Etching without all the headaches?

[Joe Hart]

I've done a little bit of etching and have had some troubles. And it seems I'm not alone (I've done a lot of reading on this forum and have seem many people doing "attempt number five" and whatnot). Anyway, is there another way to do an etch? Say I wanted to just do a couple of one-offs (and nothing like a Phase 90! Simple stuff like a Rangemsater or something). Would just Sharpie work? Or what if I cut pieces out of some sticker stock with a nice, strong adhesive and took care to mask off any gaps between "sticker strips" (if you know what I mean)? Has anyone done anything like this? It just seems that I don't have a lot of luck with the conventional methods (and I don't have access to a laser printer -- I've gone to a copy shop, but I can never be sure that they're really doing it correctly and they may be touching the print, so finger oils may be interfering). Ideas?
-Joe Hart

[Joe Hart]

Oh yeah! And before everyone says use perfboard or stripboard or whatever, I want the pedals to have the "professional" look of solid board with just the components poking through. Thanks.
-Joe Hart

[LP Hovercraft]

 A good brand new Sharpie like you said will do the trick if you are doing a simple circuit, but is a complicated drafting project for a flanger or a phaser or even some compressors.  You just have to make sure that ink has dried-which takes longer on a copper surface.  Sharpies are great for pre-etch trace repairs.

If you are feeling adventurous, search for the positive presensitized PCB UV exposure method.  I went from doing only perfboard stuff for ten years to this in a week.  It is slick, sharp and quite easy!  Never really bothered with pnp blue or magazine covers.  This method does require going to an office store that has a laser copier to get your PCB artwork on a transparency, but is very worthwhile if you are doing something more complex than a booster or a fuzzface.

[LP Hovercraft]

If you've never etched before, expect mistakes to be made the first few times around.  Keep your resolve and a reserve of the copper clad board of your choosing you will get excellent results eventually.  My first 3 were all disasters.  #4 was pro quality. 

[glops]

Look on craigslist for a laser printer.  I bought a new one from staples for 50 bucks.  You could probably get one for 20 bucks used.  I use sharpies on PCB's for touch ups and I'm sure it would work if you drew your traces on copper clad.  I tried this once but ended up not etching it.  Not a bad investment if you make lots of pedals.  I use the printer with pnp but have done it with gloss mag paper for pcbs and it was pretty simple.  UV way looks interesting but I have done it enough that I don't need to learn another method as this method works fine for me.

[deadastronaut]

yeah sharpie works...but its rough!...and you have to do a few coats of it, but it still has rough traces....i did an inductorless  wah using that method in the early days..
it worked but definately didnt look pro at all...

paint, nail varnish, they work too....better than a sharpie..

i found print shops will never put the proper dark/toner saver off setting onto a print for you....they hate doing it!...and they'll say thats at best quality....but it isnt...
and standard prints just wont have enough toner to grip....

i ended up just buying a printer....   rob.

[egasimus]

I haven't attempted this yet, but I'd like to:
Some small desktop laminators can actually take in something as thick as a PCB. You'll have to mod it to work at a higher temperature, which was described somewhere on hackaday.com. This should save you some trouble with the ironing-on.

I've also read about old inkjets (that's right, inkjets) butchered and modified to print directly to PCB. Should also work, although it's gonna be quite a project.

[peps1]

4 words.......

ETCH RESIST PCB TRANSFERS!




http://www.megauk.com/artwork_aids.php

They are like the old school letraset letters that you rub on to a stuff, but they come in lines, curves, pads and dip strips and more.

of if you want to go down the pen path....sharpie marker are ok, but spend an extra £2 and get the real deal A Dalo PC 33 sh*ts on sharpie marker!  

[~arph]

I stopped etching myself. I just order from dorkbotpdx. The time saved and the possibility of dual layer boards doesn't weight up to the money saved by diy anymore..  printing, scrubbing, sanding, ironing, etching, scrubbing, sanding, drilling 500 holes, sawing and trimming the board.. arghhh.. 

[Steve Mavronis]

Joe - Can't you just print your PCB layout at 300dpi to an inkjet compatible (frosted surface) transparency and etch the UV way? There are plenty of videos on YouTube showing how to do this plus tinning.

