I don't know if its possible, but can you increase the dpi or the toner darkness of your printer? I do see small pits in the large areas of copper that might be due to small holes in your toner mask.
Hi, evaine23! I'm using Samsung ML-1640 with 600 dpi and "economy mode" off. This printer has also 1200 dpi capabilities, but i don't see any differences in final result. Toner is far from exhausted (almost new). As for pitting the PCB looks a lot better in reality than on this really bad picture. For example, larger area of copper on the bottom of the PCB has no pitting at all - what you see is just dirt from my fingers. Yet, there is some pitting in central area.
How are you removing the paper after transferring the toner to the coper? Have you tried to use a different type of paper? I was having substandard results until i switched to some hammermill color laser gloss paper.
I tried different types of paper, except inkjet glossy paper. So far proved to be the best is gummed paper that I used in this test. It is dextrin coated paper like Pulsar's "Toner Transfer Paper" (like mail stamps) that accepts toner very well. After laminating dextrin is easily dissolved in water leaving pure toner on copper without paper residues! Paper that I use is a cheap children's collage paper with these water activating coating. I intend to try also laser glossy paper, but it is very hard to find it cheap where I leave.
I typically run it though my laminator 10 to 16 times rotating the board every few passes.
If you can please tell me what kind of laminator you use (I use GBC brand)!
The paper normally floats off and I etch from there without any scrubbing.
Does this mean that you do not have grayish paper residues with this (laser glossy) paper?
...you said you use the HCL and H2O2 etching method, what ratio are you mixing these two chemicals together and what are the concentrations of each...
What ratio - I really have no idea. I do a very roughly mixture ("judged by eye"
) of 20% HCl and 12% "pharmacy purity" H2O2 without additional water. Ratio is maybe 5 parts of HCl to 1 part of H2O2.
And to add at the end, I have a habit of first pour the HCl into the pan, then put the PCB inside, and then add H2O2 over all, while the reaction starts. Maybe then some harmful reaction appears? It seems to me that detaching of toner starts when i add H2O2, BUT I'M REALLY NOT SURE! I tried to put the PCB separately in HCl and H2O2 and nothing happened.