Direct PCB Printing with a Modified Laser Printer 

Hello, probably I have an explanation why you have to stretch PCB "image". You do not take in account that when you feed PCB board through the printer, it pulled by rubber rollers. As your board is significantly thicker than sheet of paper the rubber roller is compressed more than it was designed for. The compression of rubber "decreases diameter of rubber roller and circumvent of roller decreases" -- the PCB board feeds at slightly slower linear speed than it should. Electronics of the printer control angular speed of rotation the rubber roller and was not designed to use thicker print media. If you could increase spacing between rollers to maintain original pressure then linear speed should be correct and printed image would not require a "correction" by adding 1% in direction of movement.

Pro tip from someone covered in this toner for years: I recommend you keep the foam from the toner cartridge. NOTHING cleans up toner better than that foam.

long live the S-S-S-S-S-even segment display clocks :)

Such a relaxing voice. Watched it twice just for the Asmr

Everyone screamed NOOOOOOOO when you rubbed your finger on the board and smeared it. But a great demostration, and the acetone trick is awesome, like yourself. We are big fans of your work and teachings.

I recall watching this a couple of years ago when interested in PCB building at home. One of your coolest projects.

Just heating printed PCB with an iron or with a soldering fan works well without the acetone.

The extra aluminum or steel rollers were probably to level guide the PCB. Unfortunately those toner cartridges are so sensitive, and expensive. Good work - figuring out the ground! I did this trick years ago, it didn't work for me - but if I knew about the grounding it would probably have made a big difference. I had to stop trying when I figured out the PCB'S were so inconsistent it never seemed to get a good print for me. If you pre-heat your board, maybe add one of those 3d-printer heating elements to the bottom, as it rolls through - at just the right temprature would be enough to cure the toner to the surface. Also, they can go in a toaster oven, instead of using acrylite to fuse the surface.

Very good work... No need to use acitone.. apply heat.. in toster oven

Thanks Professor Snape!

As you're working on bare feet just touch PCB with finger while printing to get a GOOD ground connection. Mains and bare feet is always a deadly combination! 😇

Uow, 2022 and it's still an interesting video.

you can shake some powder coat on top of the laser toner,blow out the surplus, and then put it in the oven. It will give you a nice thick surface for protection and it will keep the dimensions of the toner

Thank you so much for this video, and your others too for that matter, but this video helps me decide which way to go and I am moving toward the idea of a CNC that will using a black marker pen to draw out the copper traces. Then etch, and then put back into the exact same CNC machine for drilling. The CNC will have tool offsets for the black marker pen and the drill. I suppose it is more desireable to etch first before drilling to save on drill bits and to make drilling faster. My CNC design would have an easy way to set the PCB board on the tray bed, like an "L" shaped corner where you can set the PCB in the corner of the "L" and push it into the corner tightly and then use some kind of method to hold it in there. Then you could just draw the PCB, etch it, and then drill with no worries of mis-alignment.

If youre trying to build doublesided PCB, why dont you use two really thin one layer PCBs and epoxi them together?

Great video, I use the old iron on method with the iron set to medium. Before I start to iron I spray some silicone spay on a rage , then I iron the rag to transfer the silicone onto the iron. this makes the iron very slippery and prevents smudging. I have used this method for years and seems to work very well.

I wonder if you could round over the edges of the PCB with a file or sander to prevent scoring the roller?

mate, your projects are amazing!

Great video. I really like your method. (I only came across your video now and see it was already posted approx 3 years ago ) I use the Photoresist method (Positive 20) with various odd tricks & am happy with my results. I appreciate how much work it took to convert your printer. I hope by now you have solved the problem of the damage to the photoconductor roll.

Rearranging printer roller with Alumina rollers is a good way but chromium rollers work best for dyes and also engraved PCB works very effective rather than the emboss PCB. The printer looks good though.

well done. it has crossed my mind to try this with a suitable printer, but i was worried it will damage the drum.

With all these downsides, I just don't see the benefit over laser printing on tracing paper, applying a bit of oil and exposing the board. This works great for me and I find the exposing the most relaxing part of the process, while the etching takes most time, preparation and cleanup. Also Acetone and Toner dust are are recepie for cancer.

