I finally etched my first board! I bought my first 2 layer copper clad and some peel-n-stick traces more than 20 years ago. They’ve been sitting in my projects box since then. So it’s about time to try it out. It was not without some problems but I’m real happy with the way it came out. I used a laser to burn the design into copper clad covered in flat black paint. And used a Hydrogen Peroxide(2 parts)/Muriatic Acid(1 part) solution for the etch. It took about 10 minutes with some gentle rubbing to finish the etch and about 2 days to learn Eagle CAD and design a board.
Now off to find those drill bits I bought last year…
1st Attempt (above) was destroyed with a large guillotine paper cutter. You tube made it look so easy. The 2nd Attempt (below) turned out much better by scoring the copper on both sides and snapping it loose. Also changed the layout with thicker traces just to be sure.
Half the second board was ruined when the razor slipped into the copper on one side. I could probably have masked it off and repainted since this was before the etch, but I wanted to get this thing rolling.
I noticed that areas where the paint was not entirely burned away still etched very well, the paint came off where the laser had heated it but not anywhere else.
2nd attempt is a success!
I went back and etched the board I thought was ruined. Turns out half was in decent shape and etched really well. Problem is there are no pads left on the right side due to using the wrong template.