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DIY PCB making, milling or chemical etching? (discuss.tchncs.de)
submitted 3 months ago by to c/askelectronics@discuss.tchncs.de
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Which do you prefer? I have the option to do both but milling seems to take awfully long and produces a lot of noise and glass fiber dust. It has the benefit of not needing etch resist which is also messy.

Chemical etching with iron chloride is also quite messy. First applying etch resist, removing part of it, etching etc. It is much simpler though and you don't need a CNC machine for this.

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[–] 2 points 3 months ago (3 children)

I think laser engraving is probably the best way to make them at home, although just buying from a pcb service like jlc is the best option if you can wait.

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  • [–] [S] 1 point 3 months ago (2 children)

    I have two laser heads, a 405nm 500mW and 450nm at 10W laser. I don't think either of them are suitable for burning away copper but I can try that. I believe to burn away copper you need a pulsed YAG laser or something like that.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 months ago (1 child)

    Yeah I think you would need to get a fiber laser, but it probably wouldn't need much power.

    I have heard of using diode lasers to burn off a mask for etching, though.

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  • [–] [S] 2 points 3 months ago

    Yes I've tried that as well. It's way better than messing with toner transfer or those etch resist foils/spray.

    It also works well for solder mask. If you apply one white layer and a green layer on top of that you can make decent part labels by lasering away only the green top layer.

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