Etching my own boards

[marceltrapman]

@axillent Nothing I don't understand just that imho it is a bit of a primitive process where so many things are automated nicely :)
I can do everything with clean hands and, more important, having it all standing by except for Etching.

[axillent]

@marceltrapman are all of your kitchen cooking is automated with clean hands? :)
I'm using long tweezers to keep hands off chemicals but the rest is put for the fan I do DIY for

if all you do for DIY will be automated what will be the reason to keep it doing?)

[marceltrapman]

@axillent I give in :)

[jendrush]

@axillent @marceltrapman Welcome back:)

My (cheap ~15$ with shipping) driller stand arrived yesterday. Soon i will try how good/bad it is for drilling PCB holes. This is my equiplent for drilling: http://ppl.ug/Gz9FbbglsWE/ . You probably have seen my photos https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ec4ap8dgci1oe0p/AAD3YIqS_JqKMiUFu9TAfF5Ca .

1, and 2 - right after transfering toner with proper paper, and laminator, and after about 5 minutes in water to get rid of paper
3 - during the etching process with sodium persuflate, and container like this http://img14.allegroimg.pl/photos/oryginal/44/06/46/49/4406464944
4, and 5 look after etching process
6, and 7 look after cleaning from toner

[marceltrapman]

@jendrush Good looking boards (doubt that I am the one to judge it though).

The stand looks nice.

I have the Dremel stand, bought it a couple of years ago together with my Dremel.

Although I am happy with it the disadvantage is not necessarily the position of the board but, imho, more the moving of the board by hand to each position. For that reason alone I look forward to my FABtotum :)

Looking forward to hear about your experience...

[jendrush]

I think quality is not that bad, but etching lasted too long(due to a little bit to low temperature), so traces are little overetched.

[axillent]

@marceltrapman said:

Although I am happy with it the disadvantage is not necessarily the position of the board but, imho, more the moving of the board by hand to each position. For that reason alone I look forward to my FABtotum :)

the manual drilling is better to do when etching was finished. It is also a good idea to have a small hole in a center of each pad while designing PCB. This will give you a centering holes after etching for each pad.

I spend a year to make my CNC very easy to use for PCB drilling & milling
at the beginning the use of CNC was much worse comparing to manual drilling
I'm not sure how well FABtotum is prepared

[marceltrapman]

@axillent said:

It is also a good idea to have a small hole in a center of each pad while designing PCB. This will give you a centering holes after etching for each pad.

Are you talking about a drill hole here? Like created by default by Eagle?

I'm not sure how well FABtotum is prepared

Neither am I, will have to do some experimenting I guess...

[axillent]

@marceltrapman said:

Are you talking about a drill hole here? Like created by default by Eagle?

Yes, it is most easiest way to add free from toner holes while transferring design drawing to the copper
This holes will get copper dissolved during etching and your drill will became centered while drilling

[marceltrapman]

@axillent Nice, that is what I already do...

[jendrush]

@marceltrapman said:

Looking forward to hear about your experience...

I've tested this stand before moment. Generally not bad, but stability isn't "spectacular". If we have holes in pins, like @axillent mentioned there is no problem with drilling. Most important is that drilling with this stand is really more convinient than without:) I can't complaint to much, becouse more proffesional drilling stand with driller costs about 20 times more than this:)

[marceltrapman]

@jendrush Nice, I guess it is like you said, a more professional stand cost serious money but this one will be much better than doing this by hand ;)

[demir]

@marceltrapman, using a smart and nice etching process is never something people have an issue with. The point people are trying to make on this thread is that if you can achieve the same results by using a small tank and an inexpensive chemical, why go for an expensive process. There are so many different etching processes available that you can choose from which are cheap enough to be used by anyone. Etching does impact the quality of a PCB but as long as you’re not making expensive antenna PCBs, usual process work fine.

electronics assembly