1.4 KiB
Tools and materials
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Laminator
Some household laminators will do, just be sure it supports the extra thickness of a circuit board and possibly cardboard to help it along. I got a generic A3 laminator from AliExpress which has a temperature setting and adjustable springs. It has no brand name, but if you search for "A3 laminator" it's the one that looks like this:
Printer
Many people use a laser printer, but the ones I had did not deposit enough toner to work all that well. For an inkjet printer the best results are achieved with inks based on pigments instead of dyes.
The printer I use is a Canon PIXMA iP7250, which is not all that expensive. For any Canon use the official "PGI" range or cartridges, as these are pigment based. With these I do not need to double up on transparencies to get great results.
Transparencies
Use transparencies designed for your printer type. The ones I use are Esselte 57161.
Circuit board
I don't use boards with a presensitized photoresist layer, so any plain single or double sided board will do. Don't get the cheap cardboard ones though.
Adding the film yourself is a bit of extra work, but allows you to retry if the exposure fails. Replacing the film is a lot cheaper than wasting copper.
Photosensitive film
Search eBay for "photosensitive dry film PCB". The rolls are blue and typically come in 30cm x 5m.