Archive of the former Yahoo!Groups mailing list: Homebrew PCBs

When I dropped off my youngest daughter back a t college after Easter
Break today, i got a chance to use her Epson C66 printer with
Durabrite ink.

I had "conveniently" brought along a couple of sheets of thin pcb
material. This material was scoured with a scotchbrite, but not etched
with Tarn-x.

I just printed some text onto the sheets to check the durability of
the ink.

The print quality was very good, but I noticed that on closer
inspection afterward it must have been set on draft quality. I could
see the individual ink lines making up the letters. but I proceeded
anyways.

After air drying, I tested a spot with a wet swab, the ink came off
easily. The I prceeded to use a hair dryer to heat the pcb to the
point where i could not hold it. After letting the pcb cool, I tested
the printing with a wet swab again, it was durable! I then ran the
printing under very hot water for a few minutes and it held.

Of course, then put samples in 2 different etching baths, both FeCl
and the H202/ Muratic acid. I could see that the printing was holding
up, but when I pulled the 2 boards from their respective baths, there
were only slight pieces of images left. Definitely not what I expected.

After swearing a bit and thinking about it, i realized that Ihad my
first experience of undercutting. The very fine lines of the draft
quality seemed to be etched away from underneath the resist.

The overall result was not acceptible, but it shows promise. It shows
that the ink will adhere to the copper and be relatively permanent in
waterThe prep of the copper is important as is the heating to 'cure'
the ink.
The next step is to try a pcb layout with reasonable solid lines.

Unfortunately, the printer (and my daughter too) are about an hours
drive away.

TANSTAAFL!

Myc

PS. Soap and hard rubbing with the wet sway would remove the cured ink.