First PCB Etch... surprise!

[MasaRGR]

It worked! First time! I still can't believe it 

A big thanks to John Lyons for a great photo tutorial!

I had already purchased some PNP Blue to do the transfers, but figured I'd give the glossy inkjet photopaper a try first to see if it worked for me. Everything went just as planned with only a slight edge not showing up on the board (probably due to my lack of ironing skills) but that was touched up with a paint pen. I used MarkM's (I think  ) idea of dipping the board into a glass jar of FeCl with some fishing line and it worked great!

Drilled the holes with a little pcb mini drill that I purchased from an online electronics store - and it worked really well. Quick, straight holes and no messy edges. I do need to work on the pcb board cutting technique - maybe some more scoring before trying to break the board pieces apart.

I know this is small potatoes for most of you, but I can't be more pleased at the results   
I had to tell someone and unfortunately, my wife and kids didn't think it was all that monumental 

Again, a big thanks to all for the wealth of information and for setting one more musician/geek down the pcb making path.

[Papa_lazerous]

NICE 
if thats your first attempt I am impressed.  Bet if felt good seeing it turn out good.

I am interested in that mini drill you have there, got a link to it??

[MasaRGR]

Thanks, and yes it felt great 

Here is the manufacturer's link -
http://www.sunhayato.co.jp/products/details.php?u=619&id=10041

[theundeadelvis]

In the spirit of DIY this looks interesting: http://www.instructables.com/id/$30-High-Speed-PCB-Drill-Press/

[John Lyons]

Those look great. Better than my first ones!
Glad my etching process article helped.
Here's a link in case anyone else wants to have a peek.

That Box of Rock board is a little tight and odd spaced for some parts. It works though! Sounds good I think.

Scoring boards takes some practice. I cringe at my own attempts to do it. I usually use a table saw for the task.
That

John

[bean]

I thought that second board looked familiar....

I've gotten a lot better at layouts since then!

[John Lyons]

No offenseintended bean, the layout is nice and tidy. Thanks for posting it in the first place.
I've looked at some of my old layouts and thought..."what was I thinking.."
Live and learn.

John

[jefe]

It worked! First time! I still can't believe it 

Those look GREAT MasaRGR! I've only built 4 circuits so far, all on perfboard. I personally don't want to buy other people's pre-made boards - I really want the "DIY" to be done by me as much as possible (not to knock all of you who make / buy those boards - it's a personal thing). But if I could make boards like that, i would say goodbye to the perfboard method in a heartbeat.

John L - your tutorial looks great. Thank you for putting that together, and sharing your hard-earned knowledge with the rest of us.

[jswingchun]

Thanks, and yes it felt great 

Here is the manufacturer's link -
http://www.sunhayato.co.jp/products/details.php?u=619&id=10041

I cannot read Japanese. Is that where you ordered it from or just the manufacturer?

[PerroGrande]

Great job --- way better than my first PCB attempts way back when.

I actually use a 62.5mill router bit to cut my pcb material. I don't know if you could do it with the rig you have, but it might be something to theorize about.

[MasaRGR]

@John - Thanks again for the great tutorial. I'm sure it has helped lots of people already and I wouldn't have even attempted this without it

@Bean - Thanks for the layout! I'm not adept enough to layout my own pcb yet, and I really appreciate your work. I think I might have mis-sized the layout when I printed it. In this circuit, since there are no IC's to line up, I tried to size it to the transistors when I should probably have sized it to the largest capacitor and worked from there. At the present size though, it might fit in the little MXR size box, so I'm going to try and squeeze the parts on there if possible

@jefe - Thanks! I'm in the same boat and have been perfing everything up til this. It's like a whole new world has opened up 

@jswingchun - Yes, that's just the manufacturer info page. I ordered it from http://www.takkyparts.com/ which unfortunately is also in Japanese.

@PerroGrande - Thanks, I'll check around and see if I can find one to try. I bought a circular saw blade for my dremel, but I'm kinda chicken to use it after hearing stories of the blades shattering and flying off into the sunset    I have a jeweler's hack saw and a few more plastic knives to try as well. Hopefully one of these methods will get me a straighter cut so I won't have to file the edges down as much.