Homebrew PCBs

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Surf Thenet" <surf@...>
To: <Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, July 04, 2007 2:47 AM
Subject: [Homebrew_PCBs] Has anyone tried...


> Has anyone ever tried to make a printed circuit board by printing a 
> reverse
> image onto a sheet of aluminium foil [with an ink jet printer], then 
> plating
> copper onto the exposed trace? This sheet would be epoxied [copper side
> down] onto a  thin  fiber glass board, allowed to set and then caustic 
> soda
> would eat the aluminium away leaving the copper trace behind.
>
> Sound feasible?  See any obvious problems with the approach?

Ink jet ink will dissolve during the plating process. I don't think that Cu 
can be plated onto Al, anyway, because of the oxide film. There might also 
be an electrochemical problem with it.

Leon