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SMD IC soldering

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some of those peoples was me's...
btw, nice site... thanks
 
Nice site. I'd like to know more about your PCB production. I notice from your Electronics Equipment list that you've got yourself a drill-system for drilling the component holes and a pair of hair-straighteners which you use for heating the transfers, but there is no mention of any chemicals involved in the process or anything.

I have quite a bit of experience when it comes to Electronics Projects but I've always used stripboard. PCBs have their obvious advantages but I've never really got into home PCB production so I'm still not completely sure of the whole process. I know that there are two main methods you can use, one involving the use of UV exposure and the other acid chemicals. I know a little about how both of those methods work, but I'm not 100% on either of them.

How exactly do you go about creating your PCBs, and what sort of results do you get with regard to board quality?

Brian
 
did you see the toner transfer PCB tutorial?

It's a little outdated, because back then I was still using photo paper for transferring the toner, now I use press-n-peel. you can see some pics of that here:
**broken link removed**

the process is basically the same though.

regardless of whether you use toner transfer or UV exposure, you still need to use acid chemicals to etch the board. these methods are for applying the etch resist pattern.

the etching solution I use is sodium persulfate, although ferric chloride is more common and easier to buy, this stuff is nicer to work with. as you can see from the press-n-peel pics, I do my etching in ziplock freezer bags, I use about 3 teaspoons of sodium persulfate crystals and 1/4 cup of hot water to do the etching.

as for board quality, well with press-n-peel I can do basically anything I want. I can do SMD parts easily, 10 mil traces and traces between DIP IC pads are no problem. I also have never had any problems with defects, the press-n-peel transfers very well without broken traces or pitting.
 
Great, thanks for the info. I recently priced up a kit for doing home-made PCBs and it came to over £1000 which is what... $2000 where you come from? Unfortunately I don't have that kind of cash spare so I had to put that bright idea on hold.

It seems you manage to succesfully produce your own PCBs on a small budget so I think I'm going to check that out and give it a go!

By the way, I'm aware that you probably get asked this ALL the time but do you ever see Stephen King walking around in Maine?! ;)

Brian
 
Haha, no, I've never seen him in person. I know he lives in the area though :lol:

I've also seen a few of the places he's filmed his movies, like the abandoned waterworks where much of "the graveyard shift" was filmed.

And yes, I make my PCB's quite cheaply. I have only a couple hundred dollars invested, and most of that is in the printer, drill stand, drill, drill bits, and small saw to cut the PCB's. But the drill is a dremel rotary tool which I already bought for other purposes, and the printer was only about $50 and I needed one anyway since my piece of junk inkjet printer died.

But when it comes to the cost of the "consumable" stuff... well the toner use is negligible, the press-n-peel is about $1.50 a sheet but I get dozens of boards out of each sheet, so that's just pennies... I pay on the order of a couple cents per square inch of PCB material... even with the cost of etching solution, the total cost of each board is under a dollar.
 
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