Homebrew PCBs

> 7000 gallons (26500 liters) down to 75 gallons (280 liters) is a 
> massive saving !!
> Had you thought about using "counter flow" rinse systems or 
> sometimes called cascaded rinse. This system is suppose to be 
> most efficient, and the more tanks you have chained together the 
> more efficient.  The price is longer rinse times because of the 
> multiple dip & drip cycles. For example 4 cascaded rinse tanks 
> with a fixed ratio of water flow volume to drag in volume of 10:1 
> will theoretically dilute the concentration by more than 10000 
> times. In other words the concentration ratios of solution 
> wetting the PCB before and after rinsing is 1/10000 and you only 
> need to use 100 ml of rinse water for a typical 12"x12" PCB 
> wetted with 10 ml of liquid.
> 
> http://www.finishing.com/135/03.html
> 
> Adam


Hi Adam,

We looked at every type of rinse system we could find. The cascaded 
rinse tanks are a great way to go but we didn't have the floor space 
and our main goal was to have zero discharge. The POTW sewer plant we 
discharged to in turn discharged to what they called a "small stream" 
so our limit was 1 ppm copper by EPA regulations. Our average copper 
discharge was around .6 ppm. The regulations were getting very strict 
so we went with cutting the flow and evaporation. I still use a small 
evaporator that will blow off about 10 gallons per hour which is way 
more than I need now days. 

Btw,  the tanks I made took up a 4' x 8' area and would run twice the 
volume as the old system which was 5' x 40'long. We salvaged all of 
the heaters and controllers from that old electroless line, cut it up 
with a sawsall and junked it. I was glad to see it go. 

You can get these tank systems for free if you look around. Lots of 
PWB shops are going out of business and there is all kinds of 
equipment available for cheap prices and sometimes free. 

Tom