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Best laser printer for toner transfer

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BobW

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I need to buy a new laser printer, and one of my concerns is how well it will work for making toner transfer PC boards. My old HP laser printer was pretty good for this. In fact, that's about the only thing that it was good for. But I won't be buying another HP printer. Ever.

I've been leaning towards a Brother all-in-one printer, after having good results with them at work, but I don't know how well they work with toner transfer.

Just wondering what others are using and how well they work.
 
"Laser" printer has become synonymous with any dry process (non-inkjet printer), but not all use lasers. Some of the very popular printers use led's, such as OKI and, I believe, Brother (https://smallbusiness.chron.com/led-printer-work-56427.html ). It is hard information to find. Is that distinction important?

I have a Brother HL-2270DW, which is quiet, fast, and cheap. It has replaced my HP 4101MFP, which sounds like a truck in the room, except for one purpose -- printing transparencies for the photographic process. The HP results are great; the Brother's results are not nearly as good as the toner doesn't stick to the transparency very well. Several months ago, I corresponded with an individual on another forum about his toner transfer method. He had a wonderful process and even used a color "laser" printer that was actually an led-based OKI printer. Microscopically, the Bother and HP images on a transparency are different. The HP appears as individually dense, tiny dots. The Brother was more like tiny splotches of paint.

Moral of that story, there are differences and you may not really want a laser printer.

My suggestion is to go to a Best Buy or equivalent computer center that will let you test the printers. Bring a magnifying loop and look at the printed images. In Cleveland, the center I went to even let me make some test prints that I could take home and try. It may be that an inexpensive Brother or other led printer where the toner doesn't stick as well as a laser's toner sticks is the way to go.

Here's a link to that individual's (cmartinez) toner transfer process. His results are quite good: https://forum.allaboutcircuits.com/...ter-for-making-pcbs.110189/page-2#post-849894

John
 
Thanks for the info and the cmartinez link.

I used "Laser" as a generic term for dry process. LED will be fine as long as it does the job.

Getting the toner to stick properly to the media seems to be a common concern. Even my old HP printer had problems with this, although I found ways to minimize the problem. The other main concern is toner density. I had bought the HP based on various comments at the time that the HP could apply toner more densely than most other printers.

I'll take your advice and get the store to print me out some sample sheets.
 
Hi Bob,

I practiced many years as a microbiologist. Anyway, getting organisms in a specimen to stick to a clean glass slide for staining can be a problem. Most toner transfer aficionados preach about using a scrupulously clean PCB blank. Well, in microbiology we did the opposite. We added just a little serum albumin to the suspension or slide as a wetting agent, and it bound the organisms to the glass just fine after drying. I have suggested to others dipping the bare PCB in a very dilute solution of protein, letting it dry, then transferring the toner image to it. So far, no one has tried it or at least replied. For the "protein," you could use gelatin, egg white, or even pectin. Heck, milk might even work. It should not need to be a protein per se, just something that will "fix" to the PCB.

If you open a PM with Mr. Martinez, feel free to reference me. I am sure he will remember our PM's about PCB making. I believe the color Brother "laser" printer is similar in mechanism to the printer he uses. His results are really spectacular.

John
 
Actually, I've never had problems with the toner not adhering to the PCB. My problem has been that the toner would not adhere properly to the transfer paper, and would get picked up and redeposited by the rollers in the printer as the sheet came out. This is no doubt due to the type of transfer paper that I use (semigloss photo inkjet paper). But I eventually solved this problem by wiping the transfer paper with a cloth dampened with methyl alcohol before running it through the printer. The alcohol evaporates immediately, and the paper is dry before it goes through the printer, but the alcohol alters the paper surface enough that the toner binds to it much better. I also found that it's a good idea to run a couple of pages through the printer immediately before printing the PCB layout, because the fuser takes a while to reach optimum temperature, and it won't be quite hot enough if it's been sitting idle before printing the PCB layout.
 
I used to use braso copper cleaner and shine the pcb's until almost mirror like. NEVER worked well for me, like john said it can be too slippery.

What I do now is clean with IPA or sometimes acetone, use gloves while cleaning so my hands get no oil on the boards. Then the best trick I ever found was to use a fiber pen (the ones for cleaning flux and that off a pcb) and clean board with that then wipe again with IPA.
The pen thing will put loads of small scratches on the board and give a good surface to key in the toner.

As to printer HP original toner has always worked well for me followed by epsom toner, I have found most toner replacement cartridges that are not from the manufacturer are not as good, I have no idea why though
 
I just clean the board with dish detergent, water, and a green Scotchbrite pad. The Scotchbrite pad is just abrasive enough to give the copper a dull surface finish that gives the toner something to bond to.

BTW, many petroleum based solvents can contain traces of oily contaminants that will stay on the surface of the board. That's why I stick with water and detergent.
 
I've been using a samsung ml191 laser printer for a few years now with no complaints. I use a high quality printer paper ( the shiny type). I scotch brite the board using "bar keepers friend" , rinse and clean with acetone. the smallest so far has been a QFN16.
 
Scotch brite pads leave the same finish as the fiber pens, I use them because it was what I had at the time and they can do finger edges etc. I use good grade IPA or acetone, NEVER nail polish remover. While it is essentially acetone it is often contaminated, I have never had any oily deposits from the solvents I use.

The best paper I have found is white pages in the argos catalog!!!
 
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