And that's solution in both senses of the word.
Now I know most people don't bother making their own PCB's due to the cost and the faff of it (mostly the faff) but I found it interesting so I was doing it anyway, and I got hung up on having plated through holes for a double sided board. There is a solution you can make up yourself but it required an expensive and difficult to obtain chemical (Calcium Hypophosphite), and so I sought to reduce the cost.
To cut the story short I was able to make the same solution through a different method with cheaper stuff.
I've also been able make a powder (well, pretty blue crystals) of the stuff which can be re-hydrated with household ammonia.
What I was wondering is if anybody else is even interested in this.
If so I'll put together a little guide on it, and if people are interested in buying some of the dried product I could price that up.
Youtube Link to the original solution:
Basically once you have made up the solution you dip your board into it and some of the solution gets caught in the holes, you then cure it in an oven and you have a reasonably conductive layer in your holes. You'd then have to electroplate the board to cover the holes properly in a thicker layer of copper, so it's not really for everyone (although doing some simple plating isn't that difficult)