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Did anyone else use Letraset for PCBs back in the 1980s? Did I dream it?

 
 zyxt
(@zyxt)
Eminent Member

I mentioned on another thread that while my electronics experience is significantly shallower than my software experience, I did study some electronics at school in the 1980s. I have a recollection of using dry-transfer decals onto copper PCB blanks, we’d painstakingly layout the tracks and pads using decals and once we were done, these were then dropped into an etching solution and sometime later, lo and behold a PCB. A labour intensive pre-cursor to toner transfer I guess.

I only recently realised that modern printers and desktop publishing had pretty much killed the DIY market for dry-transfer decals (in the UK, these were almost always made by a company called Letraset, and Wikipedia has a brief article about them). At the time I was looking to relabel a panel on an stereo I had repaired, and was surprised not to find the vast library of decal options I recalled (until I took a moment to think about it). 

This realisation and all the talk of toner transfer and film transfer methods here (which will no doubt lead to me acquiring a laser printer in the near future) brought back those memories and made me search for Letraset PCB decals… nothing. I can find no mention of the method at all. Did anyone else get taught this at all? Did I just imagine it?


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Topic starter Posted : 19/02/2024 8:16 pm
Larry_N7LUF reacted
Larry_N7LUF
(@larry_n7luf)
Honorable Member

I did get something from Radio Shack back the 70’s, but never made any board, and I still have the bottle of the etching fluid somewhere.


Larry – N7LUF

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Posted : 20/02/2024 12:05 pm
zyxt reacted
Calambres
(@calambres)
Active Member

I did… lots!


http://www.pisotones.com

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Posted : 20/02/2024 12:51 pm
zyxt reacted
 Keri
(@keri)
Eminent Member

My mom had a side gig doing that for her colleague from her earlier job back in late ’80s, it was definitely a lot of work compared to toner transfer.


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Posted : 21/02/2024 11:19 am
zyxt reacted
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