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

New to the list today, have been doing manual resist application and
slosh etching on occasion as needed since the 70's. Now I have some
space and this list seems to be the resource I need to move into
other etchants, resists, etch tank systems, etc.

I'm a professional
PC/laptop/server/printer/plotter/copier/network/cabling technician
after being a conventional and nuclear missile systems tech in the
USAF as well as a technical instructor for 8 of the 20 in the AF from
mid 70's to mid 90's. I've also worked for others as a bench tech and
field service tech since retirement prior to and during my self
employment that started full time in 2000. I recently went part time
and went to work at the Toshiba Laptop Depot in Louisville that UPS-
SCS runs under contract for Toshiba, 10 months of popping aspirin to
chug along (I hated the corporate environment, loved the work when
they left me alone). Anyway my business in field and bench service is
back again full time and I've added signs and soon silk screen (did
that for Illinois Molding Co in Chicago prior to the USAF as wel as
photolab and studio for Williams & Meyer in Chicago) and learning how
all the old ways like silk screen have gone from dangerous and
complicated to easy home level and not-so-dangerous.

Since I do a lot of laser, thermal, ink, dot, dye, etc printers and
plotters I also have a fair share of scrap as well as replacement
parts and sources. I see a lot of people are working with bare fusers
to make laminators and a few even working with direct toner
application or electrostatic transfer then heating/fusing for
resists. I have approx 80 different printers in storage and might
just tinker this winter with these ideas myself, maybe modify a 600
or 1200 dpi laser with wide fuser to accomodate direct board feed and
print. Anyway if and when people come up with needs posted for parts
for these projects I can probably help out with a free or inexpensive
item or a source that is reasonable. I'm hanging onto all the
servomotors and carriage rods for now for a possible CNC project
later. I also have a vinyl cutter-plotter and see that vinyl is a
good resist and will try that as well. Mine is a 30" bed but I can
feed as small as 3" wide so the possibilities are endless.

Question for the list - what's a good or great but free circuit
drawing program for Windows (XP down to 3.11) or DOS out there I can
download? Linux of course is another option if it has an x86 version
or even a Power PC version as I have an old AIX based IBM server I
can use too. I'm sure there are others for older non-Intel platforms
such as Commodore (I see someone used a PET for a CNC drill, nice) or
Apple or TRS-DOS etc but even having a wide array of old machines I
can use (I have IBMs back to the original PC and non-IBM items back
to the Commodores, Osbornes, etc) I'd prefer to leave the oldies
aside for museum pieces more or less and concentrate on machines like
my dual PIII-1ghz HP X-class machine I bought from GM's Corvette
plant down here in Ky.

Any help is appreciated although I will be dead for the most part
until I get into some free time otherwise I'll lurk and answer if I
can help.

Russ Blakeman
Clarkson, KY (originally from Chicago)