Get extremely thin PCB material. That will stop the damage to the drum and conform to the flatness of the drum. You can then make as many layers as you like, stack them and plate the holes.

the main disadvantage is the additional time for binding with the acetone, what is you main problem with the toner transfer method? I mean printing on paper and transfer to the metal isusually takes less than 1-2 minutes. I figured out when i started that my toner does not work with isoalcohol, and acetone disolves to fast (1-5 sec) so its unusable (even mixed with iso). Through experiments i found a better solvent: Xylene sold in Germany as "Universal Paint Thinner or Nitrothinner". Tro be sure look on the ‎ingredients of the can. I found out that for my toner the best mixture is 75% isoalcohol +25 Xylene. Its because there is enough Solvent (Xylene) and enough time to work with (doesnt evaporate instantly like with the actone i tried). Ah , there is one caviar, instead of normal paper i have to use magazine paper (doesn't matter if it has already color on it.) i use the Paper from the IKEA Kataloge i got for free :). Main reason i took that experimenting hassle is i wanted to elektro-etch a logo on a knife.

I think I have one of these exact same printers. I just need to get a new toner cartridge for it.

I have had nothing but good luck with toner transfer.

Thank you very very much for your display

well if you have to wait half an our for the toner to get hard, i think you might aswell use an iron. personally i'm just thinking of getting a small flocking heat transfer press for transfers

Thank you very much.

Why the Acetone method? If a regular laser printer uses heat to fuse the toner, and the regular fuser isn't strong enough, what about a small kitchen-top pizza oven, or a reflow oven (which, in hobbyist circles tend to be the same, really :p)?

Hello ! Thank you for your videos ! Can I use Lexmark E460 in this project ? May be you know ? I have new e460, but can not find good price for e260...

Toner Transfer ist much easier. No need to modify printer, just a suitable catalog page and a laminator. Works down to .2mm no problems.

cool all i need is a modified laser printer. thanks a whole lot.

Your voice reminds me of professor Snape for some reason

Does anybody remember the CD/dvd printers that we had 15 years ago? You'd put a CD in the tray, and a solid pigment image would adhere to the surface. A little surprised we can't hardness that for printing boards directly.

Have you tried transparency film and photoetching? Or direct laser imaging onto photoresist (like a laser projector imaging the photoresist coated PCB) ?

4 layer 2oz 0.1mm tracks have ruined me. Absolutely stopped taking pain for star grounding, snaking traces. Cheap 4 layer PCB goes brrrrrr

Amazing!!!!

Does it have to be laser printer? As we no longer need to transfer layout to board we could use DTG printer.

Marco, thanks for perfect howto on your instructables page.. I found your UPDATE recently, are you happy with 2.5W laser way of preparing pcb's ? I suppose that you are using that machine just for masking copper or are you able to engrave copper layer totally ?

So this is just a regular office printer and its normal toner cartridge?

Hello Marco you can help me with my problem, unfortunately the fact that the printer does not recognize the toner cartridge stops me totally.

Hello, I'm thinking about a fancy way to avoid the acetone part.. What if you use the pcb copper layer as a resistor, applying some current to it, in order to make it warm and dry the ink? It's a nice project, I think that with some tuning you will achieve a correct result. Probably if the printer firmware was open source, then with some modifications, and adding more sensors would result in a perfect print on the pcb. Maybe you can add some rollers at least to protect the toner from those scratches... They don't look very good! I don't know the laser print process, but maybe is not the most indicated... Think about an inkjet, modified to use a thicker ink, more like paint, that will dry in minutes... I think that it will be less sensible than laser. I have seen printers modified, in order to be used with clothing, is not an unusual thing.. Maybe some printers are more indicated, or have a firmware that it's more suitable than the others!

sorry didnt realize the upload date but here goes...this application much better than photo resist film however I am just beginning. may I ask what kind of etchant you are using? my recent purchase from eBay - a white crystalline with no name. can't figure out its chemical nomenclature. mixed messages about ratio as well. I can always go to ferric chloride but wanted a tidier option

i think the sketch is not good because the mfps is not working at all but it works without mcu mod. the sketch was compiled and succesfully written on the atmega328 mcu but i had no luck i guess with mcu mod.

