In message <AF211AF8-06A6-11D9-AADA-000A95E5DF26@mac.com>
          William "Chops" Westfield <westfw@mac.com> wrote:

> > 3) Are all plastics etchant safe? So bubbling air in a plastic tube i=
s
> > sufficient, right?
> >
>=20
> Yeah.  Finer bubbles are better.  I used one of the fritted glass=20
> aquarium
> aereators (don't put it back in with your fish!)

I've got a similar setup:
  Air pump: Airtech AT2 from a Penn-Plax Smallworld kit (=A310.99 from th=
e
    local "Pets at Home" store).
  Aerator: Green Airflex 8-inch (foam?) aerator. =A33.49 from the same pl=
ace as
    the pump. I *think* it's an Airflex, though I'm not 100% about that.
  Container: 2-litre plastic (polypropylene) cereal storage container.
  Warranties: Well and truly voided :)

> It's about the same as FeCl.  Works OK at room temp, somewhat better
> if warm.  If there's free HCl in your etchant, heating will tend to
> push it out of solution (nasty fumes.  They'll eat the inside of your
> microwave if you let them!)

I've got a 5-litre bottle of "Superactivated" ferric chloride concentrate.
0.1% HCl, 40-odd percent FeCl3. It says that the FeCl3 needs diluting if =
it's
going to be used to etch copper - 70% etchant to 30% water (7:3 ratio). B=
y my
(rough) calculations, that means my 5-litre bottle of concentrate should
produce 7.2 litres of usable solution. The price was right too - about =A3=
15
from Farnell Electronics. Considering the stuff Maplin sell is =A37.99 fo=
r
250ml and is pre-diluted (and doesn't contain any HCl, so it produces loa=
ds
of sludge), I think =A315 for 5 litres is a pretty good deal. Umn.. Anyon=
e
wanna buy some ferric chloride? :P

> http://users.rcn.com/rexa/Projects/CuCl_ech.html
> http://www.pacificsun.ca/~robert/pcb/cucl.htm

Or there's always the book "Electronic Prototype Construction" by Stephen
Kasten - ISBN 0-672-21895-X, published by Sams. It's out of print; I got =
my
copy from a company called Alibris who had it listed for sale on
Amazon.co.uk. If you can get a copy, it's well worth having, if only for =
the
sections that cover prototype PCB manufacture. ISTR it also covers wire-w=
rap
and a few other construction methods.

Later.
--=20
Phil.                              | Acorn Risc PC600 Mk3, SA202, 64MB, 6=
GB,
philpem@philpem.me.uk              | ViewFinder, 10BaseT Ethernet, 2-slic=
e,
http://www.philpem.me.uk/          | 48xCD, ARCINv6c IDE, SCSI
... A wise man once said.... I don't know...
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