Rate My Etching Job.

Very nice, looks professional.

Btw, what software you use to design the PCB?

Mind to share with us ur method of etching and the materials used?

I had bad experience with ferrite chloride as etchant, the stinky nature drives me nuts

Those boards look really good, am hoping to try out your technique soon and will be very happy to achieve anywhere near your results. My past projects all work but the boards look like pidgeon splatter ..dB

Cool thread idea, Arvo_Arrow!

Avro - you've set the bar too high :-)

but I'll bet you haven't thought of this

cheers

FRED

Ok , time to share - all are 2 sided , some more successful than others but they all work. I seem to have lost many of the naked pcb images after several computer changes so this is all that's left.

my first board was probably one of my best

The prototype CKKIII

Underside

Front

I don't recall the order of things , this next shows some of the blotchy nature that most of my etches are plagued by.

Unity gain tube buffer

top

bottom

and this must be one of the worst - I just had a real hard time getting the copper etched and eventually left it sitting overnight

the ground plane on this one didn't suffer as much but it is still quite pitted.

soha II prototype

I will hopefully have more success this next round using the newer paper and foil before etching. I am really hoping that the foil sorts out the ground plane as that is the biggest ache. I have to use the iron method to transfer as I haven't quite figured out how to do double sided UV exposure ( besides not being set up to be able to do it )

Looking at this I guess what I lack in quality , I make up in volume

..dB

Very nice especially the silk screening, I assume you do that last? how do you make sure its all lined up

don't worry about blotchy, thats why Hammond is in business :-)

cheers

FRED

I should perhaps try hammond someday - my norm is to re-appropriate or start from scratch = equally blotchy

lining up is not difficult , keeping it aligned until you apply heat is a little more tricky. I normally transfer one side - drill 3 of the vias which I then use to line up the other transfer with a bright light shining through from the opposite side. I then move the board onto the surface that I am going to iron on, use wax sheet on the surface so that the transfer on the other side doesn't stick to the surface and then hope that nothing has moved and transfer that side - once you have both sides transferred you can get a good idea - at least to within 0.5mm if you are aligned. If it looks good dump it in the etch bath.

It doesn't matter if there are subtle malalignments, as long as you take care of any shorts to ground before assembling.

..dB