Homebrew PCBs

Hi guys,

 

(I sent this message once before but I'm not sure I had it addressed right.
If you get it twice, I apologize.)

 

I'm a complete newby at making my own PC boards, though I know something
about designing circuits and programming micros.  I did that for many years.
It's just that before I retired I always had somebody else that was in
charge of getting the boards laid out and made so that I could start
debugging them.  Now I'm on my own.

 

I'm going to ask a question that is so broad that it is almost unanswerable,
I know, but I'm going to ask it anyway.  Namely, how do I get started and
what do I do?

 

I have a good computer, an HP 960c deskjet inkjet printer, and a Samsung
ML-2010 laser printer. I have downloaded ExpressPCB, EaglePCB, and QCAD;
don't know which, if any of those, to use.  I have a table top drill press
and a table top band saw with a bimetal blade, which is essentially a
hacksaw blade.  I've looked on Ebay but have never seen any carbide tipped
drill bits small enough to drill the holes in PCB's, nor have it seen them
in standard Home Depot style stores.  Do they even make them that small?  If
not, what do I use to drill the boards?  One of the local PCB manufacturers
are great guys and have given me a bunch of double sided copper clad scrap
boards to work with.  Scrap to them is beautiful rectangular pieces about
8"x20", far bigger that I'll ever need.  Right now I have 6 of them to work
with.  I want to do in-house flow soldering, so I can get an electric
skillet, if that is the way to go.  I want to do this to handle SOIC
packages.  These tired, old hands are no good for soldering them directly.

 

So here I am, all dressed up and no place to go.  At least, I don't know
what to do now.  Since I joined this website, I've stored over 300 emails
and I thought I would just read them all and figure out what to do from
them.  But it is overwhelming.  I'm hoping that an "older and wiser head"
will take pity on a poor, struggling newby and point me in the right
direction to get started off on the right foot.  If anybody has some
step-by-step instructions written down somewhere, that would be fantastic.
I know it is a lot to ask, but in reading some of the emails, it has become
obvious that there are a lot of guys out there that are willing to help
others.

 

Thanks,

Mark 

 

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