Homebrew PCBs

> 
> Has anyone tried gold-plating at home? I think that would be
> impressive :-)
> 
> 

The gold plating (electroplating) isn't that hard. Today it's used non
hazard alkaline solutions of gold alloy in sodium thiosulfate. 
You can buy these solutions cheap (15eur) for home gold electroplating
of bathroom water taps. It has very low gold in it but they show with a
simple 12V 500mA wall transformer you can electro plate things with a
cotton terminal with the solution on it. 
So if you do negative print of the pcb artwork in your board you can use
this simple method to electro plate the entire tracks before etch. 
And because gold is resistant to cupric chloride you can start just now.
If you intent to do a lot boards, instead of buy a lot of liquid i think
you can buy a 1g bullion gold per 25eur and use it as electrode inside
the cotton.

But all that seems easy to me, still hard is a away to activate holes at
home. And soldermask...


Regards,
Simao
>