ilovefuzz.com

Greetings ILF, it's been a real long long time.
Last I saw you all was perhaps 10 years ago when McSpunkle sent me my first strips of vero board and a hand drawn picture of a turtle riding on a hamburger.

My question is what do I need to make my own PCBs?

I don't mind using etch for creating things as long as it doesn't get in my eyes

but is it economical???


I have an uncle with a laser who could probably do something similar on whatever the copper coated plastic stuffs is called
but how hard is it exactly to get okay traces on a basic board with an etch bath?

I have graphics covered for now so I doubt i'd be messing much with engraving enclosures

PCBs - How much, who exactly, and why would I need a three layer sandwich of a chip when I can do it myself for -$ ???

<3

Etching is really cool and it's neat to do stuff at home. However I don't etch my own PCBs at home because now days you can design a layout in Kicad (free software) and for $25 shipped have 10 boards at your door in ~1 week.

Here's a sparkfun article on etching though.

https://www.sparkfun.com/news/2116

So far what I've gathered is that I would need a toner printer instead of an ink-jet.

Also since there's no distinct pads the solder will tend to flow down the traces.


Are there methods for reducing the tendency for solder to back-flow?
Designs where a bubbled 'pad' is followed by a kinked lead before the trace widens out to its full size?

Has anyone here who does use home-brew methods find it good enough to work as a replacement for manufactured PCBs?

This Make Mag tutorial was pretty good.

[youtube] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWnfnt2rNO0 [/youtube]


Drilling each pcb seems to be the biggest downside but until I'm ready to start making multi-layer chips
working small and going batch by batch seems the safest most reliable way to start out doing this.

Has anyone tried using spray-paint as an etch mask?

direct selective laser fixing of light sensitive coated copper clad would be one way to avoid iron on press and peel blue. you can borrow a laser from a friend but you need absolute darkness. some people have modified laser printers or DVD burners or flatbed scanners to develop the pattern on a PCB.

some people use a cheap bench top cnc to mill the copper clad board

some people use lamination machines modified for high temperature. glossy magazine paper is actually plastic coated. they use this as a free alternative to press and peel blue.

etching tanks with ferric chloride benefit from aeration such as a fish tank bubler.

ferric chloride is not the only etchant but it cuts the fastest. in theory nitric acid or sulfuric acid would work but you would have to be really stupid or just in a hurry. lots of people have switched to sodium persulfate for environmental and disposal reasons.

https://hackaday.com/2017/02/28/homebrew-pcb-etchant/