Homebrew PCBs

First I added some Muriatic Acid and did see much of the precipitate
dissolve. Next, I put a small tuft of steel wool in the ferric chloride.
After 20 minutes it was gone. I then filtered it through a coffee filter. I
next tried to use it to etch a board and found that it would not work at
all. Maybe my proportions were all wrong. I would much prefer specific
ratios than cut and try.

Thanks,

Rick

-----Original Message-----
From: Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com [mailto:Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com]
On Behalf Of toddroberts2001@...
Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2013 8:44 AM
To: Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [Homebrew_PCBs] Re: ferric chloride question

In a message dated 2/13/2013 1:54:36 A.M. Eastern Standard Time,
scubadogct@... writes:

Does the addition of Hydrochloric acid help to maintain its working strength
also?

From what I have read adding Hydrochloric Acid (muriatic  acid) does help to
rejuvenate the Ferric Chloride. Here is a short article  on the subject  :

http://users.monash.edu.au/~ralphk/etching-pcb.html

The article  says you can rejuvenate Ferric Chloride by adding a small wad
of steel wool,  then filter out the solution and add some Hydrochloric Acid.
The steel wool  precipitates the copper out of the solution. It doesn't say
how much steel wool to add or how much Hydrochloric Acid to add so you will
probably need to do it  by trial and error, but should be worth a try.

73 Todd WD4NGG
 


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