Homebrew PCBs

The purpose of my original post was to query the group regarding 
resolution limitations of the photolithography process.  My attempts 
to fabricate a useable 1 mil (0.001 inch) track have proved 
unsuccessful leading me to ask "why"?  So far I have received two 
comments (thank you): one related to collimation of the UV source and 
the other related to etching considerations.

Let me provide a little more information regarding my goals and 
processes.  My intent is to devise a simple "at-home" process which 
will produce PCBs with finer resolution and without the pin holes 
associated with the toner-transfer process.  I am an RF engineer and 
need to produce good looking prototypes.

I created a test pattern which I used to assist me in the development 
of the process.  The pattern consists of 100, 50, 10, 5 , and 1 mil 
parallel lines and a grid made of 1 mil lines.  My UV light source is 
a Blak-Ray B-100A long-wave source made by UVP.  This source produces 
an intense spot beam.  I position my artwork about 2 feet from the 
lamp and expose the dry-film PCB for 1 minute.  Trial runs were made 
using exposure times between 10 seconds and 6 minutes; 1 minute 
proved to be satisfactory.

My test runs demonstrated I could reliably produce 5 mil lines but 
not the 1 mil lines.  Microscopic examination of the 1 mil line 
artwork revealed that the two parallel edges of the line tended to 
not have a clearly defined area between them.  Thus when I used this 
artwork to expose the PCB, the resulting pattern on the PCB was not 
well defined prior to etching.  It is then natural to wonder if my 
transparency artwork can be improved "at home" and, if so, will I be 
then able to fabricate a higher resolution product.

Lastly, my goal is not to actually fabricate 1 mil lines as I don't 
need them.  Instead my goal is to learn what can be reasonably 
accomplished "at home" and apply that knowledge to fabricate the best 
looking PCBs possible.  So, setting aside etching considerations for 
the moment, my original question still stands, does anyone have 
suggestions regarding how I can improve the processes employed prior 
to etching?

Lyman