Hi, I'm planning to buy an old laser printer for a pcb work mostly for SMD and through-hole boards. Please share your experience with me or if you're printing PCB boards at home just like me then please share specification of your laser printer.
I know, we can buy printed boards from china for a very cheaper rates with proffesional build quality. But I've few projects upcoming and I don't want to waste weeks waiting for my order to recieve. This is my personal preference 
Thanks!
How do you hope to do this?
You can't cut through the copper laminate board without going all the way through.
You could apply a coating the board and cut through that and then etch your copper board.
I use a small CNC miller to remove the copper laminate.
The miller was one of my projects
Great project, Mike!
I'm planning to do it in a photoresist dry film way.
OK, never tried that with a laser, I used to use the photographic way. That is print out the design on a laser printer onto OHP ( overhead Projector) sheet and then use a photo resist copper clad laminate and UV light box to do the exposure, then develop wash and etch.
What laser printer you were using for printing out design?
It was an OAK laser printer, the type that used toner cartridges and normally prints on plan paper.
I do have a 40W CO2 laser cutter from Lionsforge in Singapore I got as a kick starter about three years back. I can't really turn that down enough to mark cereal box cardboard without cutting it so I haven't tried anything to do with PCBs with it.
You don't have to wait weeks for ccp-china.
I once saw someone claim reasonable results simply printing the resist pattern to paper, and then ironing the toner from the paper onto the copper.
I can't imagine it was very good for fine detail, and I'm betting there was a lot of retouch to be done with a resist pen.
Called "toner transfer" and I seem to recall special paper is marketed for the purpose. Have to print a mirror image. "Greaseproof" cooking paper one of the suggestions IIRC.
Hi,
For finished and excellent quality PCBs I have them made at JLCPCB.
for prototyping I use a process I developed.
The process I developed uses a CNC with a 0.5W laser.
I put some oil on the blank PCB board.
then I remove the oil leaving the plate only "impregnated" with oil.
Then I throw toner powder (removed from old laser printer toner).
I remove the excess, put the board in the CNC, and with the laser engrave the design of my PCB.
Then I wash the plate removing excess toner powder, and put it to corrode.
I have obtained excellent results.
Very good results though!
I agree but when it comes to small detail work one may use photoresist dry film (Press-and-peel blue transfer film) work great for detailed work with no hazard with developing solution either.
I wonder what resolution should be of the laser printer in DPI to print those smaller lines!
I guess 1200x1200 DPI should do the trick.
Recycling! 
Did a prototype board Just this morning.
Printed with Xerox Phaser 3140 with cheap (and pretty bad) clone toner cartridge on laser artwork film (1200dpi) - I found drafting film works as well and is a lot cheaper. PC Board with UV sensitive negative dry film resist applied. I tried something different and the resist was slightly under exposed (good enough though). Double sided.
All checked, no breaks or shorts. Next step - solder mask (red).
The square chip is a 5x5mm 328PB 32 pin VQFN with 0.5mm pitch.
Impressive result that
Printer resolution shouldn't matter. Resolution will most-likely be limited on the "analog" hardware & physical side. The etching process isn't "perfect" either. It can be over-etched or under-etched, or over-etched in one place and under-etched in another.
I vowed a long time ago "never again" to etch my own boards! 
I've used lots of PCB alternatives and work-arounds and I just recently ordered my 1st boards from Seed Studio/Fusion. I'm very impressed. They look good and match my Gerbers perfectly. Although I did make a couple of mistakes.(1)
I got 20 small boards for less than $50 USD plus about $20 for DHL shipping and it took a little less than 2 weeks. (With these small boards and small quantities the price didn't go up that much with quantity... 20 boards was only a few dollars more than 10.)
Since the price is so cheap, they have to be using a laser instead of film to fix the photo-resist. A small CNC machine with a small laser could be adapted for the same purpose at home but you'd still have to deal with the nasty etching chemicals, and you might need a darkroom. (If the CNC machine can be used for drilling that solves another challenge with homemade boards.)
Or of course, direct copper removal with the CNC machine is a popular solution, and you avoid the chemical solutions. But. I don't own a CNC machine.
As far as I know you can't plate-through holes at home.
(1) I work in electronics and although I'm not a PCB designer I've "watched the process" many times and I don't think I've EVER seen a board that was 100% correct the first time. So, I was mentally and economically prepared for an error, especially with my 1st computer designed board (using Design Spark). But, I was still confident enough in my simple-little design that I went-ahead and ordered more boards than I needed. "Version 2" is on order and fingers are crossed!
The worst part is that it's going to be another 2 weeks.
P.S.
Since I don't have a laser printer or a CNC machine, as a one-off project it would have cost more and taken me more than 2-weeks to do it myself. The next board (or the corrected version) would have gone a lot faster but I'd still have to mess with chemicals (which I don't currently have) and I probably wouldn't have "as-nice" of a board with accurately-drilled plated-through holes, etc. So for the foreseeable future I'm sticking with the Chinese method.
I think there may be a bottle of ferric chloride sitting somewhere in my laundry that i haven't touched for 20 years or more ... 
So, I finally ordered a refurbished Laser printer whose model is HP LaserJet Pro M203DN with 1200x1200 DPI resolution. I got it in half price as of original. One drawack is that It doesn't have Wi-Fi which is killing me!! I have to work with USB or Ethernet wire!
Very impressive work!! Love it!
Please share some of your experience with Dry Film Laminating PCB with us!
Keeping it for a special occasion? I advise you take a swig to see if it has gone off. 
