Home made PCB's

[demons_wing]

does anyone know how to make decent quality PCB's without using boards with photoresist or press 'n peel?..any suggestions would help

[raveenvijendren]

Good Day,

There is an alternative method to the two methods of manufacturing printed circuit board you mentioned, and that is the draw by hand method. I used that method to make my two amplifiers (stereo). It's a relatively time-consuming task and requires a fair bit of patience. But you can correct a mistake before etching the board. All you need is a permanent ink marker. Just draw on the board the tracks and place the board in Ferric Chloride solution.

[jackinnj]

Yahoo has a PCB Bulletin board/group --

I have done small boards on an HP Plotter -- but you have to own a plotter! You can do the same by hand as suggested above -- you need a water-proof marker.

you can also "dead-bug" your designs -- tack the IC's to the copper with a bit of hot-melt adhesive and wire the components in the air -- in fact this method results in very low parasitic capacitance and ham radio operators use it for prototypes of all sorts of equipment even into the VHF region.

[doggy]

Hi jackinnj

I am considering building a phono stage, maybe "dead bug"[ interesting and comical expression. I have some thin copper sheet, also that thin brown [fiberglas?] board. Would these be suitable for the dead bug method? There will be an opamp socket to attach.

cheers
doggy

[Pars]

How about the toner transfer method? If you have access to a laser printer and some photo paper, you run the design on the photo paper and iron it onto the board, then etch. See this for full instructions.

[sss]

Originally posted by demons_wing
does anyone know how to make decent quality PCB's without using boards with photoresist or press 'n peel?..any suggestions would help

whats wrong with fotoresist boards? if u can get em there is no problem to make a high quality boards . u dont have to use UV light to expose em , i always use sunlight with great results

[tool49]

Note: I have no connection whatsoever with the companies mentioned in the following post.

I use to use the Peel'n'Press Blue paper and to good results, but often not very consistant from one time to the next.
http://www.techniks.com/

I recently switched to Toner Transfer System from Pulsar and the results are even better. Really consistant. And I also bought the toner applicator (A GBC plastifier I modified following their instruction) and it cut a lot of the guess work about the ironing part of the process.
http://www.pulsar.gs/

With this method and a DIY etching tank I get PCB's in around half an hour turn time including the tank warm up time.

Hard to beat and incredibly cheap!

Hope this helps!
Sébastien

[carlosfm]

Originally posted by jackinnj
I have done small boards on an HP Plotter -- but you have to own a plotter!

I've seen some jet printers that can print directly to a CD.
Maybe they can print directly to a PCB.

[tess]

I've have used the laser printer & inkjet paper way for years with excellent results.
See my link at Head-fi forum

http://www5.head-fi.org/forums/showp...61&postcount=3

[paologatto]

Originally posted by carlosfm


I've seen some jet printers that can print directly to a CD.
Maybe they can print directly to a PCB.

Unfortunately the inks used in inkjet printers are water soluble and cannot be used for PCBs

I use the inkjet photo glossy paper for the toner transfer (printed with laser printer!). It works fine. For example I obtained in this way the PCB visible in this thread