Home made PCBs

Look at the prices of some of the on-line PCB fab houses. Much less hastle to have the boards made for you. You can get very good deals on single sided or double sided Eurocard (160 x 100) PCB. Even double sided PTH boards aren't that expensive. Bit more if you want solder resist and silkscreen. If your board is smaller you can fit several onto one blank etc. You don't need fancy CAD systems. Several will give you one free and there is even one that's extreemly simple to use..

Just a few examples I had to hand..

This is not a foolproof method, but can work acceptably on some cases where circuit boards are not too demanding.

I have not tested this myself. I have my doubts on that. Most propably running this kind of sheet through the laser printer second time is not a good idea.

Photoresists is good method that I have used many times. With proper tools it works very well and is a reliable method.

Yes.

The chemical to "etch" the photoresist from the circuit board is NaOH. You can get that from chemistry shops. Also many "drain pipe opener" chemicals I have seen in my countru (I live in Finland) consist mostly of NaOH and water (plus small amount some other chemicals). Some people have used those also as this photoresist "etch" chemical (suitable mount of water and "pipe opener").

You can get NaOH from chemist. It is a very commonly used chemical.

Check information and links at

Here is my older posting on making circuit boards posted May 9 2005:

Newsgroups: sci.electr> Hi,

For information on this field take a look at

This depends on the process you plan to use, how good equipment you want etc..

Tou can start making simple circuit boards with tools that cost less than 100 Euros. But using those you can't get best quality, there is lots of hand work and slow process..

For best quality you need much more expensive tools.

I do not have a recommendation for cheap UK supply. You can get all the needed thigns from RS Components

but this is not a cheap place to buy many things. But they have a very good selection of all kinds of electronics items.

For ideas what tools you need read article links on circuit board making at

Tools for normal "photocopy" method are the following:

- photo sensitive circuit board material

- suitable UV light source for transfering image from "film" to the cirucit board

- suitable development solution (typically NaOH) and suitable thigns where you can do the development and store chemicals

- suitable etchant (Ferricloride, etc..) and suitable container where you ca do the etching

- small drill with sutiable bits to drill tho holes to circuit board (a suitable drill holder is a good idea to have)

Those are the basic tools. And the "film" can be for example a cirucit board layout on maghazine page, circuit board image printed to paper, printed/photocopied to transparency film etc..

--
Tomi Engdahl (http://www.iki.fi/then/)
Take a look at my electronics web links and documents at 
http://www.epanorama.net/

Thank you both for the advice. (I missed a UV box on Ebay earlier this week because I didn't think I'd have any use for it). I think I may start with the Press and Peel method. It cuts out the developer so one less chemical.

As long as it's not contaminated with metal particles (etc) it can't do any harm.

those shiny backing sheets used for peel-n-stick lables can be used for press-n-peel on some sufaces, I've not tried it on copper, but it worked on cotton.

hardware and paint shops too, it's used as a paint stripper.

Bye. Jasen

If you can draw your board layout and print it in reverse on a laser printer then the method I use and show others is quick and flawless once you understand the method. It can be just a thirty minute etch & drill process.

Good Luck,

• * * Christopher

Temecula CA.USA

1) use precoated photoresist boards. 2) Laser print onto tracing paper, not OHP film 3) use a silicate based developer, not hydroxide.

More info and explanations here :

Just a quick 'thank you' to all who have given advice.