[trjones1]

Try photo resist etching.  I know there are some people on this board who can make amazing, professional quality pcbs by doing toner transfer, but as the OP says, a lot of us can't.  Photo resist etching gives great results and it's pretty simple and fast.  The only issues are making the investment for the materials and learning yet another new procedure.  But given how quick and easy the process is once you get it down, it's totally worth it, imo.

[newfish]

of if you want to go down the pen path....sharpie marker are ok, but spend an extra £2 and get the real deal A Dalo PC 33 sh*ts on sharpie marker!  

+1.  Whilst making a small batch of identical boards this weekend, I used a 'Rotring' pigment ink pen to draw each board 'border', and a PC33 pen to draw the circuits.  Both inks were dry before I etched.

Despite a fairly short etch time, the Rotring ink disappeared.  Completely. The PC33 ink did its job remarkably well - and I now have some fairly neat boards.

The right tool for the job - and the pens aren't expensive when you consider just how many boards you'll be able to etch with one.

[edvard]

I've used an old-fashion dip pen (they still sell them at craft stores) and thinned-down model paint.
Much better coverage than a sharpie, and you can use different gauge pens for different-sized traces.
Try a B-5 and B-6 'Cartoonist nib'.
Takes a bit of practice, though...

[davent]

Try photo resist etching.  I know there are some people on this board who can make amazing, professional quality pcbs by doing toner transfer, but as the OP says, a lot of us can't.  Photo resist etching gives great results and it's pretty simple and fast.  The only issues are making the investment for the materials and learning yet another new procedure.  But given how quick and easy the process is once you get it down, it's totally worth it, imo.

With photoresist you can  have a great looking etched board in your hands in the half hour after you print out your transparency. With a Sharpie or toner transfer you'll never match the time factor or the quality of etch easily attainable with  photoresist.

dave

[Perrow]

+1 on the photo resist, only done a few boards but success every time so far. I even use the "household chemistry etch"

[thekyle55]

http://www.quill.com/sanford-uni-paint-fine-point-markers/cbs/184726.html

I used these paint markers when I was first starting.  I would tape the layout down on the board, drill the holes, and play connect-the-dots.  They are quick drying, and covers really well, but the tips are a little large so you have to be careful.

[Mark Hammer]

Water resistant Sharpie-style markers were what Radio Shack and others would traditionally include in their PCB-making kits.  And its precisely how I would make boards 25 years ago.

If you go that route, I recommend using Staedtler Lumocolor pens since they have finer control, come in finer tips, are often cheaper, and come in multiple colours.  I found the colours aspect useful.  The pigment in the marker is actually secondary to the medium the pigment is suspended in.  What I'd do is use two colours, like red or green, and black or blue.  The first layer would be done/drawn in the lighter colour.  Then you could go over the drawing with the darker colour, and keep track of what you had and hadn't already gone over by the colour.  With a nice thick layer laid down, you could be confident of not having any unintended over-etched areas.

The caveat of hand drawing is that you run a high risk of getting "finger juice" on the exposed copper during the drawing if you aren't careful, and that will corrode and obstruct efficient etching, no matter what you are using as resist or using to etch.

An alternate method I used to use was to buy a sheet of rub-on transfers with pads for transistors, ICs, and dots for pads.  If there was a layout for something I liked in a magazine article, I'd tape a photocopy of the layout over the bare board, and pop a little dimple into the copper with my spring-loaded center-punch.  I'd buff up the board nice and shiny with fine steel wool, and rub on the pads, using the dimples as my guide.  Then I'd simply "connect the dots" with the waterproof marker.  Yielded some nice neat boards.  As a bonus, they came with a little dimple for centering your drill bit over each pad when done with the etch.

[Joe Hart]

I would tape the layout down on the board, drill the holes, and play connect-the-dots.

I'm guessing that the bit of copper exposed on the sides of the drilled holes wouldn't etch away too much to really be an issue?
-Joe Hart

[davent]

Just to give you an idea of the resolution attainable with photoresist, this is MG Chemicals board, exposed an inch from the regular flourescent bulbs above my workbench for 9-10 minutes then developed in MG Chemicals developer and finally etched with hydrogen peroxide/muratic acid. Nothing special or exotic involved.



For some  nicely done Sharpie boards, sean k posted pictures of some great work he'd done, this was probably a couple of years ago.