DIY circuit board creation

Ever wanted to lay out a simple circuit board but have no access to the tools or funding to use a propper fabrication service? well, I have a method that works on a very low budget.

This circuit will give new life to any old board. in this case, part of a monitor that has been sat in my garage for 8 years. Nearly everything is recyled, with the exception of the LED, Solder and glue.

All tools (except soldering Iron, wick and sucker) were aquired from a dollar store.

Time taken: 30mins to several hours (depending on size of circuit)

Things you will need:
> An old circuit board (older the better, try get one with lots of long traces)
> A soldering Iron & Solder
> A pair of safety glasses (you never know you need them until you get solder in your eye!)
> Tweezers and/or pliars
> A sharp knife (xacto would be perfect but I settled for a dollar store box-cutter)
> Superglue (or crazy glue, anything that would make copper tracks stick to the board)
> Push-pin
> File and/or sanding block
> Solder sucker and/or solder-wick (I used both)
> A marker or pen for drawing on the board.

optional but recomended:
> Cup of tea
> Good sountrack to work with (I listened to Rammstein (Leibe is fur alle da) while doing this)

I started using this method about 18 years ago when I first got into electronics. As a 12 year-old you tend to not have much of a budget for PCB services or prototyping equipment. But what I did have was access to a lot of old equipment.

The board I selected for this instructable was from an old VGA monitor, so old it still had the old analogue adjustment dials (very useful bunch of 10K pots). The board is from the back of the CRT.

In this instructable I will show you have to prepare the board, remove the traces, recondition the board, add the traces and put together a simple flashlight.

Step 1 Initial board preparation

Before we can do anything with the board we must first strip off all the components and as much of the solder as we can.

I removed the components using my solder sucker and took as much solder with it as I could in the process. The rest of the solder I "mopped" up with the solder wick.

Next we need to sand down the board, this will remove a lot of the excess solder as well as the solder-mask from the board.

Comments

[jbend]

where can you get a solder sucker.

['earl]

I got one at radioshack, was like 8 bucks, works like a charm

[Nerdz]

Interesting Idea, you could also Use Copper Foil (it has adhesive backing) to do the same thing. You can get 36 inches (1/4 inch wide) On ebay for around 2 bucks (with free shipping!)

[ratgod]

I will have to get some and give it a try. When I first thought this up I had no access to anything like that unfortunatly, but it would certainly skip the most tedious part.

Thanks for your sugestion
Peter (Ratgod)