Iron the layout onto the PCB.

[MrEd]

I just found out about Press-n-peel, a blue film you laser print the artwork onto and then iron it straight on to the board. It works very well when the Gods are with you. A couple of times I have managed to make really good transfers but even if I do exactly the same again it is not alway good and it doesn't adhere everywhere. Tried all kinds of temperature settings, times and different methods and crazy ideas. Anyone who managed to get a foolproof routine on this?

Cheers
Eddie

 

[Buddy]

Same problem here. I found that it depends on how long the stuff has been on the shelf. Longer the worse. Bad method for doing things professionally -> so I send it to PCB shops

Best regards,
BB

 

[MrEd]

That is interesting, but I think it could be partly true as I normally print several layouts on the same sheet. Some work fine some don't.
I also normally send it to the PCB place but I think it is cool getting an idea and the same day you have the ready product in your hand. If you know liquid plastic you can even have a cool box.
I just did a front label with over 50 leds and difficult cutouts which would have looked terrible filing or cutting it out. I made a rubberstamp using Corel Draw of where all the holes are and poored the liquid plastic in the rubber stamp mixing a cool color, then a screen print over that and voila, a thin very nice looking frontpanel looking good enough for showing the whole concept. Unfortunately I can't do screenprinting (yet) so I still have to give it away for a day to have that done. I would like to be able to do the whole thing in one day (when I need to).

Back to the press n peel. I thought of trying to pre-warm the PCB which I will test next time to see if that makes any difference. Can't think of more things to try right now.

Irritating when you get one side absolutely perfect and then the other side gets crappy several times in a row.

Cheers
Eddie

 

[CoronaFire]

I hope I'm not out of place saying this here, but I've been using an transfer method of producing pcb's at work from some years now, and have the process down pat. I have close to 100% reliable transfer rate, I can't remember the last time I had to start agin with a pcb. We use pcb's I make in house using this process for all our professional products, unless we need a larghe run done and then the time involved makes it worth going to outside manufactures.
The catch is I've written my process up into an eBook for work, so I can't really tell you here for copywrite reasons. If you're interested in the eBook it's here: **broken link removed**
Geez I hate sounding like I'm a marketing idiot, but hopefully this might help you.

 

[MrEd]

Thanks but I don't have a credit card