Homebrew PCBs

Apart from Adam, how seems to understand A LOT about chemistry, I'm not 
aware of anybody who has developped his/her own chemistry which he could 
SUCESSFULLY use. Alas, don't loose time on this part except chemistry is 
sort of your hobby.

I simply BUY the chemistry. It's not that expensive in the long run. You 
must buy some stuff in certain minimum quantities (which varies from 
supplier to supplier) but in the end you have a professional product, 
leading to repeatable reliable quality results.

I'm often amused when reading certain forums where people got to lenghty 
excursions to get metallisation to work. If they would only spend a 
tenth of the time and money on the right chemistry they would be up to 
speed in a snap....

The easiest way IMHO is to get in touch with a boardhouse. You may have 
to visit them and talk to the people there to get to results, and if it 
even were for watching how they do it (which gives a lot of 
information). Usually these people are more than happy to help out with 
small quantities for hobbyist use (if they realize that there is no 
competition ariseing out of this).

Just my 2\ufffd of course.

Markus

javaguy11111 schrieb:
>
> I would like to try doing through hole plating, but I am not at a
> point where I really need it. However, if I were to get something
> right now I would probably go with the copper plating kit offered by
> Caswell Plating. They offer a 1.5 gallon kit for $169. Of course
> depending on how much you want to spend, that may be considered too much.
>
> --- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com 
> <mailto:Homebrew_PCBs%40yahoogroups.com>, "frankwinter1"
> <frankwinter1@...> wrote:
> >
> > This subject seems to come up every now and then.
> >
> > I wonder if anybody has come up with information about how to metalize
> > inside the via holes?
> >
> > I am not a chemist so please keep any information suitable for a dummy.
> >
> > I have tried silver paint but it is too viscous and it would need some
> > suction or pressure to give a smooth surface. Also it is most
> > important to me to be able to be left with a suitable hole for IC pins.
> >
> > My hobby is RF electronics and I need to use squillions of vias for RF
> > ground connections. Some as small as 12 mil.
> >
> > Any solutions (pun intended) for that problem that don't involve
> > buying gallons of the stuff and don't require a bank loan would be
> > most useful to me.
> > Frank VK4BLF (QTHR)
> >
>
>