DIY PCB plated thru holes?

[Mike Granger]

Ihave made dual sided pc boards in the past without resorting to plated through
holes. The plated through holes are done through an electro-plating procewss that
I think would be cost prohibitive for a home DIY'er.

The way I did it was like this:

Develop the artwork and include registration marks on top and bottom layers.

Transfer the pattern to the pc board blank on both sides after drilling the
registration holes so that both sides will line up with each other.

Etch and drill the board.

Strip 18 guage stranded wire and separate the wire strands so that you have very
thin individual solid wires.

Run one through each hole that you need through board connections for.

Tack solder the top side of the wire strand to the copper pad.

Insert the components into the board.

Solder the component leads to the bottom copper pads.
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An alternate method is to use special copper grommets that fit through enlarged
pc board holes, or simpler still, just solder the component leads to top and
bottom pads of the pc board. Not elegant, but it does work.

Mike Granger