Homebrew PCBs

On Thu, 11 Jan 2007 02:27:14 +0100, Dave Mucha <dave_mucha@...>  
wrote:

>
> If I may go off topic on the side of safety and household hazzards.
> As you probably found out, the chemicals you used were rather good at
> removing metal.
> What you may soon find out, they are SO good, that EVERYTHING metal in
> the room in which they are kept will start to rust.  stuff across the
> basement and inside of wooden boxes.
> I took my Muriatic Acid, sold as such to etch stone and clean
> concrete, and I put that into a 5 gallon bucket with a lid that had an
> O-ring of silly-cone.
> Dave


Plastic bottles seem to be the problem. Although i can not agree about  
"across the basement", something put next to a PE bottle of HCl will rust.  
Also, the bottle will degrade and on the outside you can find some sort of  
salt crystals after some time. I use glass bottles for HCl and H2O2 now.  
(H2O2 will make PE bottles brittle from the inside). Glass seems more  
resistant, but breakage is a danger.

You could also put the HCl inside a second larger container, say a bucket  
with lid. Then it may work to put some chemical in the space between to  
neutralize any acid, maybe NaOH or something. Not sure if the fumes can be  
neutralized this way, but even the two containers should trap most of the  
fumes if you open them outside or something.

You should _never ever_ store any chemicals on a shelf or on the floor or  
something without a second container for safety in case the bottle fails.  
Plastic bottles _will_ fail if given enough time, especially with the aid  
of some chemicals. So put them in a bucket or plastic crate or something.  
(Hint: butchers have great plastic crates that are very sturdy, with two  
handles. I keep the etching tank in such a crate, and the chemical bottles  
behind it in the same crate.)

ST