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The Secret
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Sep 11

Written by: Gary Holbrook
9/11/2007 5:15 PM 

Ok.  This was my second attempt.  Along the way, I discovered that printing on a color printer is a bad idea.  Why?  High end color laser printers put a waxy coating on top of their toner to protect the stuff they print out.  Now, reverse that coating when ironing on to a circuit board you can imagine that the protective coating prevents the toner from transferring to the board.  And, it makes it a pain in the ass to clean the board afterwards.

DSCN5940_edited-1You may notice that this board isn't quite as pretty.  It looks like someone might have hand drawn some of the traces...Here is the thing, electronic circuits like big, round, fat traces (they make the rockin' world go round)!  I used the Gimp to fatten up some of the traces and solder pads.  The idea was that they would stick to the board better than very thin, long traces.  Oddly enough, even the long, narrow traces seem to have turned out on this board.

In the next couple of weeks I will post the results of a board made with silkscreen resist, and another board made with photo resist.  The toner transfer method has been too inconsistent for me, however it may become more reliable with more practice.

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