Press & Peel PCB Film and Brother Printers

[rbright]

Just purchased a Brother B/W Laser printer to use with PnP Film but I noticed on the techniks.com web page (manufacturer of PnP) that there was some problems with Brother laser printers reported but they don't elaborate anywhere.

Before buying a 5 pack of PnP has anyone had problems that they would like to report.

Another question can I cut say a 100mm x 100mm section of the film and tape it to a piece of A4 to run through a printer so as to not blow a whole sheet for a smaller board.

Regards

 

[Dippy]

On the second question of sticking things to A4; please be careful.
Parts of the laser printer insides get hot enough to melt some adhesives.
This could cause all sorts of problems and may ruin your drum.
I did a similar thing once with an HP using Sellotape and got gooey gluey on my drum. Maybe some printers are more fussy than others?
Fortunately it towards the end-of-life and thank goodness HP Toners include a drum. Maybe there are special sticky tapes about? Dunno.

 

[slurp]

I'm not sure how it compares to press'n'peel but I've used the mounting medium for laser labels - the waxed paper back.

You need to take some care with iron temperatures and not sliding the mask when pressing, the larger the trace the better too. Don't forget you can touch up small gaps with permanent maker like Staedtler's Lumocolor.

These are pictures of early attempts, the thinner traces pictured are problematic. As the ink doesn't stick to the paper you can easily wipe it off before the transfer.

Best regards,
Colin

 

[Andrew Cowan]

Can you cut the paper down to an envelope size and stick it in the printers envelope slot/setting?

That's what I use to do.

 

[pyrogaz]

I have a Brother HL-2040 and use press and peel transfer film with no problems at all.

Yes, you can attach small pieces to an A4 backing sheet, I use a very small amount of Evostick contact adhesive ensuring it doesn't go beyond the edges of the film and risk contaminating the printer drum. I've had problems in the past with tape and laser printers so I prefer to avoid it but quite likely it would work just fine.

 

[KTarke]

Done it too ("glued" my HP:s drum with regular tape...)

From that I learned to use strong two-sided tape between the background paper and whatever is glued to the paper...

Hint: print a "grid" to the back-A4 first, then centering the pnp-piece is easy.
I assume, that Your program prints in the center of the A4...

 

[John D Hudson]

I have not used the press n peel system but print onto transparencies then expose on resist covered board. I was thinking about your using part of a sheet. The transparencies that I use have a piece of paper glued on them when you get them, could you just slip your pnp film between these two layers it would not have to be secured with tape or glue and you could use any size or shape you wanted. You would have to experiment with which surface you transfer to. find which works the best for you

Have a happy day

 

[Hooter]

I have used PnP on a Lexmark Laser printer in the past. Firstly I printed the image on a piece
of A4 to see exactly where it was going to end up. Then I cut the PnP about 10mm larger than the image printed. Then I used a sticky backed label ( the ones you print addresses on) and used that on the leading edge of the PnP to adhere the PnP over the previously printed image on the A4 and sent the lot through the printer again. Never had any dramas with the label melting etc.
Hooter

 

[KTarke]

Using adress-stickers is a good idea, their glue is meant to tolerate the heat of a laser printer.

It seems to be ,that printers are very different.
When my HP gives a normal paper sheet out after printing ,it feels really warm... no wonder if it can melt ordinary tape.
The temperature of the heater has to be related to the speed of printing, and HP's are really fast...

 

[SAborn]

I to have used the waxy backing from sticky labels and find it can work a treat.

Go to your local printer who makes signs from the vinal lettering (almost all of them nowdays) and ask for some of the paper the vinal comes stuck to.
Its the waxy paper backing like used on the sticky labels.

Printers throw large rolls of the stuff out and are happy to give it away.
One visit and you will have enough for a life time of A4 printing.

You just need to cut the roll of waxy backing paper into A4 sheets.