Given a black and white computer drawing, what is the simplest way to
make up half a dozen PCBs? is there laser printable clear stock, resist
coated board and so on these days? Or is it cheaper to find someone who
does this stuff?



--
Everything you read in newspapers is absolutely true, except for the
rare story of which you happen to have first-hand knowledge. €“ Erwin Knoll

In article , lid says...

Given a black and white computer drawing, what is the simplest way to
make up half a dozen PCBs? is there laser printable clear stock, resist
coated board and so on these days? Or is it cheaper to find someone who
does this stuff?

I've never tried this but some people claim it works very well.

Use a laser printer.

If it has a toner adjustment, such as saver mode, turn it off - you want
maximum toner!

Take a reverse image of the track layout and print on a sheet of paper.

Fix paper to clean copper laminate, print side downwards, and use firm
pressure and a hot iron to transfer the toner image to the copper.

Etch as normal.

--

Terry

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On 21/08/2014 19:06, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

Given a black and white computer drawing, what is the simplest way to
make up half a dozen PCBs? is there laser printable clear stock, resist
coated board and so on these days? Or is it cheaper to find someone who
does this stuff?



http://www.riccibitti.com/pcb/pcb.htm





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mailto: news {at} admac {dot] myzen {dot} co {dot} uk

"The Natural Philosopher" wrote in message
...


Given a black and white computer drawing, what is the simplest way to make
up half a dozen PCBs? is there laser printable clear stock, resist coated
board and so on these days? Or is it cheaper to find someone who does this
stuff?





I've used these people several times and had an excellent service:


http://www.pcb-pool.com/ppuk/info.html

Andrew

On 21/08/14 19:06, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

Given a black and white computer drawing, what is the simplest way to
make up half a dozen PCBs? is there laser printable clear stock, resist
coated board and so on these days? Or is it cheaper to find someone who
does this stuff?



Apropos of this I asked a friend, and he said 'I am doing a couple
myself: I'll throw yours in as well'

so that is that!

He uses pre coated board, [prints onto drafting film, and a more modern
etchant than ferric chloride apparently


--
Everything you read in newspapers is absolutely true, except for the
rare story of which you happen to have first-hand knowledge. €“ Erwin Knoll

In article ,
The Natural Philosopher wrote:
Given a black and white computer drawing, what is the simplest way to
make up half a dozen PCBs? is there laser printable clear stock, resist
coated board and so on these days? Or is it cheaper to find someone who
does this stuff?

I've found a inkjet gives a better transparency here. Might be my cheap
laser printer, though.

For half a dozen, you might get a decent price to have them made -
especially from the far east if you're not in a rush. Although I don't
know what sort of file they expect.

I enjoy making the odd one, and already have a UV light box and cheap
bubble tank, so haven't investigated having them made. Photo resist board
is easily available.

I did try the iron on stuff - you print with a laser to special paper then
iron on to plain copper board, then etch. But never got even half decent
results with it.

--
*Great groups from little icons grow *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

In article ,
Andrew Mawson wrote:
"The Natural Philosopher" wrote in message
...


Given a black and white computer drawing, what is the simplest way to
make up half a dozen PCBs? is there laser printable clear stock,
resist coated board and so on these days? Or is it cheaper to find
someone who does this stuff?





I've used these people several times and had an excellent service:


http://www.pcb-pool.com/ppuk/info.html

Andrew

Crikey. Not cheap for a simple PCB.

--
*Born free - taxed to death *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On 21/08/2014 23:47, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:


you print with a laser to special paper then
iron on to plain copper board, then etch. But never got even half decent
results with it.


I've had good results with this method but no special paper - just the
glossy junk mail paper thrown through my letter box (as detailed in
previously linked article). I however didn't drill any holes and used
"conventional components" in a surface mount way - legs on DIL packages
bent out at 90 degrees to the IC body etc.


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mailto: news {at} admac {dot] myzen {dot} co {dot} uk

In article ,
alan_m wrote:
you print with a laser to special paper then iron on to plain copper
board, then etch. But never got even half decent results with it.


I've had good results with this method but no special paper - just the
glossy junk mail paper thrown through my letter box (as detailed in
previously linked article). I however didn't drill any holes and used
"conventional components" in a surface mount way - legs on DIL packages
bent out at 90 degrees to the IC body etc.

Interesting. Could be my laser printer.

I've never used surface mount - but with ordinary ICs you can still need
fairly fine tracks - say to run two underneath them. It would obviously be
much easier to miss out the 'photo' stages. But experiments using paper
designed for the job were useless here.

--
*On the seventh day He brewed beer *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

Terry Casey wrote:
Etch as normal.

What's 'normal' etching?

I've had reasonable results with warm (~40-50C) ferric chloride and a
washing up sponge - scrub with the sponge (not the scourer bit) and the
copper soon comes off. You don't need much etchant and it's a lot less faff
for small volumes than bubble tanks.

The other thing to remember is to design the PCB so the minimal amount of
copper needs to be etched - that means put down copper pour over the whole
design and you only need to etch enough to isolate the tracks.

If this is too much hassle someone like
http://www.seeedstudio.com/service/index.php
is $10 for 5 single/double sided boards 5cm x 5cm - but come from China so
aren't quick if you don't pay for express post.

Theo

In article ,
Theo Markettos wrote:
I've had reasonable results with warm (~40-50C) ferric chloride and a
washing up sponge - scrub with the sponge (not the scourer bit) and the
copper soon comes off. You don't need much etchant and it's a lot less
faff for small volumes than bubble tanks.

Beauty with a bubble tank is you don't have to stand over it while it
works. I re-use the old etchant too - kept it in a 5 litre plastic bottle
which originally contained car anti-freeze. The sediment tends to stay at
the bottom of the tank if you allow it to settle after use - so just
decant the clean stuff to the container.

You can do the etching without - but I'd not go back to that. My tank cost
well under 100 quid from Ebay and uses a fish tank heater and air pump.
I'd guess you could make one quite easily.

--
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Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

"The Natural Philosopher" wrote in message
...

Given a black and white computer drawing, what is the simplest way to make
up half a dozen PCBs? is there laser printable clear stock, resist coated
board and so on these days? Or is it cheaper to find someone who does this
stuff?

Do you have a Hackspace near you? as they will likely have pcb production
equipment,

The nottingham hackspace has stocks of the photo resist boards for use by
members (membership open to anyone, you pay what you think the space is
worth to you for membership... i.e tenner a month, 20 quid month etc)
You print the track layout onto tracing paper using the laser printer, lay
it over the pcb and stick it in the UV box, then put the pcb in the
developer tank, and finally into the bubble etch tank.... when etched, trim
it with the pcb guilotine if needed and drill the holes with the small bench
drill provided)


I occasionally make simple pcb's at home using the standard copper clad
board, i've done the print onto magazine/glossy paper, iron onto the pcb
material, then spend ages scrubbing the paper away to reveal the track
layout, then etch in feric chloride (tried one of the 'safer' etchants once,
blue in colour it was... sodium hydroxate or something like that, took half
an hour before it even began to etch a 2 inch square pcb)

Of course there is the etch resist marker pen method, and i have a vinyl
cutter, so i have made simple etch masks using that before,