Homebrew PCBs

On Sun, 25 Nov 2007, Roland F. Harriston wrote:

> I personally think that Ferric Chloride is one of the worst compounds to
> have around in a domestic environment, or in any environment that is
> not specifically designed to accommodate this material.

In my opinion, they are all pretty nasty, and ferric chloride is the least
nasty of a nasty lot... after all, hydrochloric acid is one of the harmful
products of mustard gas (a WWI chemical weapon). The EPA classes HCl as a
toxin, and at concentrations above 25% it's highly corrosive.

Ferric chloride is nasty stuff, but at least you notice small spills of it
straight away because of its distinctive colour, where a spill of HCl
won't necessarily be recognised as such until bad stuff starts to happen.

I keep the ferric chloride out of the house, in a container in a stone
built shed. Less nasty stuff I keep in those 'bellows style' photographic
chemical bottles, which I think are excellent to have around (fill them
with liquid, then push them down to eliminate as much air as possible, and
they have good chemical resistant, gas tight caps). I try to do as much
etching as possible outside (if it's cold and nasty I will do it inside,
but with plenty of absorbent material under the etching area to try and
catch any splashes/spills).