For Developing, Rinse, and Etch tanks I found a company that sold food
service trays.
They are plastic, have held up well, and will handle 12"x18" boards with a
little room to spare.
Takes a quart or more to process, but then again a smaller quantity would
likely become exhausted before completion.

KF4HAZ - Lonnie

----- From: <firmware@
>
> > This thread has defintely peaked my interest. First a recap, then
questions.
> >
> > Procedure:
> >
> > 1) Mix 2 parts 3% hydrogen peroxide with 1 part 32% hydrocloric acid, in
the
> > form of muratic acid from the home improvement store.
> >
> > 2) Add stranded copper to dissolve in the solution.
> >
> > 3) Bubble with air to add O2 to the mixture to get stable CuCl etchant.
> >
> > Questions:
> >
> > 1) Is the above procedure correct?
>
> Close enough. I didn't add scrap copper wire to mature the batch sooner. I
just started etching boards - but I did put up with nasty fumes until the
copper content got high enough.
>
> >
> > 2) chem question: does it matter how the HCl and H2O2 are mixed? In some
> > mixtures one reagent need to be stirred into the other. Is that the case
here?
> >
> You seem to have answered that one :o)
>
> > 3) Are all plastics etchant safe? So bubbling air in a plastic tube is
> > sufficient, right?
> I can't say 'all', I haven't tested them all. I use a rubbermaid cerial
container (about $4 -walmart) and it shows no problems after a year. I used
silicone tubing for my bubbler and a regular plastic aqurium difuser- works
fine so far but I don't leave it in all the time.
>
> Original I zip tied the difuser to a plastic stick and clamped it to the
side of the tank - the ziptie disolved (twice). Now I use a piece of
heatshrink and it seems ok. I don't know what kind of plastic the ziptie
was. (yes most are nylon, but these were realy cheap and in colors - yellow)
>
> > 4) We all know that FeCl must be heated to be effective. Is the same
true for
> > CuCl?
>
> Most any chemistry is more reactive when heated, including CuCl. I use it
at room temps and have etching times of 8-10 minutes for 1 oz DS material
with agitation.
>
> > I'm sold on this. It's ultra cheap, can be made with readily available
> > components and can be reconstituted with the cheapest component of all:
air.
> > It's clear too right?
>
> When mature it's a deep emerald green color. You can see the board ok
through a couple inches of it. When it is depleted and ready to be recharged
it becomes darker and brown. But etch times are excessivly long before it
gets to that point (hours). With a little experiance you can just look at
the color and tell when it need recharged.
>
> >
> > I'm ready to go and make a batch today. But I'll wait until I get
answers
> > to my questions.
>
> I'd reccomend reading some of the links on the yahoo group I mentioned a
couple days ago (start of this thread) Really, lots of good info about it.
>
> > Man, I don't see how I'd function without the PICLIST.
> >
> > BAJ
>
> Me niether :o)
>
> -Denny

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