How to make PCBs at home – The toner transfer method

Step 1) Printing

As i said before i am using the advertising brochures from Lidl since cost nothing and it is better from any glossy paper that i have used.

The glossy paper can be printed directly with any laser printer.

The advertising brochures are thin and can not be printed directly with my laser printer.
The trick here is to add a A4 paper sheet underneath the lidl paper.
Place an A4 paper then place the lidl paper at the center, leaving borders around.
Make sure that the lidl paper does not exceed the A4 paper in any of the 4 edges.
Use the tape at the top and fold it back.
Now put the double paper into your printer with the lidl paper facing up.
Look the photos below :

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now we are ready to print !
Open KiCad File-> Open and load your project file (*.pro)
Now press the PCBnew (PCB Editor) button. It is the third main button
Now on the next PCB black window do File-> Print
Select "Mirror" if you do surface mount technology (SMT) else leave it unchecked for your through hole project.
In this simple example we are doing a through hole project so we leave the mirror unchecked
Then hit the print button.

 

 

 

In the next window select your laser printer and hit the preferences button in order to find and change the toner printing settings

 

 

 

 

The next window is different for every printer (driver preferences). Search around in order to find the darkness option and set it to dark.Try at least to avoid toner "economic" settings . At my samsung i had to go under Graphics -> Darkness

 

 

 

 

 

Once you hit ok you return to the "Print" window. Now select "Pages :" 1 and hit print.

Once printed cut the piece of paper that you want with the scissors  but without touching the toner at all.

The result should look like this :