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

I have been using the "thinner" .032 PCB blanks for a while now and I have a
love/hate relationship with them.


pros:

∗ easier to run through my H220 TIA laminator
∗ easy to cut (this is key)
∗ easier to drill for through-hole boards and mounts
∗ lighter

cons:

∗ a bit flimsy
∗ can torque and possibly break the boards with little effort


Question to the group:

Is it feasible to use 2 one sided .032 boards and glue them together? Or
even created some sort of 4 sided PCB using glued .032 boards? For the
4-sided boards the vias would need to be plated, but had anyone attempted
this?

This would double the amount of holes you would need to drill out, but I try
to stay in the SMD world nowadays.


The challenge, it seems to me, would be the alignment of the via and part
holes.

Currently, I hold the board up to the desk light for alignment, but this
would not work if you had 2 pcbs. Maybe I could cut both pcbs about the same
size with my paper cutter (close to the exact same size, but it wouldn't be
perfect), then make each board, centering the pcb image as close as I can.
Then, drill the pcbs, and then apply glue and simply line up the holes using
the desk lamp. Then carefully sand down the edges until the entire edge is
flush.

Am I crazy or is this possible?

It seems to me that we all would prefer to work with thinner boards, but a
have thicker board as a finished product?


thanks!
Chris


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