Tube Amps by Stirling: Printing the Turret Board

The Tube Guitar amp that I'm building is based on the 1974X Marshall 18 watt Tube Amp.

Building a tube amp differs a bit from building a modern electronic device. A Tube amp gets hot. Modern Printed circuit boards aren't designed to handle that kind of heat. Another flaw is that a Printed circuit board is fragile. The circuit traces are only about as thick as tin foil.

The Original tube Guitar amps were built using either Turret Lugs (B) or Eyelets (C&D) (Old Fenders). The Turrets act as connection points between the various wires and components.

I went with the Turret Lug design.

The Board material I found at http://www.mcmaster.com/ (they have everything, if they don't have it, you don't need it)

http://www.mcmaster.com/#catalog/115/3560

Part Number 8557K15 (1/8" thick, 3" wide x 24" long)

Using Microsoft Powerpoint I designed the layout for the Turret Board. I verified the layout by laying all the parts on a paper and making the approximate locations. I found a technique to transfer a Laser printout to a circuit board at this address. (http://www.fullnet.com/~tomg/gooteepc.htm)

I found a better paper material (Spy Paper) to use instead of the photo paper as described in that article.

Since this needs to be transfered, I had to do a Flip Horizontal in order for the text to be readable once it was ironed onto the turret board.

The next step was to use a Monokote Iron (used for iron on coverings for RC aircraft)

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXL499&P=ML

I used a IR Thermometer and set the Iron to a temperature around 340 F. Degrees.

To prep the Garolite board I used a superfine #0000 synthetic steel wool to make microscopic valleys for the toner to adhear to when melted.

I used plenty of force to make sure the toner was melted onto the board. At this point the paper is lightly adheared to the board. If we try to pull the paper off, the paper will contain most of the toner and the board will only have trace amounts left behind.

The paper I'm using here is the key to this whole process. I found a paper called "Spy Paper". It is made in such a way that it dissolves in water. The goal is to make the paper go away and leave the toner intact.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Spy-Paper-Dissolvo-Magician-Accessory-Gospel-Trick_W0QQitemZ360121128350QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0

Here is the spy paper instantly dissolving under warm tap water.

Click on pictures to zoom in