Homebrew PCBs

Thanks for the tip on bridging with a lower temp, I will try that 
next time.

I did observe the possibility with bending a wire which could short 
to the next trace, however, it also made me think about a more 
sinister problem.

I figured if I didn't get the wire secured along it's entire lenght 
it could cause noise problems.  Is this a fair assumption on my part?

Chris



--- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, "Stefan Trethan" 
<stefan_trethan@g...> wrote:
>
> Solder bridges can be made easier when the iron is set to a 
cooler  
> temperature.
> But still - if adjacent traces are nearer it ain't gonna work with 
solder.
> 
> The stranded wire thing works well, i usually take longer pieces 
and fold  
> them over the edge of the board or something, the excess is cut 
off with a  
> knife.
> If you use any length of wire - make sure you tack it all down, 
otherwise  
> someone might bend it shorting it to other traces.
> 
> ST
> 
> 
> On Tue, 17 Jan 2006 15:16:02 +0100, lcdpublishing  
> <lcdpublishing@y...> wrote:
> 
> > This weekend I etched some boards with .010" wide traces 
with .010"
> >
> > wide spacing. After etching I found a couple of traces "broken" 
so I
> >
> > had to repair them and with these old eyes, it wasn't easy but I 
did
> >
> > get it.
> >
> >
> > I tinned the board using solder paste (plumbers paste) as I have
> >
> > been doing.  I then extracted some strands of conductor from
> >
> > stranded wire and tinned that.
> >
> >
> > To make the "jumper", I laid the strand against the trace, and
> >
> > pressed down with the soldering iron tip and it held.  It worked
> >
> > fine for all the breaks I had to fix.
> >
> >
> > I did try to drag solder over the gaps to bridge them, but 
couldn't
> >
> > get that to work.  Further complicating it was the small traces 
and
> >
> > close proximity of the traces - I would end up shorting out 
several
> >
> > traces together.
> >
> >
> > While not an ideal solution, it worked pretty good.
> >
> >
> > As to the reason for the breaks in the traces - just being in too
> >
> > much of a hurry.  After doing the toner transfer, I inspected the
> >
> > boards very good and did notice the missing toner.  Knowing that 
the
> >
> > Sharpie pen is too blunt to patch the spot, I just went for the
> >
> > etching.  I really should have cleaned the boards and tried the
> >
> > transfer process again - it would have been much faster and 
easier.
> >
> >
> > Chris
>