🚀 go-pugleaf

    I have been experimenting with using a steel tip pen on pc board
and have had quite good results.   I also got the fiber tip pens, 31HP03K-2,
that were mentioned.   These work fine as far as the resist characteristic
goes.   They are not so good on line with.   They take about a half
inch to start drawing properly, this with only 30 seconds of uncapped
time before plotting.

   The ink that I use in my steel pens is Staedtler 748 PLP red.
Before you run out and order it, it has been discontinued.   Not
that they don't make it anymore, they don't import it anymore.
Their technical person told me that EPA labeling rules dictated
a warning label and they only sold $5000 worth of the stuff a year
so they stopped shipping it over.   It is the ink used in the
31HP03K-2 pens that were mentioned.

   I use a Staedtler 757-PL2-CS pen tip.   This is a .25 mm, cross
groved, tungsten carbide tip pen.   It produces consistant width
lines that have a consistent coating of ink.   I also tried a 
ordinary steel tip disposable pen.   These come with the pen
tip not inserted into the ink cartridge.   I punched the membrane
out and dumped the original ink out and refilled it with the 
ink mentioned above.   This worked just as good as the tungsten
pen tip and only cost $10 for the pen verses $50 for the tungsten
tip pen and adapter.   The drawback is that after the ink runs out
of the steel pen you cannot refill it.   The tungsten pen is refillable
and disassemblable for cleaning.

   I get the best results if the lines are drawn twice.   I do this
by specifying the pen width as slightly smaller that the trace width.
This causes the cad package to believe that it has to trace the lines
twice to get the proper width.   The second pass is slightly offset 
from the first.   I use 1 cm/sec plotting speed.

   I bought my bottle of ink at Charrette in Woburn, Mass. just a couple
of weeks ago.   When I went back last monday they had none and
it was not listed in their new catalog.   It is also not listed
in the new Staedtler catalog.   It must have just been discontinued.
There may be other supply places that have left over stock.   I have
one bottle so I am OK for a while.   If someone finds some I would like
to get a couple of extra bottles for reserve.



--
-->>>>>>>>>> Peter Reilley ..... pvr@wiis.wang.com ..... KA1LAT <<<<<<<<<<<--
                     Well, that about says it.