I had to replicate some boards in some gambling machines once. It had to look exactly like the original for legal reasons. We had to order dyable pcbs, get capacitors of the same color, etc. and make some rubber stamps to emulate the old board house markings(in japanese no less) on the phenolic. They were close enough to match an old photo, but right next to an original you could tell right away. The board house was pretty funny when we asked for unplated through holes and no tin/nickel plating. For a lot more money the board house would've made the raw boards the exact color and silkscreen the fiberglass before the copper.
Good luck to you and let us know how it turns out.
On Nov 15, 2016 9:41 AM, "Dwayne Reid dwayner@... [Homebrew_PCBs]" <Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com> wrote:Many of the old PCBs were made with phenolic PCB material. The color varies between brown to various shades of beige.
You can still purchase bare (blank) copper-clad phenolic PCB material.
Another characteristic of old PCBs is that the layout is often done by hand, using crepe dots and crepe tape in various widths. Even earlier layouts were strictly hand-drawn - no tape or dots.
dwayne
At 01:08 PM 11/12/2016, 'Brad' unclefalter@... [Homebrew_PCBs] wrote:
Hey guys,
I have recently heard of some methods of ‘dyeing’ PCBs to achieve coloration closer to what vintage PCB stock looked like. I’m wondering if any of you have experience on this, what works, etc.
I recently acquired some original, untouched Mark-8 computer boards: http://bradhodge.ca/blog/?p= 826
I’m hoping to use them to help create replicas. But I just can’t get the PCB to look the way I want. They look too modern. I’ve heard dyeing can help, and that one can even fake the fab house marks somehow.
I’m surprised there isn’t a stock of vintage copper clad out there somewhere. Seems to be vintage everything else these days in electronics..
Brad
--Dwayne Reid <dwayner@...>Trinity Electronics Systems Ltd Edmonton, AB, CANADACustom Electronics Design and Manufacturing