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

Hello,

I've been reading for a few weeks now, this is my first post.

There was a post about regenerating FeCl using HCl, I had a bunch of
used up and very rusty etchant lying around so I did it. I poured HCl
in the used etchant and the result was a very nice clear green/bluish
solution that etched boards again. I was impressed.

Then there was the CuCl2 thread, where you just use copper, HCl and
H2O...

With all this in mind, I kept using my regenerated etchant and
pouring some HCl every now and then when it started to look brown.
The thing is, now the etchant is brown, no matter how much HCl I put
in it, I can't get it back to the clear transparent green I first had.

The other day, I was cleaning a board using water and: the clear
green solution!... I made the experiment of adding water to a sample
of the etchant and it did change color and turned clear green. The
only problem is: it didn't etch, at least not fast enough for me to
notice.

Now, I don't know enough about chemistry to figure this out, but is
it possible that if I add copper and do the bubbling, that it'll turn
clear green again? I mean, I think there's too much HCl and not
enough of the other stuff!

Thanks,
Fp
www.tonepad.com