I know that PCB making is something of a minority interest on the forum, and those who are involved will use a range of methods, whether toner transfer or UV. For those such as myself who use the UV process, the first hurdle is to create either a positive or negative acetate mask which will be perfectly opaque where required.
Modern home printers of whatever make and model, whether laser or ink jet, seem to make a very poor job when using normal OHP type film, even when two or three copies are taped over each other to try to improve the density. A downside of that is that the areas of the mask that need to be transparent also become less so when copies are placed one over another.
I've never found other methods of creating a mask very satisfactory, such as printing on tracing paper (known outside the UK as 'vegetal' paper). I know that it's said that spraying the paper with WD40 helps to make it more transparent, but it's never worked for me, neither has 'transparentiser' spray.
The only acetate film that I've come across which makes excellent masks is known as 'micro-porous film' which is coated in a way that absorbs ink, and the only UK source I've found for it is Homecrafts:
https://www.homecrafts.co.uk/catalog...o+Porous+Paper
(They also supply ink-jet and laser water-slide transfer paper, but that can be found elsewhere, from 'Mr Decal Paper' for example).
I've just had notification that Homecrafts is shortly to close down, so I've ordered a couple of packs of film to keep me going. Anyone else on the forum who uses the film might wish to do likewise.
Rambling off the topic of PCB acetates, how sad to see the impending demise of Homecrafts, given it's origins. Although only branded as Homecrafts in 1994, the company goes back to 1907 when Harry Peach founded Dryad Handicrafts. The same family who were part of Dryad are involved with Homecrafts today.
Not sure why he chose 'Dryad' for his company name - a Dryad is a tree nymph or tree spirit in Greek mythology. Drys signifies "oak" in Greek, and dryads are specifically the nymphs of oak trees, but the term has come to be used for all tree nymphs in general, or all human-tree hybrids in fantasy.
Those of us who are long enough in the tooth will remember Dryad Handicrafts as a household name in the 40s and 50s, supplying all sorts of craft materials for the home and schools, such as lampshade materials, raffia and cane for basket weaving, along with instructional ‘how to do it’ leaflets and booklets on a wide range of crafts.
Initially Harry Peach founded a furniture company, ‘Dryad Works’. During the First World War, they provided a Leicester hospital with off-cuts of cane for basket-making by wounded soldiers. There was a growing demand for cane and other craft materials for use in occupational therapy and in schools. Hence, Harry Peach set up Dryad Handicrafts as an offshoot of his business, to supply this demand.
He was very active during the inter-war period when there was a huge revival of crafts with its roots in the Arts and Crafts movement. He believed in quality and education, and that if children were taught how to craft and design, they would grow up to demand quality goods. How different today - schools have dismantled well-equipped metalwork and woodwork workshops and other crafts such as pottery. All that seems to matter nowadays is 'coding and gaming' - not how to make or mend things.
Homecraft have supplied materials for cardmakers, weavers, painters, felters, printmakers, woodwork and metalworkers, sculptors, knitters, artists and a host of other crafts. I guess that there are other firms and internet suppliers to meet those diminishing needs.
Harry Peach and his cohort had quite an influence with the Arts & Crafts movement in Leicester:
https://gimson.leicester.gov.uk/leic...ach-and-dryad/
Waffling and dribbling again - sorry!
