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

Several of you have written of the benefits and good quality that can
be had by using the photoresist copper clad boards. You now have my
interest.

I have some of the raw materials to attempt this method including pre-
sensitized copper clad, and developer. I even have glass plates to
keep the transparancy in close contact with the copper.

I do not have a UV light source. I didn't buy one as I didn't want
to spend the money. Some of you have told me that you made a light
box. What types of lights/lamps work for exposure? I saw somewhere
that a blacklight works. Is this true?

Our old Diazo machine at work seems to have a long
flourescent "black" light that it uses to expose diazo paper.
(BLUELINE MACHINE). How would I construct a lightbox for exposure?

Most if not all my PCB's are small. Thje biggest board that I have
etched was 5x7, so I don't need a giant box.

I don't need any help with making transparancies as I have access to
a photoplotter (typesetting machine that directly exposes film).
There are no issues with film growth as there is no heat in the
process. There are no issues with pinholes/banding as this is a
professional imager used to expose printing plates for magazine
reproduction. All I must do is output 1-to-1 EPS file and the imager
does the rest.

So please, if you could help me build a UV light source to expose
small PCB's, I would appreciate it.

Thanks