Jeff,
What is the ratio you use for that? How long does it last? Which to
you add to which? (Peroxide to acid or acid to peroxide)
Any other tips or info would be great. When my current batch of
Ferric Chloride dies, I would like to use something else :-(
--- In
Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, "Jeffrey Jenkins"
<tesseract@...> wrote:
>
> --- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, Kamal Shankar
> <kbshankar2000@> wrote:
> >
> > I would be interested in getting a good idea of what
> > are the etchants being used.
> ...
> > What's the reason? Financial? (The 2nd choice is a
> > little bit cheaper than the first) Speed? Ease of
> > storage?
>
>
> I previously used ferric chloride heated to near-boiling in the
> microwave for years but after I learned about HCl/H2O2 on this
group I
> gave it a try and haven't looked at FeCl3 since! Specifically, I
use
> "muriatic acid" (31.45% HCl) that I buy off the shelf at Home Depot
> for $9/2Gal (that's 7.5L to you metric folks) and regular 3%
hydrogen
> peroxide solution from any old drugstore (although in this
particular
> case I bought it from Sam's Club for something like $3/2qt.
(~1.9L).
>
> Besides being at least an order of magnitude cheaper than FeCl3, it
> also etches boards a lot faster and is transparent. I've even
etched
> some fine pitch (0.5mm) SMT boards with very good results. This
> etchant is truly a no-brainer choice IF you can get the chemicals
> without a lot of hassle (otherwise the "time saved" hassn't really
> been saved).
>
> -Jeff
>