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Subject: RE: [Homebrew_PCBs] RE: Dyeing PCBs for a vintage look

From: "Brad" <unclefalter@...>
Date: 2016-11-17

So that color was intentional?  I had some folks elsewhere suggest it was simply the natural color of the material.

 

Yeah, any way I can get closer to that look would be awesome.   Like I said, I’m surprised given how much NOS there is out there thanks to ebay, resellers, etc.. that there isn’t someone sitting on a pile of unused original copper clad.  Finding something like that would be the holy grail for me.

 

From: Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com [mailto:Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com]
Sent: Wednesday, November 16, 2016 1:05 PM
To: Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com
Subject: RE: [Homebrew_PCBs] RE: Dyeing PCBs for a vintage look

 

 

I think it's now considered "chassis" or front panel material. That off green, nearly pastel seaweed color. HP probably still has the color code somewhere in their archives. I remember that color like it was yesterday. The "new" boards(90's) were the modern green. The old or milspec/aviation boards were that translucent bluish green. As for dying them, I recall the company that made "oaktree" solvent made dyes for fiberglass. I don't think oaktree is available to civilians even 30 years later, but the dyes should be. The solvent was the only earthly thing I've ever seen that could "unpot" full millspec/visa code chip assemblies, fully embedded in xray proof epoxy. I think that stuff was $1k a quart. The dye was as cheap as any other dye.

 

On Nov 16, 2016 8:50 AM, "'Brad' unclefalter@... [Homebrew_PCBs]" <Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

 

Here’s a comparison shot.  On the left is an original 1974-vintage Mark-8 board.  On the left is the closest ‘natural green’ PCB material I could find thus far.  They’re not impossibly far off, but there is I think more of a bluish hue to the Mark-8 board.  I’m wondering, could I dye my modern stock to look like the Mark-8?  Or does anyone make something similar to that color now?

 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4pq0-BHd2x6MC03a2lzeU1ESlk/view?usp=sharing