Radio Shack does sell a "ready to use" solution that does not
need diluting. But heating it does make a big difference. Also, it does not
seem to work as well as it used to, from my recollection, I used some a
couple months ago and it took 30 minutes to etch a small board with
an etchant temp of 100F. I recall that 20 years ago I could etch a board
four times this size in 10 minutes. When I purchased solution from a local
electronics supplier I got much better results. My suggestion, stay away
from Radio Shacks etchant. I suspect they either have very very old stock
or have reduced the concentration.
On Sat, May 12, 2012 at 2:11 AM, Leon Heller <leon355@...> wrote:
> ∗∗
>
>
> On 12/05/2012 03:26, John wrote:
> >
> > After several false starts I got a board ready to etch. I went to Radio
> > Shack and bought a bottle of etchant. It was a chilly(68 F), rainy day
> > so I put enough etchant in a plastic dish to cover the board a quarter
> > of an inch. I stirred it cautiously and it had barely started to etch in
> > 15 minutes. I warmed it gently with a small heat gun up to a little over
> > 100 F occaisionally. It took an hour and a half to etch. I may not have
> > shook it up enough so my next attempt will be with the rest of the
> > bottle in a bigger dish.
>
> Most FeCl3 in liquid form is concentrated, and needs to be diluted to
> work properly. You should have put your etching container in a larger
> container with some just boiled water in it, and agitated it
> continuously. It should have taken less than 5 minutes
>
> Leon
> --
> Leon Heller
> G1HSM
>
>
>
--
If you ask me if it can be done. The answer is YES, it can always be done.
The correct questions however are... What will it cost, and how long will
it take?
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