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Step 3Etch the Board (Instant Gratification!)
Put on your rubber gloves.
Open the bottle of ferric chloride and put the sponge over the opening, and tip the bottle to let about a tablespoon or so of solution saturate into the sponge.
Now with the circuit board in the palm of one hand, simply wipe the solution-saturated sponge over the surface of the board over and over. Don't scrub, just keep wiping it all over. In just a few seconds of wiping, you will see the copper start to disappear!
You will find that unlike the submersion etching method, the copper in the center of the board etches away first, so you might want to try to focus on the edges as you wipe.
In less than a minute of continuous gentle wiping, your board will be fully etched before your eyes!
Drop the etched circuit board into the bowl of water to stop the etching action.
If you are etching multiple boards, you can rinse out the sponge, squeeze out most of the water, then re-apply ferric chloride solution if desired, but I have found that I can etch two 2" x 3" boards with one application.
Open the bottle of ferric chloride and put the sponge over the opening, and tip the bottle to let about a tablespoon or so of solution saturate into the sponge.
Now with the circuit board in the palm of one hand, simply wipe the solution-saturated sponge over the surface of the board over and over. Don't scrub, just keep wiping it all over. In just a few seconds of wiping, you will see the copper start to disappear!
You will find that unlike the submersion etching method, the copper in the center of the board etches away first, so you might want to try to focus on the edges as you wipe.
In less than a minute of continuous gentle wiping, your board will be fully etched before your eyes!
Drop the etched circuit board into the bowl of water to stop the etching action.
If you are etching multiple boards, you can rinse out the sponge, squeeze out most of the water, then re-apply ferric chloride solution if desired, but I have found that I can etch two 2" x 3" boards with one application.
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Regardless, it was my first ever PCB and it's not too bad, I think!
I use mine for touching up toner transfer on the occasion there is a hole or some other problem.
Regards,
Nicolae
Good point! Yes, Sharpie pen will often rub off, even during traditional tank etching.
I've never tried this, but I wonder if a paint pen would work? It might be a little bit too coarse, though.
There is a so a type of pen called a Rapidograph made by Koh-I-Noor (intro video on YouTube at http://youtu.be/xHSIk4Y79BY) that are really amazing and cool pens for drawing VERY detailed drawings. You fill them yourself with any india ink, so if you used a waterproof india ink, I wonder if that would work for resist for PCBs?
The rapidograph looks interesting — I may have to get hold of one of those.
P.S. My PCB soldered very well — on to testing now :|
Those of you having trouble, I can explain. Jim is using 1/2 oz copper laminate. If you're using 1 oz, it takes considerably longer. I like using the 1/2 oz copper boards just for this reason - it goes so much quicker. (I've done it with both types of board.)
Have tried the sponge approach a couple of times on small boards (2x3 or smaller) and am finding that just rubbing with the sponge takes awhile and requires multiple rewetting of the sponge with FeCl to be effective. Maybe I am doing something wrong?
The last board I did I instead tried soaking my board in pure FeCl for about 30 min, then rubbing with sponge and didn't use any water whatsoever. The rubbing part took much less time with less mess. Still experimenting...