PCB fabrication, a snapshot from the shoutbox

read bottom up:

jip: and of course we just used a marker pen to draw the tracks afterwards
jip: That was how we did it in public school :-)
jip: Oh well I used another method before... drilling holes prior to etching by laying paper layout on top and drilling through

BaseOverApex: Really? I find that since teh copper track is slightly raised with the center etched out the drill centres itself!
jip: Anyway I got the autorouter in eagle to do 92% of the board and I'm just manually adding vias for wire connections for the rest
jip: I have such a thing myself, but I seem to be rather bad at centering the drill in the holes :-)
BaseOverApex: Drilling the holes is comparitively easy. I have a miniture 12V drill on a drill press.
BaseOverApex: @rik,@jip : yes, you would think that would solve it....
jip: There's just so darn many holes to drill... :-)
jip: @nicola: me too... I'm thinking of just shipping the design off to some company like Olimex and let them produce the PCB :-)
Nicola: is entering the PCB design world
jip: rik: ah yes that would seem to solve the problem :-)
rik: alignment: four little holes before sticking the second toner print?
jip: Well that sounds very generous of you! Not an offer I would say no to :-). I'll PM you my address, ok?
BaseOverApex: Yes. And lining them up is my worst mightmare. So, I'm prepared to GIVE you my double-sided blank board

Hehehe!

I was just about to do this myself!!

We were discussing the difficulty in lining up the two sides of a double-sided homebrew PCB.

The final piece of wisdom was:

BaseOverApex: Nah. Etch first, drill second. Make sure to etch holes inteh middl eof your pads. Your drill will self-centre.

See also…

Do it yourself PCB experience (1409)

and

Home Made PCB (1071)

 

There is this one too…

There is this one too…

Toner Transfer