[sdiy] rising cost of PCB's?

[Eric Brombaugh]

On Apr 26, 2009, at 4:39 PM, Matthew Smith wrote:

> If you have a laminator, you can also use it apply photoresist film to
> your PCB stock.
>
> I buy pre-coated board stock but am getting a collection of boards  
> where
> I have spotted mistakes before etching, overexposed, etcetera.  At  
> some
> point, I intend to re-coat by laminating with photoresist film.
>
> Note that this technique may also be applied directly to sheet
> brass/copper for making stencils for flux, solder, etcetera.

There was a blog entry on MatrixSynth a few days back about this:

http://matrixsynth.blogspot.com/2009/04/killer-pcbs-how-to-make-printed-pcbs.html

Neat trick here was that the laminated resist can be baked on to make  
solder mask. Lovely purple color too. Kinda cheesy silkscreen  
technique though - he does a negative of the silkscreen as a cutout on  
the soldermask and rubs in a white wax crayon. :P

As entertaining as that looks though, I believe I'll stick with  
BatchPCB - 2 copper layers, plated through holes, soldermask & silk  
both sides @$2.50/sq inch. A lot less hassle - just need to wait 3  
weeks.

Eric