PCB designing at home - 4

Transferring the design

Once the clad is clean its time to transfer the printed layout to this copper clad. to do this place the paper printed paper facing the copper surface as shown below.

Iron it to transfer the print from paper to copper clad as you do it to Iron cloths. Remove the iron and let the board to cool down. You will notice the paper and the copper clad are glued to each other. Be careful not to remove the paper.

Once the board and the paper couple is cooled. Dip them in water and leave it for few minutes or five. Let the water be soaked by the paper to damage the paper so that it turns into pulp. When the board is cool enough to touch, trim excess paper and immerse in water. Let it soak for 1 minute, or until paper softens.

Cheap paper softens almost immediately, turning into a pulp that is easy to remove rubbing with your thumb. Keep rubbing until all paper dissolves (usually less than 1 minute). Don’t be afraid to scratch toner, if it has transferred correctly it forms a very strong bond with copper.