooth the edges down enough hope this helps

Press-N-Peel - wonderful stuff!!! There is a small learning curve but if you pay attention to detail it works fantastic. I haven't had a bad board in years using the stuff. You didn't say whether you were using the Press-N-Peel Wet or Press-N-Peel Blue. I prefer the Blue since it doesn't require any soaking in cold water when finished and it has an extra thickness of the blue film which is very helpful with small traces. From an application standpoint, the only difference between the two types is how you remove it from the board when finished.

Here are the procedures that I go through with every board.
1- Cut the board to a size about 1/2" larger than the circuit requires.
2. After cutting the board, take a file to the edges and file down the copper edge of the board at about a 45 degree angle all the way around. No matter how the board was cut - with a shear, saw, or whatever, the cut leave a little edge standing up and this is enough to hold the iron up off of the Press-N-Peel in spots.
3. Take a piece of real fine sand paper and rough up the surface of the pc board. You are not looking at removing any copper, just enough scratching of the surface to give it a little 'tooth' for the plastic to bite on.
4. Use a clean soft rag with a little rubbing alcohol on it and clean the board surface, removing any copper dust from the sanding as well as finger prints. Don't touch the surface again after this.
5. Turn your iron on at a setting around the Rayon point (don't know how your clothes irons are marked over there). Do not use any steam. The iron should also be the type that doesn't automatically shut off when the temperature setting is reached.
6. Place the pc board on a paper towel, copper side up. Before I lay the Press-N-Peel down on the board, I usually take a soft paint brush that I keep just for this purpose, and brush off any lint, dust, etc that may have settled on it. I do the same thing to the P-N-P.
7. Lay the P-N-P centered on the pc board, printed side toward the board.
I know some of this is obvious but I'll include it anyway 8. Place the iron on top of the P-N-P and let it set for 10 - 15 seconds.
Then, not pressing down but letting just the weight of the iron do all of the work, I move the iron over the top of the P-N-P in small circles. The point to this is you are not ironing the P-N-P to the board, like ironing a shirt, but you are heating up the pc board to the same temp as the iron to allow the plastic in the toner and the film from the P-N-P to adhere to the board. If you want, you can place a clean sheet of paper between the iron and the P-N-P as this will help reduce some of the drag from the P-N-P as it heats.
9. The length of time that I apply heat generally depends on the size of the board. It can be anywhere from 2 to 5 minutes. Longer is better from my perspective. As long as you don't have the iron too hot, nothing is going to happen by leaving the heat on "too long".
10. After removing the iron, you have two choices. You can let the board sit until it is cool enough to touch and just slowly remove the P-N-P, or, you can pick the board up by the corners of the paper towel and carry it to the sink and run it under cold water. In this case, the cold water is helping to seize the plastic to the board faster and has nothing to do with actually removing the P-N-P if you are using the P-N-P Blue.

I then inspect the board for any places that the P-N-P didn't adhere to and I just a magic marker (permanent ink marker) to fill in those spots. If you leave the board in the etchant too long, it will eventually eat through the ink before it does the P-N-P but I've found that usually the copper is removed from the board long before it starts to penetrate the ink. Believe it or not, red ink has a thicker base coat that the black does so I try and keep a red marker around for that purpose but the black ink does work.

I don't remove the P-N-P until after I have drilled the board. To remove it, you can use a fine grade steel wool but it takes a lot of rubbing to get everything off the board. The first time you go to remove it, you really realize how well protected your traces are from the etchant. What I have found easiest is take just a small amount of paint thinner on a paper towel and rub it lightly over the P-N-P. I let it set for about a minute for the thinner to penetrate the P-N-P and then using the same paper towel I just rub around the board until everything is removed. The paint thinner does not hurt the pc board. When finished, I use a little soap and hot water to remove any residue, put the pc board in my shear and trim it to size.


wizpic

staples photo basic gloss paper

I finally got it to work! But i used a different type of paper. I used Staples Photo Basic gloss paper and it worked great and came off very nicely.

Thank you all for your help.

I do still have some P-N-P blue paper so i will deffinitly still have to master the art of using the P-N-P paper. I can deffinitly see that it will be a great thing to use once i get a handle on it. It has lots of advantages over using regular paper.

how to stick paper to copper

i never knew that you could use Photo Basic gloss paper for this how much did it cost from staples and whats the full name i will have to try it out

cheers

wizpic

iron which doesnt stick to copper

The full name is "photo basic goloss" the item number is 471861 for the 30 sheet pack you can just paste the item number itno the search field and it will come up with the product. price w/o shipping was ≈$6.00

I got the idea to use this type of paper from this web site **broken link removed**