Homebrew PCBs

not feasible
Doing something like this is like going backwards with trying to re-invent how to make PCBs not to mention the ink you'd inevitably waste . I think TT is the solution for people who cant or don't want to use a photo etch or hand drawn lines  Photo etch or tin plate etch resist are the only ways - besides using an after process electroless copper to keep PTH from being ETH... or the slower milling of traces instead of etching. 

JT
.  
http://www.soundclick.com/jtsound
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Richard Mustakos 
  To: Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com 
  Sent: Thursday, July 29, 2004 9:37 PM
  Subject: [Homebrew_PCBs] Electroplating for PCB construction


  Reading Mike's email on PTH (Re: Markus's machine and old posts) 
  conductive ink, I got to wondering.  
  I don't think the ink is conductive enough to make reasonable traces in 
  it's own right., but is printing a conductive ink onto the surface of 
  FR-4 and plating it a way to make PCBs?
  My understanding of how it works for PTH is that you hook the un etched, 
  but plated, board to either + or - (I don't know which) and the copper 
  source plate to the other terminal.  The original copper plating allows 
  current to flow either to or from the conductive ink in the hole (as 
  well as the rest of the copper), and copper is deposited on the 
  conductive ink and the existing copper plate.
  This leads me to believe (with no empirical evidence) that the entire 
  area to be plated must be electrically connected.  To print a conductive 
  ink onto the surface of the FR4 and plate it, all the traces must be 
  interconnected.  Is that correct?  
  If you can print thin enough lines, you could interconnect with a 
  different line width, at the cost of cutting the then plated lines out 
  later.
  Would it reduce the PS current requirements, since there us so much less 
  area to plate?
  If a board coated with the ink is resistive enough to run through a 
  laser printer and pick up an image, you could print a mask onto the ink 
  to shield parts of it from the copper plating solution, and you would 
  only plate the traces.  If that worked, you would not have to worry 
  about the interconnections, since the ink is conductive enough to 
  support the plating, and the entire board is covered by the ink.  After 
  the plating, you would strip off the toner and the unplated conductive 
  ink in some manner.
  Any ideas as to the feasibility?
  Richard




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