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

----- Original Message -----
From: "dkesterline" <desterline@...>
To: <Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Friday, January 09, 2004 4:26 PM
Subject: [Homebrew_PCBs] Re: Etching Chemicals


Thanks,
Metric doesn't bother me, but that comma used as a decimal seperator
has thrown me more than once :-)

I'd like to see your tank setup, but I can wait for you to post the
final pictures.

With Ferric Chloride I had switched to etching in a ziplock bag. Toss
the board in, a little etchant, and knead it like bread in a sink of
hot water. Works good, but I was looking for somethnig I didn't have
to hold for 6-10 minutes while it etches.

I read in one of the pages in the links/acid etch section about
washing the boards in 5% HCL solution after etching, do you do this?
or do you just water rinse?

Horizontal etching, Have you actualy researched/experimented and
decided to go that way, or is it just one of those things where "this
works"? Do you get even etching on both sides? Do you need to flip it
part way through the proccess?
I've never set up an "official" etch system. In the past it's "find a
bowl/dish/tray, throw some etchant in and swish it arround till it
etches". Recently I've switched to the baggie method, but my board
production has been increasing (couple a week now) and it's getting
tedious.

I just put a small plastic container in a larger one half-full of very hot
water, put some FeCl3 solution in the smaller one with the PCB and rock the
smaller one until the board is etched. It takes about 15 minutes or less.

Leon
--
Leon Heller, G1HSM
Email: aqzf13@...
My low-cost Philips LPC210x ARM development system:
http://www.geocities.com/leon_heller/lpc2104.html