Homebrew PCBs

IMO, plated through holes are more trouble than they're worth for small home projects.  Most of my designs have at most 12 ICs and are only a few inches on a side.  If you only need a few holes, it's easier just to route the circuits to a convenient spot and solder a wire from side to side.  You probably can get away with using resistor and cap leads for vias, but I wouldn't want to heat an active component lead twice.  If you have a lot of holes to do, consider going to a prototype shop.   They may cost a bit, but you'll avoid going nuts.  Even the Chinese have given up on using eyelets because it's too labor intensive.

Electroless copper is not a process for home brew boards.  Even the top notch pros have problems getting that process to work reliably.  After surface contamination, electroless copper was my biggest source of problems.
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Adam Seychell 
  To: Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com 
  Sent: Tuesday, October 19, 2004 4:31 AM
  Subject: Re: [Homebrew_PCBs] An alternative TP hole approach?


  thespeakerguy wrote:
  > 
  > I was wondering if this may ne a reasonable approach:
  > 
  > 1 - Drill the blank copper clad board with slightly oversize holes.
  > 
  > 2 - Squeeege conductive epoxy into the holes. Cure
  > 
  > 3 - re drill the holes to the correct size
  > 
  > 4 - electroplate, photo mask, then etch.
  > 

  Lets assume this method can make reliable through holes it would require 
  more work than conventional PTH processes. The step of "making holes 
  plateable" is only just part of the overall PTH process.


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