Hi Suske
No worries about your english :-) I'm not sure if mine is so much better.
To answer your questions.
The small tanks hold 2.2 liters. The amount of fluid you need per tank
also depends on wether there is a heater in this bath or not. The bigger
tank (the one which must be big enough for the anodes) is double that
size (alas, twice as wide).
The activator is in fact the most expensive part, thats why I strongly
suggest to try to get it from a local board house. That way I was able
to get 500ml for just about 60€. If you can get the chemistry form a
local source, it's likely to be much less expensive. With Bungard, the
point is that the remaining chemistry is so much (i.e.25liters of
predip) that it will last you for 10 years. Btw, the same holds probably
true for the 500ml activator (which is the palladium emulsion). If you
find a local contact, be sure to understand their process first, and
adapt your plan (number of tanks etc.) to this method if it differs in
the number of tanks needed.
You do not need anodes that big. The one in my current system are
100x80x8 mm and as such are cheaper, and they work great. You are right
though that copper these days is fairly expensive but anodes of that
size seem afordable to me. You can also easily get away without anode
bags. You have two options here:
a) I empty my station if not in use anyways. During this process I
simply filter the electrolytic bath every now and then (probably every 2
months).
b) You can make them on your own. All you need is some textile material
that can withstand the bath. I use aproach a) for the sake of simplicity
even though I have the original anode bags here from my first setup.
Your chemistry will last very long if you treat it good. If you treat it
bad, it will only last for a short time. That said, and as above
mentioned, I always empty my station if I don't use it for more than say
8 hours. I firmly close the containers, and store them on a dark, dry
and somewhat cool place. I also take GREAT care not to contaminate the
baths among eachother by strictly following the procedures, and using
different containers, pumps etc. for each and every bath all times. If
you follow these actually simple and IMHO obvious rules, you will have
your chemistry last very very long (i.e. 3 - 4 - 5 years should be no
problem). You have to replish depending on the amount of tru plating
operations, vapourisation etc. You soon will have some experience to see
where you can replish with demineralized water cause this is the only
thing that vaporizes in a given bath and where you have to use chemistry
that you got in your initial delivery. Again, with the 500ml activator
and the starter kit I bet you are done for the next 10 years unless you
are not carefull with it.
I don't have more pics at the moment. As mentioned previousely, I will
setup a website with all the information I figure is intersting for
others, including information on how to build the equipement (not only
the tru plating station) and step by step instructions on how to create
professionally looking multi layer boards etc. Not to be misunderstood,
the website will be available for everyone intersted. In other words,
I'm just limitted on time and I want to do it in a structured way. I
otherwise end up maling/posting the same information 1000 times. I MAY
(haven't made up my mind yet) even offer kits or even built equipement
for those who don't want to spend the time on doing it themselves, or
don't have the equipement to do so but again, theres no final decission
on this part yet.
As for the cost, it depends of course a great deal how you calculate
this. If you make your own tanks, it depends on how good you are with
work like this. It very well might be that you waste money with even a
significant amout of material up until you have that process under
controll. Makeing SAVE tanks which DO NOT LEAK is NOT so easy. If you
want to be on the save side you have to weld them and this also
requieres the right tools and ability to use them. The cost also depend
on the kind of material you use, where you get it and of couse wether
you want to calculate the time you spend on this or not. etc. etc. From
a strict material point of view you are probably right that the
chemistry is the most expensive part if you have to buy it from Bungard.
Not to be misunderstood, buying from Bungard is a good option if you
have no other contact. You should not forgett that there you get
support, can ask questions, get clear instructions on how to use it, CAN
officially buy in that small quantities and all this is adding to the
price. So, the mentioned 670€ are probably not that bad spent if you are
a beginner and have no one else who can assist you. It's otherwise easy
to spend more money and still not have useable results, but of course
your mileage may varry.
HTH
Markus
suskeb schrieb:
>
> Hi Markus,
>
> Can you please tell me what is tanks capacity of your plating system
> baths?
>
> Second question is how much did you pay for chemicals to fill system
> for the first time, and how long can you use it chemicals without
> additional cost, or what is lifetime of that chemicals?
> I ask "Bungard" and they give me export prices. All it seems to me
> wery expensive.
> Chemicals starter kit for "COMPACTA 30 ABC" cost 670 euros.
> Only 500lm of activator cost 200 euros (it is most expesive chemical).
> One set of anodes depend of size 150x200mm(200x300mm) cost 110(180)
> euros.
> Andodes bag cost 23(25) euros/pcs.
> It seems to me that chemicals are more expensive part of whole
> plating system.
> You did say whole system cost is ~1000$.
> I think you did'nt include price of chemicals in that amount, or
> maybe I'm in wrong.:-)
>
> Can you please give as more pictures and/or details of plating system
> you made.
>
> Soryy to all for my BAD English.
>
> Best regars,
>
> Suske
>
>