PCB etching

A set of tools and chemicals for creating electronic circuit boards.

Contents

• boards covered with copper and a photosensitive material (exposed area gets etched away)
• the Resin printer
• a jar with 2% NaOH solution
• a jar with used NaOH solution
• a plastic bottle with NaS₂O₈ powder
• a jar with NaS₂O₈ solution
• a jar with used NaS₂O₈ solution
• a chipped glass bowl

Danger

All those chemicals are somwhat corrosive or poisonous. DO NOT flush them down the drain before deactivating.

Experimental

This setup mostly works, but the disposal of spent chemicals has never been tried yet.

Process

TODO: expand

1. Use UVTools to convert a Gerber Cu file to 3d printer format
2. Cut board to size with a metal saw
3. Remove build plate from printer (IMPORTANT)
4. Run the exposure print for 4min
5. THEN manually place the board on exposed area and close the printer
6. Drop board in NaOH, see red stuff flow
7. Wipe, drop board in NaS₂O₈
8. Fill the glass bowl with some hot water, put NaS₂O₈ jar in the bowl, wait 10min