On Tue, May 24, 2011 at 11:55 PM, V G wrote: > On Tue, May 24, 2011 at 10:48 PM, Denny Esterline w= rote: > >> >> [..] and a few dollars and you get boards in a >> >> few days, awesome! I didn't have to spend an hour trying to get my print= er >> to feed a page out of some magazine, and trying to get the two layers to >> line up on opposite sides of the board and another hour breathing etchan= t >> fumes and then lacquer thinner to remove the toner, and two hours >> squinting >> at the drill press. Wow, life is easy!! >> > > Sounds like a fairy tale :) > > Except for the "few dollars" part. More like $100 including shipping and > everything. Not to mention the wait time. > > Also, ferric chloride doesn't emit too much nasty vapour. If you're worri= ed > about that, use a dollar store lunch box and etch under the kitchen stove > "fume hood". Also, as someone else said, label backing paper is the way t= o > go. I agree. As for alignment, what I do is print both layers with markin= gs > where I drill holes. Then line up the holes with a BBQ skewer or somethin= g. > Worked perfectly. Took about two seconds. For me the DIP carbide bits did= n't > break at all, and I drilled at low speed with a Dremel by hand. It took l= ess > than a second per hole. As for removing the toner, I used 70% isopropyl > alcohol under the kitchen fume hood and it worked like a charm. Steel woo= l > was also used. And TWO hours under the drill press? Seriously!? The only > holes I needed to drill were DIP through holes and smaller ones where the > vias went. The DIP holes were hollow in the center and the bit aligned > itself instantly. Very quick to drill. Drilling took like 5 minutes for a > decent sized development board. The via holes were a little tougher if I > wanted small vias, but still very easy. I do not agree with your hour > numbers. I don't understand why it took you so much time. > Of course, if EE is your career, than the professional PCB route is completely justified. If you have to make a board for a customer, and you'r= e getting paid for the entire process, then I agree, it's cool. All I'm sayin= g is, if I'm not getting paid for what I'm making, then I cant justify it to myself to get a board made when I can do it myself in under 2 hours - start to finish. Unless, of course, if I were to use very fine pitch components, or something requiring 4 layers... --=20 http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist .