i know this video is years old, i still needed to post a message saying thank you, I had this exact same printer for a few months now and i could not get it to manual feed till I saw how you did it lmaooo i feel so dumb now but I'm also happy seeing how it works lol
Thanks for the video and I have a question for you and other friends of the viewer. Are all laser printers capable of doing this or is it a special model?
There are two main problems with such a solution. 1. the photosensitive material on the drum is quickly damaged by the laminate after few printing sessions and it will no more pick-up the toner where scratches or abrasions are present; 2. the overall printing process causes strong distortion of the layout's geometry (up to 4mm and more on one axis isn't infrequent on an A4 sheet); thus it can be used for single layer PCBs only; printing on both sides sums the geometric distorsions making vias impossible to collimate with pads.
Would that printer have enough room to print onto a paper cup? Maybe removing more of the printer below the paper feed mechanism. I’m trying to use a laser printer for quick custom paper cups. The toner is waterproof like I need.
To come soon, probably an Instructible. The main hacks are getting the paper path straight through the printer and removing the fuser. At this time only the Lexmark E260 seems to work reliably, though I will be testing some others in the near future.
why the arm chair quaterbacking with brain in off position? its a demo...ever think prehaps he was demonstrating the durability even while doing things known/said to cause issues with the process?
Yes, it's neat idea with direct print, but the problem will be here: the drum will damaged quicker. There is very thin layer photosensitive on the drum for toner transfer. The sharp edges of pcb might bump a little against the drum, there you have chances for small scratches on drum layer. Because high damage risk, i should not recommended it very much, because you need also modify the printer for it. Other methodes with photopaper transfer are much safer and you can do it many times without any damage risk. Remember damaged drum has problem for fine patterns: they will start have missing some details. I know it because i make earlier many films. After many runs, the film prints starts to show missing details. But here direct print, it can already damaged after some prints. That is why it's not very smart idea, even it's easy and fast. But too risky and not acceptable for serious pcb work. My conclusion: not recommended. You don't want buy again expensive drum for big risk. Stick with safer photopaper printing and transfer. And indeed, double side is possible with photopaper.
Someone sells replacement parts. Used spare parts printers sometimes can be found for free. Fix them yourself so many times, and learn how / where and what you can replace with something else from somewhere else.
Fake. Photo drum is made of aluminium, and its hard, so transferring toner from hard surface to hard surface is literally impossible. Also photosensitive layer on photo drum is extremely thin and if it touch something harder then paper it will scratch.... So ...
I hate people like you. "Impossible, Impossible, Impossible!". Know what else was "impossible"? Airplanes, X-rays, and hundreds of other things. The time it took you to write your comment could of been better spent doing a simple google search. It's been done before and it does IN FACT work. I've seen it in person. You sir, are an idiot.
+George Eliozov You must try it. Just cut a aluminum foil letter size and print on it with you printer. It will print. Of course toner is not fixed on aluminum foil still. You need to heat up foil outside printer by yourselt. So, before I destroyed my old printer I test this way. It prints. To avoid damage drum just round egdes of PCB before printing. Two year ago I printed on PCB with Mark guide and help. "literally Imposible", lol.