Check your printing in precession 3 digits in gerber plots output settings,I assume your using MM Metric outputs from plots? Just a thought.

How EleksMaker® EleksLaser-A3 Pro 2500mW Laser Engraving Machine CNC Laser Printer works? Could you explain please.

there is a better method. I use A4 Paper with a gum coating (like post stamp). Then i print on the gum side and transfer with a modified laminator. solved all the problems you mentioned. also double side no problem and no changes on printer needed. only put into water and the paper come off with no force.

Hmm, I have a couple laser printers laying around. It might be worth a try.

your straight crazy bro! wow. very intelligent

Good idea sir. Hardware Changes video share please Thank you 🙏

كنت اتمنى انهاء المشروع بشكل كامل

What??? You didn't make a cnc machine to just route out the .001mm copper? just kidding, this is awesome, I was thinking exactly this after dozens of failures of toner xfer, why can't I just print right to the copper?? I haven't taken apart a printer, but I assumed the paper must roll past the laser curved around, so a solid sheet would not work, is that why you must strench the image? ok this was 6 years ago, you have made the cnc machine now right? :)

Love you channel!

try using double sided tape to keep the boards flat on your carrier plate.

Super , new information

why not a jetink printer Instead of a laser tonner printer? the ink of jet printers is not good for the etching

Can't see (in the 30 seconds I gave it) any mention that toner powder is, apparently, carcinogenic - so take care with it in your environment before it is fused..

Very nice ... cool

Why you dont use photo paper with hot iron

How i can get one

Overall Making affort will be the same

Just print it on paper and then transfer to pcb with an iron

Nice. But also very noble, since you can order super nicely made pcb's for $5-10. Yes that will take 2 weeks. But that's easy to take into the planning.

how did you modify your printer???

Marco, some pyralux stuff experiments needed!!!1

I vote for heatgun :)

what type of ink chemical it used. acetone can melt any type of ink. how is it possible?

Walking in lab barefoot... I find that... Disturbing. But, all the rest, nice vid. I did the similar thing some time ago.

hmmm - registration shouldn't be a HUGE problem

Long shot but can you try this with a more recent and easy to obtain printer like a brother HL-L2360DW?

Hello, is possible to make this modification in a lexmark E360?

Can you share the .hex and schematic for atmega328?

Are you from Germany ? I am guessing.... !!

great

Why not use a toaster oven or similar set to 200ºC to fuse the toner instead of carcinogenic chemicals? Laser printer fusers run at about 200ºC.

BIG FAT WARNING! I just read the instructable and it recommended a shop vacuum for cleaning up toner dust. NEVER do this unless you are sure that the vacuum has an anti-static hose. I once witnessed a colleague blowing his office windows out with a toner dust explosion after using an ordinary vacuum to clean a laser printer. Fragments of glass and plastic were embedded in the ceiling tiles and he came within an inch of losing an eye.

wow

ssssss seven segment

👍👍👍👍

Aluminium

Are you sleepe?

circuit on pcb : )

Seriously :o

nice feet

hello anyone here...?

Use photo paper and print...thats the best and easy way....

Just give me a call please

why not just cook it in hoven: 10 minutes at 200 and toner is set for ever: I print my face plate that way ! And no funky smell of awfull acetone

this is a comment.

0:30 Cant be more obvios Mr. Reptilian?

Sssssssssssssseven segment display clock

:D

Alter der redet englisch wie ein deutscher wurstwassertrinker

another cool video but why are you speaking so slowly? if its because of critism for speaking too fast before, then.. well youve gone too far in the other direction i have to say ^^

Play at 1.25x...thank me later

All printers reduce images by 1% or 2% to thwart printing of counterfiet money. Automatic paper money counters detect tis slight difference to detect fake money.

*Yet Another YT Joker!*

i disliked this video because you talk slow and sad if you keep doing it i will unsuscribe too

this is whack