Exposing Photopolymer Laminated Copper Clad Boards With A Peachy

[Feign]

Well, this sure is a promising first attempt! Does the chloride remove the resin, or did you scrape the resin off the copper afterward?

[Aztecphoenix]

I found some scraps of photoboard and some decade old ferric choliride in my bits box so I figured I'd give this a try.....it's under exposed and over etched but I think you can see the logo text, ish!



I've got a couple more attempts worth of material so I'll have another go tomorow. The logo is 20*45mm so it's pretty promising on first glance.

I don't know that much about etching PCBs, is it possible to overexpose the copper?

[Pete]

No resin involved at all here. You can get copper board with a film of photosensitive etch resist on. When you develop the board anywhere that has been exposed to UV light dissapears and exposes copper, then you use an etchant to take away copper to leave your circuit under the etch resist.
Over exposing would just mean that too much resist is taken away and hence too much copper will be removed, under exposing means that there is resist left on parts you want to etch away.

[Feign]

Ohh, okay, I didn't even know that. Really shows my inexperience with electronics. I was thinking the topic was about using copper board without such a coating, and using the MakerJuice as a substitute coating.

[mike_biddell]

I dont know whether it's been discussed, but would it be possible to print a layer of resin directly on to non-uv board, so that it acts as a resist?
Just spread the whole de-greased board with a very thin layer of resin, put the board in the dry tank and print the bits you want to keep (resist the etch). Then wash off the excess resin. Very cheap non-uv board and very little resin used (a fine varnish of resin).

[BumpingSpheda]

Thanks, Pete. Looks like this could definitely work with a few software hacks. Looks promising.

If you'd like a sample or two of PurEtch it wouldn't be difficult for me to mail a couple 3x3" swaths, or something. Lmk.

[rylangrayston]

Pete This is wonderfull!!!

All I ask is that you take lots of little video clips of the process and lots more pics and Id love to feature this hack in a KS and Indegogo update!
Feel free to film your self talking about the process too!
... also can you put a ruler and some components in some of the pics for scale?

Im so happy to see this working its been talked about a lot but you have done it!!

[Pete]

Feign/Mike, Like the idea, I'll give maker juice an email to advise about the chemistry (Don't fancy gassing myself with Chlorine).

BumpingSpheda, purEtch looks like it will work as well, I'll PM you (my board should've looked better than this but it's been a long time since I've etched any PCBs and the light box I have I always know is 3 minutes)

Rylan, when I found I had stuff to do this I figured it's nice to be the first. I'll make a more useful and better board once I've sorted a few PC issues and re calibrated my printer. I'll make some videos and pictures for you.

Slightly annoying for me is that I have access to a PCB router so this is a little bit backwards, I didn't even realise that I'd bothered to keep chemicals when I last moved.

[mike_biddell]

Pete, I have been making PCBs for a long time as a hobbyist, so am very excited at the prospect of using Peachy for PCB production (it's worth $100 just for that, if it works). I currently use laser transfers and a hot iron. I used to struggle with getting the exposure right for UV board, hence my interest in using Peachy to apply resist. My only concern is whether the adhesion of the resin to the board will be adequate to prevent the etchant under cutting. Also whether Peachy can produce the small details for a complex PCB. We live in hope !!!!!

[BumpingSpheda]

BumpingSpheda, purEtch looks like it will work as well, I'll PM you (my board should've looked better than this but it's been a long time since I've etched any PCBs and the light box I have I always know is 3 minutes)

Interesting. Yeah, I was thinking the Peachy might be capable of rather insanely fine lines and spaces, at least coming from the perspective that I think most of us are coming from. I was hoping for a Godsend, tbh. Like Mike, I've had issues with creating fully opaque photomasks and dialing in my exposure time. There's more than one way to skin a cat, of course, I just thought this could be an insanely easy/highly repeatable and very high quality method for doing it. And, yeah, feel free to contact me on those samples if you're interested. Would personally love to discover our limits here.

If you guys test using MakerJuice as a direct print etch resist it could be awesome for "masking" odd or deformed surfaces (maybe jewelry, etc.) with a little bit of calibration (getting the object to match up with your virtual model within the printing bay).

Looking forward to updates on this. All the shared interest is really cool, guys.