PCB Transfer Help

[madbean]

Not as far as I can tell. I think it is more of a consistency of application. I started getting much better results once I backed off the heat on my iron. Some traces can get a little aliased, but not too bad. Today I tried letting the transfer cool to room temperature before immersing in water. It worked well: seems like the adhesion was a lot stronger.

[Haberdasher]

Thanks 

I only use the laminator with one or two passes through and it seems to do the trick.  If too much heat is used it's very difficult to remove the paper afterwards.  There is definitely a happy medium in there.

BTW, I found that the S.U.D. gloss cover released cleaner and easier than their gloss text paper.

[irmcdermott]

Sooooo. I ordered the Sterling Ultra Digital, and I'm not having any luck getting a transfer. I was making the switch because I'm tired of taped on magazine paper jamming up my printer.

I'm beginning to wonder if they sent me the wrong product, because by everything you all are telling me, it shouldn't be as difficult for me to get a transfer. I'm talking, I sometime don't get anything, no matter how much time/heat I apply or how many times I put it through the laminator, I can't get a good (if at all) transfer. Portions of the toner will transfer, but not the whole board.

So, I will first ask, when you order from AJ&S Papers, what does the packaging for the S.U.D. paper look like? Any logo, or is it just in a big box like mine came in? This is what I ordered....

http://www.ajandspaper.com/sterling-ultra-digital6.html

[jimmybjj]

Sooooo. I ordered the Sterling Ultra Digital, and I'm not having any luck getting a transfer. I was making the switch because I'm tired of taped on magazine paper jamming up my printer.

I'm beginning to wonder if they sent me the wrong product, because by everything you all are telling me, it shouldn't be as difficult for me to get a transfer. I'm talking, I sometime don't get anything, no matter how much time/heat I apply or how many times I put it through the laminator, I can't get a good (if at all) transfer. Portions of the toner will transfer, but not the whole board.

So, I will first ask, when you order from AJ&S Papers, what does the packaging for the S.U.D. paper look like? Any logo, or is it just in a big box like mine came in? This is what I ordered....

http://www.ajandspaper.com/sterling-ultra-digital6.html

I ordered from the same place, works great for me. What laminator are you using? This is what mine looks like.

[irmcdermott]

mine definitely didn't come like that. someone from AJ&S is emailing me this late (because they are watching the NBA finals game) telling me that he sent an extra ream to say thank you, but it is definitely the Sterling.

This is what showed up....



My laminator is a Scotch TL901. Don't think that is the problem. It gets extremely hot.

I almost had a complete transfer. I'm just not getting good results yet.

[jimmybjj]

Hmmmm I don't know. Have you tried using a iron to see if you get a complete transfer? I know it defeats the purpose of having the laminator but it sounds like you are having uneven heat transfer. If we can eliminate one variable at a time we might be able to come closer to finding the problem. If you want PM me your addresss and I'll drop a couple sheets of the stuff I have in the mail so that you can compare yours to mine.

My experience has been the sterling stuff works way better than any photopaper I have tried. I do a iron/laminator/iron method that is pretty darn successful most of the time. I'm using the brother laser printer that everyone on the other forum says doesn't work because of the crappy toner.

[irmcdermott]

I finally got a good etch after about 20 attempts, I guess the learning curve was just more than I was expecting. I'm so used to using magazine paper, where 1min30sec with an iron gets a good transfer, I think I was also just being impatient. Still not sure. AJ&S still swears it's 2 reams of Sterling. I might take you up on getting a sheet from you to compare.

I'm also using a Brother printer, so maybe that is part of it. I plan on buying a new printer in a few months so I can stop feeling guilty about using all the toner from my work provided printer for my hobby I also want to get a color laserjet so I can do my decals from home and not somewhere else.

I do use the iron/laminate/iron method, because that's what Brian suggests. Like I said, I think it just takes longer than my old method.

I also think it's a bit humorous that the guy the wrote an Etching Tutorial that Brian is getting ready to put online is asking questions about toner transfer  But that tutorial uses magazine paper, which I've used for over a year now with great success.