good/cheap heat press for DIY toner-transfer pcb's?

I just built my first toner-transfer pc board yesterday. it was fun

but the home clothes iron - that's a really ugly hack. I can't see how you can get reliable and consistent results this way.

I'm willing to spend a little bit on a heat press. but I don't know much about them or even what temperature and pressure I'll need to get this to work well.

anyone use one of those tee-shirt transfer presses for pc boards? or a laminating heat press?

I don't want a small heat element I have to move around. I'm ok with something like 12x12 inch boards as a max panel size so I should (?) be able to find a hobbiest heat press that will work in that size?

do you have one you can recommend?

time is money!

wasting time costs me more frustration than wasting money

I already had to redo a board 3 times with 'clothes iron sloppiness'. just hard to keep the heat pressed evenly and if you have an intricate pattern its even more important.

I don't mind spending $250 or so if I have to. I could go thru that in outsourcing pc boards (true, I'd get them cut, masked and drilled too) but the time turnaround is too slow for rapid prototyping.

the clothes iron was a good idea on-the-cheap but I'm ready to move up a notch

this is the first I've heard of avoiding glossy paper! I just bought some more generic glossy so I'll try but next time I'm out I'll get the matte style to compare.

@tangent: funny that you mention photo boards. I have some old (maybe not good anymore) photo developer and I tried it once (long time ago) but I probably didn't expose it long enough.

you still have to print to clear transparencies for this, though, right? isn't that going to crinkle the slide/foils enough to distort? maybe it works well if you use the right slide stock.

I am not sure that being stuck with pre-sensitized boards is going to be very cost effective. I have an ok collection right now of pc board blanks and I'm not even sure I like the idea of photo sensitizing them since you have to spray stuff on (in the dark) and it sounds more messy than I'd want.

my first toner transfer did work and it surprised me how WELL it worked. before giving up on the heat transfer toner style, I do want to at least try to find a heat press and give that a go.

alternately, I wonder if this trick might also work: heat up a cast iron skillet (large and heavy) and use THAT weighted hot thing to press down on the board. my problem with the iron is that it does not cover enough area and its irregular (meant to release steam thru holes in the base). really wrong thing to use for this! but maybe a super hot iron frying pan would work? problem is that once you remove it from the heat you have to hope there's enough heat to do the transfer.

hmm, I think I might now give up on toner-transfer and try the photo and pre-sensitized board method.

one thing I'm finding is a lot of 'rough edges' when you iron on the toner. the amount of time and pressure seems to matter and one attempt that I did had the paper peel off perfectly AND not leave anything I had to scrub off! that was perfect and it was my first trial. the 2nd trial had paper stuck to the board (longer time holding the iron) and I had to scrub with a toothbrush and my fingers for a while to get the paper off. the board needed a LOT of touch-up. too much work that way ;( my third/last trial gave me a really neat blue look to the toner (not even black but blue shiny stuff). I still had to do a lot of touch-up with rub-on lines and pads.

I'm giving up on anything serious with the hack of toner transfer. for 'easier' boards it might work but I have traces going thru DIP pad alleys (how do you refer to this?) and with toner transfer, I can manage 1 trace between pads but it looks really ugly and usually needed touchup before etching.

I think the photo method will be more perfect and precise. you are only transferring 'light' and that's a LOT easier to precisely control than heat and pressure from a thing that was not at all 'lab grade'

the real problem I have with photo is that you can't easily use your own board stock. has anyone had luck spraying on (etc) the sensitizer themselves? is it worth it? I don't want to spend whole days doing this..

I might just do a split; finish the ones I have for iron-on stuff (or whatever) but any 'complex board' should be done via photo.

I finally, after a few more tries, got a really clean all-blue iron transfer to work. I'm using office max (store brand) generic glossy photo paper. if you hold it under the iron for a good 5 minutes, you not only get the black toner lifted off the paper but some blue film backing also comes off - but the shiny gloss stays behind on the paper and there was NO cleaning or scrubbing - at all - needed! its really hit and miss with this method.

I think I'll try to get some commercial sensitized blank boards and try a pass at the photo method. how critical is the timing? I once just tried it and exposed it to sunlight for 'a while' (I forget how long I left it in the sun) - and the pattern did show up but I think the edges were fuzzy and not as sharp as I had wanted. could have been a case of not pressing hard enough on the film, on the board. but do I really need to get a fancy UV light?