Anyone willing to etch some PCBs?

[Darrel Taylor]

DT: Is that really considered cheap? Thats more than some companies have been quoting me. It seems like the PCBs cost more than the components that go on them :S

I took the highest quote from SunStone, which still seemed "cheap" to me for QTY=50.

If you wanted 10,000 of them, they're 10 cents a piece.
The costs of development... or the pain of making them yourself ...

[duncan303]

I think one of the problems in europe is that we generally work to a standard size called the "eurocard" 100mm x 160 mm or double 233mm x 160mm at 228mm ish you are going to be very very tight. Most boardhouses require a minimum border.

you will get best prices for a standard eurocard can you adapt your designs to this size?

could you get all your designs to fit onto a single double size?

FR4 is just like real estate in Mayfair, make a design as small as your ability to hand populate.

I still think you should give a bash again at making the boards yourself, just think you will not need a separate picture frame if you just tape your pcb to the side of a fish tank

Dave is absolutely right you need to press the image as close as possible and evenly to the photoresist, it is fairly critical. you could even press the whole caboodle against a south facing window. The advantage of the sun is that UV quanta is, to all intents and purposes, parallel and in addition you will not have the problem of inquisitive little stationary fish.

if a little fish has the intlelligence to be inquisitive

as I remember you are a rapid lad
http://www.rapidonline.com/Tools-Fas...447/kw/etchant


This is the adjunct on the forum where theory should become practice........ a painfull transition


STTH


..

[The Master]

Yes i do like rapid. The stuff i got before came as a powder. Ive had a look on there but the only similar thing i can find is still a lot cheaper than what i got before. My tank is 5L so ill need the 2.5KG bucket at £14.25. Ive been told that the "normal" acid lasts a lot longer than the powder stuff i got before

[mackrackit]

The time it last depends on how much copper is removed to the amount of solution.
Ferric choloride is most often shipped as a powder. Why pay shopping for water and the package is easier.

What color was the "acid" that you used?

[The Master]

I know it depends on the copper removed. I only did a few boards in it though then there was a month or 2 gap before i did anymore. Aparently the powder version is only good for 6 weeks even if you dont use it.

The stuff i had was green. At school we used to have an orange acid which i think is what ill get from those pellets. Im told that the orange stuff lasts for 6 months easily

[Byte_Butcher]

The orange/brown stuff is ferric chloride.
The greenish blue stuff is probably ammonium persulfate.

[Darrel Taylor]

jmgelba was offering some deals on PCB layout and/or production not too long ago ...

http://www.picbasic.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=2850

Maybe he's still looking ??

[Archangel]

The orange/brown stuff is ferric chloride.
The greenish blue stuff is probably ammonium persulfate.

Nitric Acid goes blue after first use too.
You might think good thoughts about printing your Positive in mirror image so you can put the toner side against the copper, so the .010 or .020 thickness of the plastic overlay does not diffuse light onto your traces.