Printed Circuit Board
Allright, after cleaning your board, grab that hardwood thing, put on a level surface, put the clean PCB over it, copper facing up. Put the printed piece of paper over and tape it like the picture using MASKING TAPE. Try to keep the paper with just a little "tension" over it.
That done, turn up
your engine...for the iron. I use an old Black & Decker and the dial on the
number 5. This iron is capable of leaving BUBBLES on the copper! Believe me, I
wasted a couple of boards already. No more than 30 seconds with this guy heavyly
applied over the board.
On some irons you can use the highest number.
Now, apply the iron over the paper. Don´t worry, the paper won´t burn. Heat passes thru the paper and the board wiil absorb good part of it, dissipating it. While this happens, the Printing Toner and a thin photo paper layer is transferred to the PCB.
The time spent on that is short. It ranges from 20 to 40 seconds, I´ve been using 30 seconds now with a different iron than the above. Try to use your body weight on the first "press" (that is, lean over the board holding the iron firmly against it and count slowly to 30). After this, "iron" the board by using the iron tip to slowly and carefully go over all the surface, just to make sure the borders also got "glued" to the board.
Note: be careful to don´t let the paper spin or move over the board, if it occurs the artwork will be all messed up and you´ll have to start over. Just clean the board with acethone/thinner and print a new piece of paper. That is WHY you have to tape the paper with a little tension over the board. Just a little. On the first ironing the paper should stick to the board.
After finishing, TRY TO RESIST THE TEMPTATION of removing the paper, LOL... =) WAIT until it is COMPLETELY COOLED. After ironing you can remove the masking tape and take the whole thing to cool off the hardwood board (which will be also hot).
última atualização: 03/06/2004 17:07