Submitted 6 hours ago by Rolive@discuss.tchncs.de to askelectronics@discuss.tchncs.de
Which do you prefer? I have the option to do both but milling seems to take awfully long and produces a lot of noise and glass fiber dust. It has the benefit of not needing etch resist which is also messy.
Chemical etching with iron chloride is also quite messy. First applying etch resist, removing part of it, etching etc. It is much simpler though and you don’t need a CNC machine for this.
I think laser engraving is probably the best way to make them at home, although just buying from a pcb service like jlc is the best option if you can wait.
I have two laser heads, a 405nm 500mW and 450nm at 10W laser. I don’t think either of them are suitable for burning away copper but I can try that. I believe to burn away copper you need a pulsed YAG laser or something like that.
Chemical etching is more accessible for sure, but every part of the process kind of sucks. Getting a solid toner transfer, preparing the bath, keeping the bath warm /moving, evenly washing the board (and stopping at the right time), cleaning up the mess, drilling all the through-holes, and optionally tinning… It’s all labor-intensive and error-prone, and I’m honestly not sure if the results I got would ever have been good enough for modern digital circuits. Ymmv.
(If I did go back to chemical etching, I sure as hell wouldn’t use ferric chloride. I’d try one of those reagents you can actually see through!)
Hmm. I’ve gotten to the point where I used my CNC for the chemical etching process as well. Instead of fumbling with toner transfer I use spraypaint and a laser engraver as etch resist. It is way more reliable.
As for ferric chloride, indeed you cannot see your circuit board but it is possible to store this for long. Solutions like HCl + H2O2 don’t last very long and I only do PCB making sporadically.
This isn’t the kind of answer you wanted, but jlcpbc is beyond cheap if you have the budget for time. I’m getting 5 boards for less than $5 USD (coupon applied that lowered it by maybe $5). It’s made it so that I don’t have to think about chemicals for etching anymore. (I’ve done it a little but nothing recently)
I know but where’s the fun in that? I’ve ordered from JLCPCB a few times but it is a hell of a lot more satisfying when I’ve made the whole PCB myself.
Fair enough. My preferred battles are getting the MCU to respond the first time. It’s a great feeling when the supplies are up and you can read the id.
linker3000@discuss.tchncs.de 6 hours ago
Chemical etching since I have all the photo exposure equipment and chemicals, but in reality I’ll just send away for them since they come fairly quickly, multi-layer and vias are possible and the boards don’t need drilling.