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:

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:

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.

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.

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:

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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):

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 aprotoype 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 regularpaper, and a household iron set on full (l inen). I cannot get the toner to transfer well at all. Thereare 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 hotenough to feel l ike it would burn you.

What kind (brand and model) of paper are you using? I tried Staples Photo Basic Matt and StaplesPhoto Basic Gloss. The gloss worked, but the gloss coating actually melted onto the board also andwas impossible to get off without damaging the toner traces. The toner transfer was unreliable withthe matt. I think I just need the right paper. If you could tell me the exact paper you used, that mightmake all the difference for me.

42 comments:

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 andbarely looked different to normal paper apart from it was a bit thicker. Might be a case of trial anderror!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 yoursuccessful project here. How about pitting? A guy that's sell ing a DIY PCB kit/system swears that ifyou don't put a plastic fi lm over the toner, l ike the one he sells, the copper will pit really badly fromthe etchant because it (the toner) is porous. I am wondering if what he is tell ing me is correct. Didyou 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 practiceI could get it to work well every time without pitting. Make sure you set your printer settings to use alot of ink. There are a few printer settings that relate to this such as ink saving and quality. Just gothrough 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 fi lm.its quite cheap, but u sti l l have to printit 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 followingwebsite http://www.mgchemicals.com/techsupport/index.htmlI also read above someone was having trouble with the hot ironing process. They also sell kits forphoto-transfer process which does not involve using the hot iron at all (to see an example of how thephoto process works follow this l ink: http://www.mgchemicals.com/techsupport/photo_demo.html)I am not affi l iated with the site I recommended but I have used their stuff before. Their kits are moreexpensive than the laser printer/hot iron one-off-method but if you make PCBs often enough it willsave you time and ensure consistency. If you only want to put out one or two PCBs for a project theirkits may not be practical for you. Having this information handy can't hurt either way. I hope thathelps!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 theboard. so instead of say 7 l ines running next to each other its more like 2-4 lines and sometimes itmakes 1 line. Or maybe its the iron since it doesnt fit over all of the board and i have to move itaround some to get all of it. not really sure on what to do. Also sometimes some of the lines donttransfer over. it could be any thing from big to l ittle l ines 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 aclean piece of copy paper.Set the iron to 300°F, set iron on top for a minute then rotate iron 90°and 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 alternativeI saw a method on youtube that converted an epson(?) bubblejet to "print" PCBS. Uses specificPIGMENT ink (not the standard shop bought) and, once you convert the bubblejet to accept thePCB 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 resil l iantto the etchant...Might be worth a look (and cheaper than buying your mum/wife a new iron - ooops.. did I say thatmy 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 peoplecan 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 easilydetachable when heat is applied. This look like a fast and easy way to make PCBs. It's worth tryingto 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 didnotwork(LAser printing)please reply on : bishoy_25@yahoo.comthnx

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 printerpaper ie: Staple have a good range

Best RegardsTellstar

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 themyourself, you should check out www.sunstone.com. They were really helpful and produce qualityPCBs

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 fi l l me in on a few details, such as:-Where you can buy a Blank PCB?-Where can I find the components that I'l l 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 l ike to add regarding such topic is that while printing set print configuration totransparency because in this mode printer fuser(heater) section apply less heat instead of normalpaper 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 asmall piece of paper that is is using so that we can try it using his method and where he got itfrom????????

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 wecan'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 prettymuch 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

H425http://www.gbclyreco.com/pdfs/897.pdf

H312http://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 samemethod. It was rather painless.1. design PCB (I used KiCad because it is open source and allows me to make larger boards with norestrictions)2. clean pcb (wash it with few drops of dishwasher l iquid to get rid of any fingerprints grease ofwhatever else, then rinsed and at the same time used fine grade steel wool "0000"). the board wassparkling 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 justcounted in my head to 120 and applied about 5kg force. first minute just resting iron on pcb, nextminute gently rubbed entier PCB with iron, paper was starting to change color to pale yellow wherePCB was).5. soaked pcb for 2 minutes in hot water (just water from faucet) then gently peeled top layer ofpaper 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 chil led) and apencil eraser. eraser was great to peel layers of paper (they roll off). took about 5 minutes to get itcleaned 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 toprotect 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 acharm... everything was perfect but sharpie failed. it left few flaky dots but that was not goodenough. it was no match for acid.

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