Homebrew PCBs

Hello...

I make PCB boards for myself and had NO bad board's few year! (and make 
aprox one board per week)
The board's are single sided (I abandon homemade double sided- to much 
problems) and near all have at least some SMD's with 0.85mm pad raster. 
0.5mm woork's too.
There is procedure.

I print artwork to the advertising paper (stuf I got to the mailbox) 
Near all work nice. The problem with bad one is that pelling is hard to do.
Here is the 1'st catch. Printing with HP laserjet 1020/1019 just works 
nice. Printing with Brother 2030 give me bad unusable boards.

1. I clean my board with green kitchen pads. I make few round cutout's 
and stack it onto one bolt. So all the thing I put into drill machine 
and set to 600rpm speed. Then just touching this rotating 'cleaner' I 
clean board mechanicaly without any solvents. I do cleaning aprox one 
minute for 10x10 cm board.

2. I put paper with printed image onto board and put 6 times trought 
laminator modified to the aprox 180 degres celsius. I't work's just one 
pass with laminator temperature set on 200 degres C but lifetime of 
laminator is then on question. So I use 6 pass and 180 deg C. The 
laminator one is cheap chinesse type.

3. After lamination I put board imideatly under warm/hot watter. (aprox 
60 deg/C) and leave aprox one minute. After that I peel paper out. I try 
in every edge as seems that pelling from 'right' angle can be done 
without residue of paper. (I don't know why but it's probably some fibre 
orientation matter.) If some residue stay on board it came down with 
just little finger scrubbing. After that I leave board to dry.

4. I make correction on board with DALLO pen (it's for PCB repairing) 
but near all other permanent pen's works. The only area where the 
corrections are needed is big polygons. Inside this big areas are some 
pits and I repair that. The thin traces in my case are newer need repair.

5. I etch with solution of HCL(muratic acid?), H2O2(hydrogen peroxide) 
and water. The etcing time 1-2 minutes.

6, I clean board mechanicaly (by hand) rubbing with metal kitchen pads. 
I need les than minute to clean 10x10cm board. I do rubbing under cold 
tap water.

7. I had dissolved colophonium in metilated alcohol and protect my board 
with that.  that's all.

Slavko



gandolfreefer pravi:
> Hi Guys,
>
> I started trying to make my own PCB's three years ago, and joined this group a while back.
>
> I am wondering if any of you feel 100% confident about any particular method. I've tried 'em all - I've got a stack of laminators, chemicals, photo-exposers, rub-on stuff, special papers, twenty $IR#@!! software programs, the fancy bubbler etcher, enough bottles of every type of etchant ever invented to kill half of Philadelphia if I poured them in the water supply, even the fancy stuff that tin-plates the copper after etching, and - oh, yeah - three printers....
>
> and I gotta tell ya, at the risk of sounding like a complete incompetent, I cannot for the life of me get a decent quality PCB no matter what I do, no matter what website I go to, no matter who's kit I buy.
>
> I'm just about to give up and just order the d*'d things from Sunstone and be done with it, but i thought I'd give this onnnnnnnnnnnnne last try............
>
> Is there ONE method for DIY'ing PCB boards that WORKS?? Or are all of them still "tweaky" random-chance methods, depending upon the phase of the moon, the humidity, what type of local mold spores are blowing in the air off the surrounding desert, whether your girlfriend is having her period, etc......for the %(^$#!!! method to actually work?
>
> Honestly, I'm a perfectly good DIY'er who has made stuff on lathes, mills, by hand, in metal, wood, plastic, I mean just about everything under the sun, and some of the stuff I've made would knock your eyes out...but I can't seem to get a DIY PCB method I can depend on.
>
> Anybody out there with a proven method and equipment that You'd bet your life on?
>
> Best, Charlie
>
>