I said it before and I’ll say it again – With a little bit of prep, the UV light exposure method is more accurate and can be done in about the same amount of time if not a few minutes more. The only downside is the cost of the presensitized boards and developer, but it’s more than worth it if you do a lot of surface mount work.

Had the same problem with the copper and toner, I used Scotchbrite to scuff the surface and it worked. I like his use of etchant better.

I bet you could neutralize the stuff with a weak base. Don’t take my word for it, and definitely look into safety issues, but baking soda would react with cupric chloride to give a solution of table salt and a copper carbonate precipitate, the latter useful to artists who work in media like ceramics, pyrotechnics, or self-made paint.

Try this. Lets you visually see if you can just pour it down the drain.
http://homepage.mac.com/bharlan/iblog/C1232924160/E770484800/index.html

@CF, Brad
Swiming pool of water will ONLY make it LEGAL to dispose it, not safe – you will still release the same amount of copper to the water systems, just will take more time to do it :)

Also,
CF, Let’s not even START getting into how the widespread policy of diluting nasty and harmful materials until it’s ‘legal’ to dispose of them is a disgusting and unethical practice.

http://members.optusnet.com.au/eseychell/PCB/etching_CuCl/index.html#Disposal

[flamebait] just do like i do, dilute 1 liter of cucl to 1 gallon of water so it doesnt eat your drainage system[/flamebait]

but as i was going to say, onion skin paper(most/all office supply stores carry it) should work great for this purpose
http://www.google.com/products?q=onionskin+paper
hm… once i get ink for my printer i got a tutorial that i bet will get OVER 50,000 million hits

A company I once worked for used something basically the same as Enviro mentioned with aluminum foil. Except both bi-products were sold to a biochem company to be used is some form of manufacturing.

To be honest I think it’s ridiculous people are using such a crude method just to etch PCB still..

I think in many areas of the country, people still dump copper sulfate down their drains in “couple of pounds per year” quantities to keep tree roots from invading the pipes. Which makes the amount of copper you’d be dumping from a typical hobby PCB shop pretty insignificant… (copper chloride, copper sulfate, doesn’t make much difference from a pollution point of view…)
Copper sulfate is also a common agricultural chemical; sprayed all over various plants as a fungicide…

If you make pcbs on a usual basis, build/buy a small CNC with a low-runout router, 10º engraving bits and 0.8mm endmills (the latter for drilling and profiling). I tell you, after making a pcb with one you will never, ever use that nasty stuff again. I used to take more than an hour to make a couple of pcbs, now it takes me 5 minutes and the result is perfect (even with SMD). Besides, you can cut the board with any shape you need.

I second what Phil Burgess said… to check with your local municipality. For example, here’s what Houston offers: http://www.houstontx.gov/solidwaste/hhw.html

I actually use sticker backing paper as the printing medium. It’s the glossy stuff you peel from stickers, which you usually end up discarding. I have lots of those lying around from work (big sheets) so I decided to give them a shot one day.

The idea is to print on the glossy side, do the heat transfer method of your choice, then simply peel the backing paper away from the fused toner. The latter part is what makes this paper awesome, you effortlessly remove the paper as if you were peeling a sticker.

The biggest hurdle is actually getting the toner to stick on the paper sufficiently long enough. The glossy side is so smooth that the toner starts to flake off from trivial movements and flexing. Sometimes the printer itself rubs off the toner as it spits out the paper.

You need to use fine abrasive sponge to roughen up the glossy surface, just rough enough for the toner to stick. Can be a hit and miss at times; obviously you need to use trial and error to find the ideal roughness. The end result should look somewhat matte, as opposed to very glossy. Even in this state the toner is VERY sensitive to mechanical stress, so you need to handle with care and definitely not touch the toner – once you do it’s all over. The beauty is that you can reuse the paper if you screw up – just use cotton wool to wipe of the toner and start again.

The second tricky bit is placing the blank PCB on the print in such way that it does not shift the or perturb the toner underneath. That means no sliding, twisting, rotating, shearing. Must fall flat. Once it’s down it stays down. Use a tape that is sticky enough to keep the glossy paper fixed to the PCB. I use a hot clothing iron as a heat source. I just put it on top of the PCB and let it sit under its own weight for a while. NO movement.

Once done, peel the paper off and you have a fairly decent transfer. This seems to work well for non-SMD work, about 0.7 to 1mm wide tracks. Anything smaller is not recommended.

I recently gave the toner transfer method a go for a first batch of home-etched PCBs. I found glossy magazine paper worked great, and peeled off the boards really easily after about a minute of soaking.

I recently posted a detailed article on my blog about my experience w/ the process:
http://technoetc.net/blog/2010/05/14/printed-circuit-board-pcb-etching/

I haven’t tried the photo option yet, and I’d love to try the CNC method mentioned above!

I have been using Tachikomas method (using sticker sheets and I find the best method is to heat the metal you are going to stick the toner to. Do not heat the paper with the toner.

When you lay the sheet toner down on the hot metal the toner sticks to the metal and peels off the paper.

I have done this and got 100% toner transfer.

not 99.9% …100%

You cant see anything left on the printer sheet AND you can reuse it!