Homebrew PCBs

I have a glass tank about 30mm wide. I gave up on lexan because it was
too difficult to glue with what I had on hand. Glass was easy with
silicone. It has an air bubbler inside and works very well.

The PCB holder is made of two flat plastic parts, a section of bicycle
inner tube as a rubber band, and a titanium rod ground to a wedge
shape. The titanium rod is rotated with a lever to force the clamps
apart, allowing me to insert the PCB without getting any etchant on
myself (the titanium rod has a bushing through the lid). Titanium is
the only (reasonable) metal to hold up in CuCl, it was very
interesting to grind and cut. Probably a good plastic rod would have
done too, but is much less fun.

The tank holds the etchant all year and is basically ready to go any
time. Very low maintainance.

Whatever you do, put your tank in a plastic box large enough to catch
any spillage. I had two previous tanks spring a leak on me. Making
your end panels a triangular shape gives the tank stability on a large
base plate, highly recommended to avoid tipping over.

ST

On Tue, Jan 12, 2010 at 1:23 AM, David Griffith <dgriffi@...> wrote:
>
> I'm pondering building a etching tank that superficially resembles an ant
> farm:
>
> Cut two sheets of acrylic to make the broad sides of the tank, say, 8" x
> 12".  Add one inch to the width.  Take four pieces of .5" square acrylic
> rod, each the desired height of the tank (say, 8 inches).  Glue two
> together lengthwise to create a .5" x 1" rod.  Repeat with the other two
> rods.  Glue these pieces to the edges of the broadside pieces.  Then glue
> the thing to another piece of acrylic to make a base.  Perhaps make a lid
> with a couple more pieces of acrylic sheet.
>
> Is this a good idea?
>
> --
> David Griffith
> dgriffi@...
>
> A: Because it fouls the order in which people normally read text.
> Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
> A: Top-posting.
> Q: What is the most annoying thing in e-mail?
>
>
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