Make Your Own Printed Circuit Boards Part 1 - Artwork and Resist

[Frantone]

This is the first in my 3-part vlog mini-series on high quality PCB manufacturing, and introduction to my "make your own LVDC logic devices" project.   In these vlogs I will show the specialized tools and equipment that you will need to make your own high quality PCB's from scratch with my own well proven methods - I have been making my own PCB's since 2000!  These videos will be filled with step by step demonstrations of each stage - from rendering and checking the artwork, to applying the resist to copper clap boards, to etching, to drilling the PCB's, to component placement and soldering, and finally to defluxing and finishing.  Enjoy! 



More on my Do-It-Yourself-PCB's here: http://www.frantone.com/designwritings/design_writings2.html#pcbs

[SeanB]

Very nice, like the press ( I assume it is not only for PCB work, but is used for the making of your nice support hosiery as well) and the easy way you make it look. What gloves are those, and what paper?

[Frantone]

Part Two:   Etching!

[hanndoddi]

Awesome thx for sharing

[Jonny]

Well done! My arm would be shot after 20mins of etching. I'd make an oscillating platform to sit the tray on and make the wave motion. I wonder if vibration would also be as effective. Sit the tray on a speaker and hit it with a square wave

[mswhin63]

I was thinking the same thing while watching the video. Nice idea about the square wave through a speaker. Many different ways of doing it though.

Well done! My arm would be shot after 20mins of etching. I'd make an oscillating platform to sit the tray on and make the wave motion. I wonder if vibration would also be as effective. Sit the tray on a speaker and hit it with a square wave

[Frantone]

This ferric chloride in a tray method is just the easiest setup for etching a single board.   For multiple board etching I built a 1/2 gallon aerated and heated etch tank for sodium persulphate solution that I can etch 5 4x6" copper clad boards at one time.   

[DavidDLC]

Frantone:

Can you take a picture under a microscope of the traces on a finished PCB using your method ?

I would like to see how are the results with the hot plate you are using. I maybe interested to buy one if I like the results.

David.

[Frantone]

If your lead traces are particularly small or close together you will still get higher resolution with photoresist.  Thermal transfer has some limits, and I draft my artwork with a 10mil minimum lead spacing to take these into consideration - I do prefer thermal transfer because it is so much faster, no chemistry or shelf life for supplies, and it is much easier than photo-optical methods.

[DavidDLC]

Can you still take the picture ?

Send it to me using PM if you wish

Thanks.

[Frantone]

Last part - -  Drill!



 

[ecat]

More excellent tips Fran, thanks for sharing


  No. No. Not the Drilling 

I hate the drilling part, those little carbide buggers are quite costly and tend to shatter if you give them so much as a nasty look... Very slight exaggeration.

Which brings me to the question that half the readers are now asking themselves: "Can I use my Dremel?".

Of course you can use your Dremel, you can also perform eye surgery with a screwdriver, cure headaches with a hammer and make fire guards out of chocolate. So go ahead and use that overpriced, plastic toy and you may, may have some success.  I have a Dremel and yes, I do have some success but there are better options.

Whatever you do DO NOT buy the Dremel drill stand for PCB work.

This guy sums things up quite nicely...

[Spawn]

Nice series Fran, your drill press looks like a rebadged Proxxon TBM 220 drill press, very nice drill press for PCB work.
 
I made little light in the hole where the drill goes on my Proxxon,? so you get light through your PCB it makes easy to locate where to drill.

Ecat is right about Dremel, if someone needs well balanced drill Proxxon is better manufacturer.

[Frantone]

Nice series Fran, your drill press looks like a rebadged Proxxon TBM 220 drill press, very nice drill press for PCB work.
 

My press is about 15 years old, made by MicroLux.  A professional grade Jeweler's Press is quite pricey, and so I went the affordable route and accurized the press myself.

[Spawn]

Okay  They look like twins but in different colors, Proxxon is making them for a long time too indeed. Click on picture below.

[Frantone]

Rebranding indeed!  Those presses do require some upgrading to use all the time - they overheat and need regular lubrication.  I put a CPU fan in the casing and drilled vent holes thought the top of the press to keep the motor cool.  I had to balance and shim the chuck to get the runout under control too.

