Adam wrote:
>
>
> I was looking at an easier and more reliable way to etch PCBs. I know
> from experience that bubble etching never produces acceptable
uniformity
> and often needs manual brushing to finish it off.
>
I've found that a simple covered, flat, rocking tank works pretty
well. I made mine out of acrylic and use an eccentric on a gear motor
to make the tank rock about twice a minute. The flow of the CuCl
over the board is fairly uniform and my boards seem to etch evenly.
You need to grip your PCB by two edges and have a deep enough tank to
allow the etchant to flow over both sides of a double sided PCB.
The drawback of the scheme is that you must set up a CuCL regeneration
station to bubble air through the etchant and capture the fumes, but
this allows you to keep the fumes away from your tools so it's not
really a drawback.
Curt