Finally gonna make a PCB

[Cardboard Tube Samurai]

I have an etching tank made from a tupperware container (used for breakfast cereals I think). It's a narrow, upright rectangular thing with a lid on the top. I have the pump from a fishtank filter suspended in the etchant to agitate and I sit the whole thing in a sink of hot water to keep the temperature up. I suspend the board in the tank on fishing line.

As for drilling the holes, I too use a Dremel-type tool with a 0.8mm (think metric!) drill bit. I drill after the board is etched... I discovered that drilling beforehand can cause inaccuracies.

I might do a step-by-step pictorial of my next etching... I am currently in the processes of preparing the box and it's going to be my best yet!!!!

[mojokicks37]

Where did you get a drill but so small? Did yu find it at a hardware store (Home Depot, Lowes) or somewhere like the ratshack?


I've found 1/16" but I feel like that's still too big.

Thanks!

[$uperpuma]

I get mine from drill bit city... and theres a guy from texas on ebay that has a bunch of surplus ones while they last...

[$uperpuma]

does it ever come premixed?

I doubt premixed HCl + H2O2 would be all that stable, over the long term.

EDITED to say, you just never know what is going to happen in home chemistry.. just found this:
"........Acetone peroxide can also occur accidentally, when suitable chemicals are mixed together. For example, when methyl ethyl ketone peroxide is mixed with acetone when making fiberglass, and left to stand for some time, or when a mixture of peroxide and hydrochloric acid from printed circuit board etching (the FeCl3 method is less smelly, more accurate, but slower) is mixed with waste acetone from cleaning the finished board and allowed to stand. While amounts obtained this way are typically much smaller than from intentional production, they are also less pure and prepared without cooling, and hence very unstable.
It is also a hazardous by-product of isosafrole oxidation in acetone, a step in illicit synthesis of MDMA........."

It's a small world!

illicit synthesis...say THAT 5 times fast...

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

illicit synthesis...say THAT 5 times fast...

Oh, chemists know how to have fun...... http://www.chm.bris.ac.uk/sillymolecules/sillymols.htm

[smallbearelec]

Where did you get a drill but so small?
Thanks!

Look in the Tools sections of the Stock List! I carry a variety of wire number twist drills with the thin shank that will fit a Dremel collet. If you don't have a Dremel or similar hand tool, I have several sizes of drills that have a standard 3/32" shank. That will fit the Jacobs chuck of a regular drill or drill press.

For that matter, there are a number of bits and pieces that make the board-making process a lot easier. I have collected them in my etching kit, but they are mostly available separately also. See my upcoming post on new products.

Regards
SD