Homebrew PCBs

--- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, "Jim Miller" <jim@j...> wrote:
> any details on your tank setup?

No problem. It's a pretty basic design. I built it after seeing this 
one-

http://www.embeddedtronics.com/etchant.html

Mine looks about like that. I just checked, and it's about 11" x10" 
x1.5" (h/w/d). I have the luxury of a radial arm saw here, so I was 
able to do grooves for all the joints on mine. Be careful with the 
adhesive and test thoroughly for leaks with water or something 
beforehand. There's a lot of pressure on it when it's full. I figured 
I was extra safe with the grooves AND some old silicone, and once it 
filled up with water, it started trying to stretch itself open. I had 
to remove all the caulk, which left a nasty film of goo and re-glue 
with better stuff, and I think I still need to reinforce with some 
fiberglass. There's probably a fish tank adhesive that's better for 
it. I haven't needed the inside standoffs he used yet. I hung my board 
from some fishing line hung around a magic marker and looped through 
both top corner holes in the PCB. It stayed pretty well centered.

It wasn't much trouble at all considering it should solve a lot of my 
over-etching problems. I may, however, regret my dimension choice 
though. I wanted to be safe if I did larger stuff, and went with that 
size and a 10" heater. The heater has a "keep filled to this point" 
warning line on it, so it looks like I'll have to fill the whole damn 
thing just to do small stuff. I may grab a smaller heater too and 
figure out how to drop it down low. I've got a dual outlet pump 
connected to two suction mount "bubbler" tubes which will sit 
horizontally at the bottom. It puts off plenty of "fizz", so one 
outlet would have easily done the job. I'm planning to mount the tubes 
to a heavy plate of plastic or something so I can drop them down to 
the bottom (you can't access the insides of this thing very well).

BTW- I have a bad habit of going straight to eBay for everything 
lately, and assume it's the lowest price. I got the pump there and 
then realized I could ride up to PetSmart and get a heater for less 
than on eBay. They had like 6"-12" on clearance for around $6 to <$15. 
Mine was $8 or something. I had to wait a couple weeks for the pump to 
use my tank.

         Try it, you'll like it!
                                     George

---> If you need a pic, I can throw one on my photobucket page.