[ee851]

Ecat, thanks for the hypertext-linked youtube video showing what a piece of crap the Dremel is.

Frantone, thank you for taking time to make the videos.

Where would you recommended getting the 25-60 thou. tungsten carbide drill bit assortment ?     the 165 deg C press ?

If you are considering making another video I hope you will make an instructional video showing how you made the brass die for registering eight PCBs.      That looks like one awesome tool.

[G7PSK]

I use cobalt steel drills a lot they are  cheaper than carbide drills I can get ten cobalt for the price of one carbide, and are more flexible and so don't break as easily. They wont drill glass but cope with fiberglass and fr4 as well as spring and stainless steel. Not sure how small they go as the smallest I have is 1mm.

[Frantone]

Where would you recommended getting the 25-60 thou. tungsten carbide drill bit assortment ?     the 165 deg C press ?

If you are considering making another video I hope you will make an instructional video showing how you made the brass die for registering eight PCBs.      That looks like one awesome tool.

The carbide bits you can get fairly cheaply used online.  In industry they will resharpen these bits several times, and usually after a number of sharpenings they are sold as used /sharpened when the bits become either too short or have been used too many times for CNC machines.  You can get assortments for a very discounted price.  These used bits are still quite good for a hand press and will last a long time.   

[Spawn]

Rebranding indeed!  Those presses do require some upgrading to use all the time - they overheat and need regular lubrication.  I put a CPU fan in the casing and drilled vent holes thought the top of the press to keep the motor cool.  I had to balance and shim the chuck to get the runout under control too.

I think you use your drill a lot more than I use mine, I upgraded the chuck on mine to ease up drill changing and the chuck is still nicely balanced, I also use a foot switch with it.

Here some information about the accessories if you need something:
http://www.proxxon.com/eng/html/28128.php

And the foot switch:
http://www.proxxon.com/eng/html/28700.php

[Frantone]

I run the drill continuously and it has gotten many hundreds of hours of use.

[ee851]

Spawn, thanks for those URLs.   I have a Proxxon I/E and will use it in a homemade hinged press.   The drill press looks better.

I will have to match the drill bit diameters with the hole diameters of the pads for thru-hole components.

[Spawn]

I am glad it was helpful for you

If you didn’t notice I am big Proxxon fan  Got couple tools from them and I like the durability of it.

[ftransform]

I was able to get good result using a transparency which was printed on with a laser printer using MG chemicals sensitized material. The artwork was exposed using a  LUXO brand bench magnifier with a 15 watt light bulb clipped ontop shining through the glass (5 minutes). The artwork was pressed against the PCB using a large sheet of glass.


The development was done using a solution of sodium hydroxide and sodium silicate diluted with water, the board was simply dunked in several times (mikeselectricstuff.com has the proportions).
Etching was conducted by pouring a 50% by mass ferric chloride solution into a Tupperware (3 tablespoons) and agitating via sponge dabbing, occasionally adding 3% hydrogen peroxide in order to heat and dilute the bath (this step took 15-20 minutes).

Drilling was performed with a harbor freight drill press using a appropriately sized BROKEN HSS steel drillbit. The holes made are very useable and you can quickly make the holes by getting up close to the drill press with strong lighting (I use a 250 watt heat bulb 1 foot away when working outside to warm my hands and illuminate the drilling surface).


While the apparatus which frantone built facilitates the process do not feel you need to spend big money on PCB manufacture, I was able to make mine using the most primitive of tools. Of course drilling PCB with broken drill bits in a harbor freight machine does not result in the nicest of holes but it is still fairly accurate and useable. The etch quality using this method was very acceptable, with 10 mil traces coming out just fine.

[Frantone]

@ftransform - Absolutely!  You don't have to spend big bucks to get satisfactory results, and I have refined my methods over years of doing many boards.  If you manufacture PCBs you end up getting the tools that make your job easier.  I used photoresist for many years and have some cool custom tools for that process that I might blog about later.  I also have not shown my heated etching tank system either, another future blog.