Homebrew PCBs

> Herbert wrote:
>
> sure, but does a 6 layer board fit into a
> "homebrew" concept?

If you do it at home I would guess it does.

Homebrew beer starts with people that pour
a brigalow kit into some water and wait two
weeks.  It ranges all the way up to the
people that grow thier own hops so they can
pick it on the third wedensday after
pentacost to make sure it has just the right
hoppish taste. (maybe they sacrafice a few
goats too)

> designing a board at home and then sending
> it to a million dollar facility for
> manufacture is not my idea of homebrew!

I DO send boards out to get made by the
profesionals most of the time.  However
sometimes the clients just can't wait and
I have to make boards at home.

At present this is two layer photo process
with no PTH.  I use those time consuming
bail things made by multicore to to vias.

Seeing as I am going to set up to do PTH
I may as well go the full hog and do multi
layer as well.  (I have just inherited a
project with stupidly large pin count CPUs
and many layers)

> home -> kitchen/garage/basement/backyard...

There are at least 3 people on this group
doing PTH at home that I know of 

Adam Seychell - who shows pics of his PTH
setup in the photos section of this yahoo
group.

Mzing - who has his set up shown here
http://www.myhome.ch/mzingg/pcbstuff/tps/

And finaly Roel - who I beleive also does
more than two layers.

No offence if I left anyone else out.

> BTW, I would love to know how to 'homebrew'
> a >2 layer board, well, even I would be
> very happy to just know how to make a
> simple ordinary double sided with vias
> without a piece of wire in them... (this
> was my very first post to this list :-)
> but the answer still eludes me)


There is a description (provided by Adam I
think) in the files section under plating.

If you don't want to mix your own black ink
up - check out Think and Tink.

http://www.thinktink.com/stack/volumes/voli/store/inksup.htm

They sell special magic patented black ink
for doing it.


Before I get serious about the PTH tanks
and the press for multi layer I need to
finish making a CNC drill and want to make
a photo plotter.

The CNC drill is a MUST.  It is the only
sensible way to drill holes before etching.

The photo plotter is just a "nice".  I get
quite decent results with a laser printer
onto vellum.  I don't think it is good
enough for 6/6 with small anular rings on
a PTH board though.

Derek will come fwd and say I should be
using an inkjet.  And I admit he has good
looking boards.  (When get my macro lens
I just hope I can get my photos looking as
good as his). 

Derek even shows some comparisons between
inkies and lasers here

http://www.pbase.com/eldata/lasvsink

But I still think that a laser plotter is
the way to go.  When I knew someone in a
printing shop I occasionaly got him to do
me photo tools on his lino machine.  The
contrast of the laser is not comparable.

I am still making slow progress on the
photo plotter for anyone reading that is
interested.  Due to the help of one of the
guys here on HomeBrew I still think I can
make the six month to completion goal I
set myself :D