Homebrew PCBs

From the prices you listed, it seems the MK2 etching system
costs about the same as the MD-70RZ pump I'm looking at buying 
for the spray etcher. To decide if it is worthwhile building a 
spray etcher using this pump then it will have to be perform a 
lot better than the MK2 machine.
I understand your arguments on home built machines. From my
experience I believe in general its not worth your time and money
building something yourself if it is already commercially
available and all you are interested in at the end of the day is
something to do the job. As you mentioned there are other risks
with home build equipment, like the finances of reiterating 
designs before having something finally workable. There is a 
learning curve which may or many not be enjoyable for you. It 
sounds like you have also had some disappointing results with 
some past projects. I can tell you I've had my fair share of 
disaster projects. I'm almost too embarrassed to mention them 
all, and would hate to think the amount of money I've wasted over 
the past three years. I cannot tell you whether you should buy 
the rotary spray etcher since I'm unfamiliar with its concept. If 
you were to make one then I would recommend using  the spray 
nozzle/pump approach because it is a more proven method of 
etching PCBs. I am still pondering over the design so it can be 
constructed with minimal effort, which is the aim. My reasons for 
build my own spray etcher are;

* I have enough evidence to show a well setup spray etcher gives
the best quality etching.
* Commercial spray etchers (not the rotating tube type) are many
times more expensive than the cost of parts to build my own.
* Based on the things I've learnt from building other chemical 
processing equipment, this does not look like an extremely 
complicated project.
* I enjoy tinkering in the workshop and creating things.
* I am not time constrained.

When I have something working I will publish the construction 
details on my web address for anyone else who is interested. I 
get the feeling there aren't too many fanatics like you and me 
out there who will actually be silly enough to attempt home 
brewed through hole plated PCBs :)

Adam


Markus Zingg wrote:


 > The MK2 costs EUR 249
 > the Turbo EZ is EUR 437 and
 > the Turbo DZ is EUR 550
 >
 > I haven't made up my mind yet wether I'm going to buy one of 
those or
 > not. I'm currently held busy elsewhere and will get back to 
this topic
 > and a decision as soon as time permits. I mean building one 
myself is
 > also going to cost money so the result of a homebuilt one 
either would
 > have to be better or then I must be sure that time and money will
 > result in a lower price (which based on the exeperience with 
building
 > the through plating machine I somehow doubht).
 >
 >
 >
 > The biggest chalange with home built machines that you design 
yourself
 > is  (IMHO) that you always must take the risk of buying parts 
to just
 > try if it works out well and there is some (not so low) 
percentage of
 > stuff that you buy where you end up with the conclusion that 
it does
 > not work well hence the money for it is most often lost. It's 
quite a
 > lot easier to build something after plans or such based on other
 > peoples experience than develop all by yourself although the 
latter is
 > undoubtly much more fun.
 >
 > With regard to the rotary spray etcher I really somehow doubht 
if it's
 > worth the effort to design one bymyself because the prices - 
although
 > not really cheap - are still in a range where building one myself
 > could turn out to be a bad deal. This was very different with the
 > through plating machine where nothing in a compareable 
pricerange (and
 > quality of course) was available. This statement is however 
not really
 > related to your plans of building the kind of machine you are 
thinking
 > of cause I do agree that this machine will be much closer to 
what they
 > use in professional board shops.
 >
 > Markus
 >
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