how can i make a board myself?

[vasanthakumar]

hi guys
i want 2 know how can we make circuit boards .bcoz many times ,finding a printed circuit for our circuit is realy big task.
for this my friend sagest , paint the circuit in copper board and socks this in feric clorde.
but its takes too much time.
i want to know any other techniques is avilable to make circuit board with my hands

[dknguyen]

There are different ways to mark the circuit onto the copper board. A laser printer is the easiest way.

I believe you can wear some gloves (make sure they are strong enough) and scrub the board with a sponge instead of painting the board. THe etching process with ferric chloride is always messy- there is no way around it.

[stevez]

One thing you can do is mechanically remove the copper foil in selected areas with a grinder or knife. I was looking at an interesting project where someone constructed a computer controlled machine to grind or mill the copper away. Input was AutoCAD or similar drawings - converted to G-CODE which drove the stepper motors on the X-Y table and the cutter depth. The "tool" was a simple dremel grinder.

Another things you can do is cut small chunks of copper clad board and create islands of copper on top of another copper clad board or bare board.

[Rolf]

Originally Posted by stevez

One thing you can do is mechanically remove the copper foil in selected areas with a grinder or knife. I was looking at an interesting project where someone constructed a computer controlled machine to grind or mill the copper away. Input was AutoCAD or similar drawings - converted to G-CODE which drove the stepper motors on the X-Y table and the cutter depth. The "tool" was a simple dremel grinder.

Another things you can do is cut small chunks of copper clad board and create islands of copper on top of another copper clad board or bare board.

I use copper foil with adhesive used by stain glass artists. It is great and dirt cheap. I paid less than $6.00 for roll (63 yards by 7/32"). I use it for creating Vcc and ground lines on pre punched boards. I don't see any problems with creating whole circuits, like power supplies using this. It comes in three thicknesses 1.0 mil, 1.25 mil and 1.5 mil, my supplier only had the 1.0 mil, so that is what I use.

[Marks256]

One thing you can do is mechanically remove the copper foil in selected areas with a grinder or knife. I was looking at an interesting project where someone constructed a computer controlled machine to grind or mill the copper away. Input was AutoCAD or similar drawings - converted to G-CODE which drove the stepper motors on the X-Y table and the cutter depth. The "tool" was a simple dremel grinder.

Another things you can do is cut small chunks of copper clad board and create islands of copper on top of another copper clad board or bare board.

We, surprisingly, have one of these milling machines at our school. We used a program called SpectraCAM to draw the things, and then we used the SpectraCAD Milling to convert it to G-CODE. It was real fun. I never did try it on the boards though, just used wax blocks.

I use copper foil with adhesive used by stain glass artists. It is great and dirt cheap. I paid less than $6.00 for roll (63 yards by 7/32"). I use it for creating Vcc and ground lines on pre punched boards. I don't see any problems with creating whole circuits, like power supplies using this. It comes in three thicknesses 1.0 mil, 1.25 mil and 1.5 mil, my supplier only had the 1.0 mil, so that is what I use.

This seems interesting. What is this stuff called? I would like to pick some up, just to make quick/cheap projects, like test circuits. 8)

[Rolf]

[QUOTE
{snip}
This seems interesting. What is this stuff called? I would like to pick some up, just to make quick/cheap projects, like test circuits. 8)[/quote]

Any stain glass store should know what you are talking about.
Manufacturer is Venture Tape and the name is: Master Foil Plus.

[Marks256]

Cool, thanks!