>> andrewm wrote: >> DJ - When you are etching your brass stencils they are almost all >> resist and only tiny apatures. If you work out the cost of inkjet >> ink and the amount of coverage you need - it may make a $200K laser >> cutter seem like a prudent investment :D > > DJ Delorie wrote: > <SNIP> > But I use a laser *printer* not a laser *cutter*. Printing a page of > mostly-black isn't that expensive.
Yep - full coverage pages on a laser printer only work out <$1 as opposed to inkies that are $5ish. >> The photo paper is quite reasonable in terms of quality and I may >> use it from time to time on single sided baords with 16/16 rules. > > I do 8/8 with TT but them I'm using the special paper that releases > easily. I have inquired with pulsar about prices as I may start selling it on my web shop. If I get a reasonable response I may have a few 100 boxes of it sitting here soon. The test board I did with the generic inkjet photo paper was the 8/8 rule IR-RX I have posted pics of. The 8/8 rules came out OK in about 5 of the 12 PCBs on the panel. And the PCBs are only 8x14mm. So I think the chances of getting a large board working at 6/6 is pretty slim. I know I can do this easy with photo and FeCl (though not with CuCl) >> I am going to stick to photo for the DS 6/6 stuff though. > > The limiting factor (for me) for the TT is the quality of the edges. > I haven't tried disableing REt though, it might be "dithering" the > edges for me. Look at these photos. It is of a spiral/swirl test patter someone on homebrew PCB made up (Derrik maybe). http://www.thehacktory.com/LaserWide.jpg http://www.thehacktory.com/LaserClose.jpg It shows some macro shots of some lines that are somewhere between 4 and 6 thou. This shows how the toner particles scatter and make a fuzzy edge as opposed to a nice clean line. That is going to limit your res no matter what method you use a laser printer for (photo or transfer). The printout in the photo above was on a medium sized car priced laser printer. The little $2000 printer I have on my desk does worse than this. I assume that cheaper 1200dpi printers are even worse again. My old HP-LJ4 that was only 600dpi didnt suffer as much. I guess the toner particles where bigger and more controlable I think to get better resolution I should resurect my much stalled plotter project :( > <SNIP> _______________________________________________ geda-user mailing list geda-user@moria.seul.org http://www.seul.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/geda-user