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

Hi,

An couple of upcoming projects of mine will require traces between pads of 100mil through-hole headers and, probably, some TH ICs. The projects wouldn't be practical if I didn't run between the pads. Now, maybe some of you youngsters with sharp eyes and steady hands wouldn't blink twice at hand-soldering this, but I foresee problems. With my elderly eyes and shaky hands, I sometimes have trouble not solder-bridging 100mil pads alone, much less with a trace between them.

So, I'm searching for some sort of goo that I can paint over those traces with a small paintbrush to prevent soldering to them. It needs to be removable with acetone or IPA or the like in case I make a painting mistake. I suppose this could be called a solder mask of sorts; would some chemical used in solder masking work here? If, so what is it and who sells it?

(This, BTW, is why I'm not considering getting into SMD unless someone comes up with an easy way to apply a solder mask. I, for one, am not capable of hand-soldering those tiny, tiny parts.)

Other suggestions are welcome, too.

Jim