Homebrew PCBs

I didn't figure this would belong in the recent tinning threads-

I don't care for the "look" I've gotten on my past tinning attempts 
and it tended to muddy up my nice neat traces and left thick/thin 
spots. I realize appearance shouldn't be a priority here, but I do 
like the shine that the nice new copper lines initially have, and the 
look they have under a thin clear coat.

The most specific posts I saw on this mentioned a thin coat of clear 
spray lacquer. There wasn't anyone arguing against it for any reason 
and the guy only stated that it would put off a nasty stink while you 
soldered though it, which some may not care for.

Does this sound acceptable, and if so, is there a preferred "over the 
counter" spray? I'm not much of a perfectionist at my circuit building 
level right now, and the stuff I've been doing probably wouldn't be 
drastically affected by a less-than-perfect electrical resistance in 
most areas. I'd mainly like to preserve the pretty gold. :)

                                -Take Care
George

FWIW- My tinning was mostly by wiping a gel-type flux, melting solder 
at different points, and then just scraping it around with the face of 
a custom ground fat copper tip, and sometimes a tip riding on a piece 
of solder braid to smooth the lumps.

soffee83 wrote:

>Does this sound acceptable, and if so, is there a preferred "over the 
>counter" spray? I'm not much of a perfectionist at my circuit building 
>level right now, and the stuff I've been doing probably wouldn't be 
>drastically affected by a less-than-perfect electrical resistance in 
>most areas. I'd mainly like to preserve the pretty gold. :)
>
>                                -Take Care
>  
>

  Conformal coating is the stuff that's used for commercial protection 
of PCBs.  But $15-25 per can, so a lot more than regular paint.  Still 
smells like complete crap when you solder through it too.  I seem to 
recall mention of a solder through type, that wasn't so bad for rework, 
but it's been a long time and I have no specifics since I never used it.

  Paints/laquer etc may absorb moisture, and may become conductive etc 
over time.  Long as your stuff isn't too critical, it shouldn't matter 
much.  I've painted more than a few boards with just straight black 
paint to cover them up, and no real ill effects, but no high gain amps 
etc either..  Maybe test your paint though, some are noticably more 
conductive than others right out of the can.

Alan