Scratch Built

[sean k]

Not really what you thought, maybe, but true.

I've often thought about scratching a whole circuit onto copper covered in sharpie as I use the scratch method to cut the lines between IC pins, electro caps, etc. just the other day I decided I needed another 386 on a board but it was all inked up and so I drew on top of the sharpie ink with a pencil and lo and behold I could see the lines so I put in the circuit for the 386 by scratching away the lines between the bits I wanted isolated.

This led me to do this, which is a Bass paralooper, and it was completely sharpied then marked with pencil then the un-tracks scratched away.


So heres yet another way of doing PCB's. Thinlayer of wax to start might be better than sharpie though.

[littlephil]

Looks pretty...
Does it work?

[Paul Marossy]

Huh, interesting way to do things. I would think that you would need some good strong & steady hands to do that well.

[JasonG]

That looks great ! Too bad using clear enclosures is a ususly a bad idea because it would be nice to show off something like that.

[nosamiam]

I bet you could use a Dremel with an engraving bit! I use a tiny one to drill PCB holes, but never thought of using it for anything else.

Hmm... gears are turning....

[Focalized]

Looks like my neighborhood.

[sean k]

It's much easier to see it before its etched, oh and my scanner needs a clean, and I've always had problems with sharpies not covering as well as they might, ends of strokes etc, so I'm going to look at alcohol based screen printing inks so I can just cover the whole board then scratch away what I need and because one isn't eating away so much copper then less etchant will be used even if the time stays the same.

[sean k]

I'll swap them plus some knobs for some electret capsules and a bunch of PT2399's.
http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=77651.msg637527#msg637527

I thought of this after the fact so the thread isn't an add.

[Baktown]

Looks like the back of my head....

[petemoore]

  Anyone try an engraving pen ?
  A hand held electric 'jackhammer' point tip ?
  Even if it doesn't remove all the traces, perhaps it'd be a way to start so the rest of the scraping would be easier to keep on the lines...