Monday, July 13, 2009

Rapid PCB Etching with a Sponge



hack-a-day picked this up from instructables who picked it up from Pulsar. Its a story about etching VERY rapidly, in about 60 seconds, by using a tiny amount of Ferric Chloride and a sponge. I am pretty excited for this technique and will try it very shortly. I found a second error on my LED emitter board so its over-due for a re-etch. Once I've tried it I'll report back here. If you've already tried it, leave a comment and let me know if the technique lives up to it amazing promises.


Update: Unfortunately I must report failure. Tonight at RBNO I tried this technique and found only moderate reduction in etch time for a whole lot more work than an agitated bath. I think that the copper clad the fellow in the instructable is using must be quite thin indeed. I would expect that an agitated bath would run pretty quick as well. For my standard 1oz copper clad it took me 8 or nine minutes of wiping to clear the board. An agitated bath take 10 to 15 minutes, but I don't have to do anything, I just wait for the board to finish.


So, I don't think I'll be using this technique. Its a shame, I was really salivating over a 60 second etch time.

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