Circuit board copier photo transfer

We havent had a copier/printer for several years at our place.
Got tired of the ink thing.
We need to get something now, but I would also like to try my luck with the photo transfer thing for making circuit boards.

Those of you that have done this method, what make and model of printer/copier am I looking for.

Thanks,
Randall

You must mean toner transfer method? I tried that decades ago and switch to doing the photo method and never looked back. I buy pre-sensitized boards and within an hour I can make a PCB with 10mil lines/spaces repeatably. That said, if you can wait 2 weeks, you can get boards made cheap, full service, from JLCPCB. I've been cranking out small boards through them and impressed with the speed.

As above ^^^
Just order boards from China. They are now so cheap, its just not worth bothering to do it yourself.
You can get five boards 100mm x 100mm double sided, plated through holes, solder mask both sides and silk screen printing for less than a dollar a board. Postage will cost more than the boards themselves, but its still a really good deal.

You design your board on your computer using free, or better still, commercial CAD software. When you have the completed "Gerber" file, just down load that over the internet, and pay through Pay-Pal, and the completed professional quality boards will arrive in just a few days.

There are now may Chinese companies doing this, its highly competitive, so there are no real cost savings in picking between different suppliers.
This is the one I use, five boards 100mm x 100mm unlimited number of tracks and holes for only TWO DOLLARS !!!
https://jlcpcb.com/

I've done almost every approach to making PCBs over the last 30 years. As others have already said here, these days, use an online service. Anything else just isn't worth the hassle. There are plenty of US based provides that can turn boards around at about any speed you want. Obviously, the quicker you want them the higher the cost. And if you have the time, the Chinese based services are dirt cheap.

I ordered some boards last Sunday (July 7) They were completed and dispatched July 10, are being air freighted to Australia, and should have them by early next week. Five boards 100x100, five different boards also 100 x 100, five boards 80 x 88, and five boards 40 x 40mm.
Total cost including air freight $41 Aussie dollars, about $27 US dollars.

Warpspeed said:

I ordered some boards last Sunday (July 7) They were completed and dispatched July 10, are being air freighted to Australia, and should have them by early next week. Five boards 100x100, five different boards also 100 x 100, five boards 80 x 88, and five boards 40 x 40mm.
Total cost including air freight $41 Aussie dollars, about $27 US dollars.

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I have been enjoying their $1.50 Global shipping choice. $2.00 for 5 boards + $1.50 shipping + tax comes to about $3.76 total. I send my gerbers on Monday and I get the boards in my hands the following week on Thursday. Heck, the speed of US First Class Mail these days isn't even that fast! And I cannot ship something that bulky in the US to a US destination for that total price either. Simply amazing.

A nice free PCB program is Kicad. I switched to that last year and wished I had switched earlier.

AlpineJoe said:

A nice free PCB program is Kicad. I switched to that last year and wished I had switched earlier.

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Its been many years since I was using free public domain circuit board design software, so I am not really up with what is currently out there.
The free stuff is an EXCELLENT way to get started, and it will open up a whole new world for you guys.
Highly recommended to check it out !

Warpspeed said:

Just order boards from China. They are now so cheap, its just not worth bothering to do it yourself.
You can get five boards 100mm x 100mm double sided, plated through holes, solder mask both sides and silk screen printing for less than a dollar a board. Postage will cost more than the boards themselves, but its still a really good deal.

Click to expand...

I have looked around at the various China options and also some here in the US.
I don't have a problem with having them made, but I'm not seeing but a couple places that have the option of 4oz copper.

I know your very familiar, Warp, with yours and Leslie Byran's OZverters, which I have the zip files of from Leslie.
These boards are what I'm trying to do.
I have read through the -readme- files for each of the boards as well as the other files that go with each board.
Maybe its there, but I'm not seeing where the files spec the 4oz copper for the power board.

I appreciate the path you and clockmanFR have laid for others to follow.
Thanks for taking the time to answer here.

Randall

Hi Randall.
Four ounce copper is very serious stuff, and as you say, not many manufacturers are capable or interested in doing it.
It also gets expensive for very large boards.
There are some alternative ways to carry very high current on a circuit board, particularly very high short term fault currents without frying the tracks.

My preferred method these days is to use copper or more often aluminium busbars bolted to the board at strategic locations.
By using earth lugs to bridge the path between the busbar bolt and the source or drain of a mosfet, its fairly easy to make an indestructible low cost board that can carry as much current as you may ever require. These lugs can obviously be used on both sides of the board or even stacked directly one on top of another.

These busbars need not always be bolted down flat onto the board, but can be raised with washers or spacers to pass over other tracks or components, or even other busbars.
This also works rather well with large electrolytics that have screw terminals.
Below are some pictures from an old inverter project, my very first experimental attempt at this method of construction.

Funnily enough I just yesterday received a batch of Chinese boards, and one type is for a 60 amp low voltage, regulated, dc supply for initially balancing a bunch of thirty parallel connected 280 amp hour lithium cells.
That uses one ounce copper, earth lugs, and the same suggested busbar method of construction.
No pictures of that unfortunately.