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DIY No Heat PCB Etching

June 11th, 2019, 2:24 pm

Never saw this before. Gonna give it a whirl. Has anyone here tried this method?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVhSCEPINpM

Re: DIY No Heat PCB Etching

June 11th, 2019, 3:17 pm

Stuart Polansky wrote:Never saw this before. Gonna give it a whirl. Has anyone here tried this method?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVhSCEPINpM


No. But it appears to be foolproof and efficient. Nice find!

Re: DIY No Heat PCB Etching

June 11th, 2019, 3:22 pm

SoundMods wrote:
Stuart Polansky wrote:Never saw this before. Gonna give it a whirl. Has anyone here tried this method?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVhSCEPINpM


No. But it appears to be foolproof and efficient. Nice find!


"Foolproof" is what I need! LOL!

Re: DIY No Heat PCB Etching

June 11th, 2019, 3:37 pm

Just do not pour the used ferric chloride down the drain. It will eat away iron drain pipes. At work it ate away a stainless steel sink.

Re: DIY No Heat PCB Etching

June 11th, 2019, 4:09 pm

brombo wrote:Just do not pour the used ferric chloride down the drain. It will eat away iron drain pipes. At work it ate away a stainless steel sink.


I used to use a substitute for the ferric chloride years ago (haven't etched in nearly a decade), it was a powder, don't ask me what.

This looks like a much better solution!

What do you think?

https://www.instructables.com/id/Stop-u ... etter-etc/

Re: DIY No Heat PCB Etching

June 11th, 2019, 7:17 pm

JLCPCP.com

Re: DIY No Heat PCB Etching

June 18th, 2019, 8:37 pm

I tried something like this after seeing it on another youtube video but it did not work at all.

I used plain copy paper with a laser printer, and acetone instead of nail polish remover.

The problem was the image did not transfer in the slightest from the plain copy paper to the copper board.

The key may be in using the cheap throw away magazine paper -- could hold onto the ink less or something.

It looks like a good technique in the video -- some of those traces he used were pretty thin!

Mark

Re: DIY No Heat PCB Etching

June 19th, 2019, 8:50 am

If you don't want to get involved with the messy transfer/chemical part, another option is the one I have been using for years which is the free suite of PCB applications from Express PCB. you will pay more for the finished boards than raw stock but they come finished with any size plated through holes, solder mask, and identifying parts screening. Their quality and service have been excellent. They also have a prototype special that is very cost effective. Just another option.

https://www.expresspcb.com

I'm including an example of the final layout that I sent to them for a board that is part of a speaker protection device. The red colors indicate the top traces, the green indicate the bottom traces and ground plane and the yellow the parts identifying screening.
Attachments
Speaker control board layout.pdf
(123.53 KiB) Downloaded 416 times

Re: DIY No Heat PCB Etching

June 19th, 2019, 9:00 am

Just for grins, here is a photo of the completed board I showed above in the enclosure. You can get an idea of the quality of the finished board.
Attachments
Speaker control board 1.jpg

Re: DIY No Heat PCB Etching

June 19th, 2019, 9:09 am

If you can fit your design into 100 x 100 mm then you can convert the PCBExpress file to Gerber using Fiverr. It's $5 for single layer and $10 for two layers.

https://www.fiverr.com/attilapapp/convert-your-expresspcb-file-into-gerber-files-to-your-pcb-fabricator?context_referrer=search_gigs&source=top-bar&ref_ctx_id=15af0d07-015b-46c0-813f-9fa3c78aabcc&pckg_id=1&pos=4&context_type=auto&funnel=f5a9fe53-4def-4d35-844f-e58345f4cfa5

I then send the Gerber files to one of the China PCB manufacturers
https://www.seeedstudio.com/fusion.html

Cost is $5 for 10 copies of the same board and about $10 for shipping. It usually takes a couple of weeks.

ray
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