Plexiglas/acrylic as a PCB substrate?

[Taylor]

I am going to be making a small run of effects soon, and am considering my options for PCBs. Getting smallish batches done by PCB Express and similar seems to be pretty pricey - something like $15-$20 per board. This will seriously eat into my margin. I was then thinking about doing the old "paper PCB" technique, which I've done before and found pretty easy. The only thing is that it doesn't really look all that nice.

I happen to have a ton of Plexiglas laying around, and was thinking about doing the paper PCB technique but using the plexi as the substrate instead of matboard or masonite.

Anybody have any thoughts on this? Drilling without cracking might be tough, but I'm more interested to know if there will be any electrical or heat problems introduced by the plastic.

[Arn C.]

Don't think there should be any problem.  I don't  think there would be enough heat to harm the plexi.  If the plexi still has the paper on it, leave it on until you are done sawing & drilling.   

Peace & Good Luck!
Arn C.

[mnordbye]

Sounds like a cool idea. Even cooler if you place it in an acrylic enclosure! Make sure there's lots of leds in there too.. 

Magnus Nordbye

[Dragonfly]

It works just fine - watch the temperature though....   

[sean k]

In the modelling fraternity they are now able to electroplate acrylic resin by coating it in a specific "polymer" which may in fact be paintable or printable. I've been thinking about this "polymer" alot 'cause I'd like to make fibreglass shapes, non flat, to then have coated and then etch but your question raises the possiblity of maybe even painting the "polymer", as a circuit straight onto the acrylic, resin or otherwise, onto the surface for electroplating. This way you would remove all those processes of adding and removing which make a normal circuit board so time consuming and therefore expensive. I used to get my steel sculptures electroplated in copper and then nickel many years ago and the guy who did it was old school and, though I never got around to it, he mentioned several times that covering a surface in masking tape would allow that surface to remain raw steel. Now that idea of not even putting on what normally would have to be removed is something I should follow up. I'll go today and try and get more info on the chap who does this miraculous thing to acrylic resin castings.

[Taylor]

Anyone have any thoughts on how to outline the circuit on the plexi? In the usual paper process, you just paste a paper with the layout onto matboard, and drill the holes. In this case, I don't want the paper there, for aesthetic reasons, so any clever ideas of how to put the layout down simply in a way that looks nice and doesn't cover the plexi?

[MicFarlow77]

Anyone have any thoughts on how to outline the circuit on the plexi? In the usual paper process, you just paste a paper with the layout onto matboard, and drill the holes. In this case, I don't want the paper there, for aesthetic reasons, so any clever ideas of how to put the layout down simply in a way that looks nice and doesn't cover the plexi?

One idea would be to print your pattern onto paper as usual, using plain old copy paper... then you could tape it with painters tape along the very edges and you could take a sharpie marker and set it at each place you need to drill... it will soak thru the paper and mark only where you need to drill.

Another similar option in the event that the sharpie does not penetrate well enough... take a small drill bit or a pin.. something that you can poke super small holes with... use that to poke holes in the paper where you wish to drill and do as above....

Thanks,

Mick

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

I would have expected horrible problems when solder gets on it, when component leads through it heat and melt it etc.
i don't think plexi is really intended for this kind of thing, no matter how cool it would look.

But don't take my thoughts as gospel - try a small piece out first & see how it behaves.

[Arn C.]

I would make sure I tinned all the component leads before installing them to the board, this way you will not need much time to heat up the solder connections.  They will meld quite quickly with less damage if any to the plexi.

Arn C.

[casey]

you could also alligator clip all the leads for a quick heat sinking...  or perhaps some type of flux paste

[Taylor]

Anyone have any thoughts on how to outline the circuit on the plexi? In the usual paper process, you just paste a paper with the layout onto matboard, and drill the holes. In this case, I don't want the paper there, for aesthetic reasons, so any clever ideas of how to put the layout down simply in a way that looks nice and doesn't cover the plexi?

One idea would be to print your pattern onto paper as usual, using plain old copy paper... then you could tape it with painters tape along the very edges and you could take a sharpie marker and set it at each place you need to drill... it will soak thru the paper and mark only where you need to drill.

Another similar option in the event that the sharpie does not penetrate well enough... take a small drill bit or a pin.. something that you can poke super small holes with... use that to poke holes in the paper where you wish to drill and do as above....

Thanks,

Mick

I would still need to outline the trace side of the PCB though, because I am not etching traces onto it. The connections in this type of PCB are made up of the legs of components soldered together, with wire connecting components that are too far apart to use their own legs.

I might use some sort of clear printable sticker material, but it might degrade the sleek look of the plexi if the sticker is not clear enough or begins to peel.

[markeebee]

Hey Taylor, did you ever follow up on this? I like the idea of acrylic boards!

[Taylor]

No, I never did. It is a cool idea but now that I can etch boards and do cheap-ish runs at pro manufacturers it's not very appealing from a practical standpoint.

There was a guy on here a while back who had a laser engraver and was engraving acrylic with it. Doing that for the layout and then connecting the parts via their leads would make a pretty neat-looking board. Maybe I'll see who that was and make it happen.

[T1bbles]

Forgive me, but what is this 'paper PCB' thing?

[JKowalski]

I am going to be making a small run of effects soon, and am considering my options for PCBs. Getting smallish batches done by PCB Express and similar seems to be pretty pricey - something like $15-$20 per board. This will seriously eat into my margin.

Try Futurlec.com. I haven't had experience with their circuit board manufacturing, but they are really cheap. You can get a quote on their page HERE.

For example, 2" by 2" single sided board without solder mask or silk screening only costs $2.50 a board and a flat 15$ cover charge for set up. Silk and solder mask each add a $12 flat cover charge respectively. I'd say that's pretty cheap!

[bean]

You can get 24 2x2" pcb's done with solder mask and silkscreen for about $90 shipped from Silver Circuits. Just use their prototyping service.
Or, about 40 pcb's from Gold Phoenix for around $110, also with solder mask and silkscreen.

[petemoore]

  Also handy for starting campfire.
 I'm trying to find a glass grid, like a screen, filter, hotplate, something with holes in it kind of like perfboard, might be brittle though.

[R.G.]

If I was you, I would drill a few holes and try soldering on that before committing too much in the way of funds or time to it.

Soldering irons can be pretty brutal on acrylic sheet.

[nosamiam]

I was considering trying it out today when i get home from work but i realized something. The sheet I have is probably 1/8" thick. The 2 or 3 projects I have in mind all require at least 1 IC. I don't think the legs will be long enough. It might require some trickery to pull it off. If I try it I'll report back. It's promising for me because I don't have a laser printer and always have to leave the house to print my toner transfer.

[Taylor]

I appreciate the suggestions guys, but the above post was from over a year ago. Now I'm familiar with several different PCB companies.

BatchPCB is the absolute cheapest for a single small board, but slow. Slightly mediocre quality.

PCBFabExpress is the cheapest for a quick turnaround of about 5 boards.

EZPCB is the cheapest for a big batch.

"Paper PCB" is where you punch parts through a matboard and connect their leads on the other side, like perfboard. I haven't done this in years.