Hi Nathan
I bought a Velleman ET10 hobbyist tank at a ham radio rally (flea
market) and paid GBP 20 for the both the tank and a UV light box :-) The
construction is very similar to the one you propose to build:
http://www.circuitsonline.net/forum/view/36243Included was a small aquarium aeration pump and an aquarium heater. The
heater raises the etch temperature to about 40C. My tank is about 19mm
(3/4" wide) and if you wanted to use a heater you'll need to make your
DIY tank wider than 0.2" of course. Heating is a good idea, with fairly
fresh etchant a board takes less than 10 minutes but this tank needs 2L
of etchant as a result. I haven't found the etchant a problem in
practice, between use I store it in an air tight jar in a cool place and
it lasts much longer than the stated shelf life.
If you have to buy new materials plus a heater and an aquarium aeration
pump the saving might not be very great compared to a ready made tank?
I'm not sure which country you are in but the Velleman ET20 is widely
available and quite cheap.
http://www.velleman.eu/downloads/1/et20gbnlfresd.pdf$55 from Circuit Specialists in the USA:
http://www.circuitspecialists.com/prod.itml/icOid/4231Also widely available in the UK & Europe, google Velleman ET20.
If you wanted something better, in the UK Mega sell a much nicer moulded
polyprop one for GBP 135.
http://www.megauk.com/hobby_equipment.phpThere's no lid. I don't use Ferric Chloride anymore but instead I use
the clear di-Sodium Peroxodisulphate Hexahydrate etchant sold in the UK
by Mega Electronics. Although more expensive than Ferric Chloride it is
a lot cleaner and nicer to handle. The etchant is odour free and the
data sheet states that no local ventilation is required, although I do
etch near an open window.
Regards
Paul
On 09/01/2011 02:31, nathan_h_tna wrote:
>
> I'm sure this has come up before, but I'd like to build a cheap
> etching tank and wanted to get some advice before I actually do it.
>
> I was thinking of buying a good sized sheet of fairly thin acrylic
> from Lowes or Home Depot, cutting it up into two big pieces for the
> front and back of the tank, two tall but narrow pieces for the sides,
> and then gluing it all together with some of that plastic weld stuff.
>
> The idea is that the tank would be really narrow (maybe 0.2") so it
> wouldn't take much etchant to fill it up. I was also thinking of
> getting one of those "air bubble devices" (I don't know what they're
> actually called!) from a petstore and gluing it to the bottom of the
> tank with the end of the hose sealed off and a bunch of small holes
> poked in it to agitate the etchant. It might also be possible to put a
> lid on the tank and putting the air intake on the bubbler and putting
> it inside the tank so that the fumes aren't constantly being expelled
> from the tank.
>
> What are your thoughts?
>
>
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