How To Make Your Own Homebrewed PCBs

Over the last few weekends I have been spending some time in learning how to make your own PCBs at home. While there are many online service vendors who do an excellent job for a reasonably good price for bulk quantity, I felt they are a bit of an over kill for single order PCBs – particularly for my project – where the circuits are pretty straight-forward.  For single PCBs, I determined making them myself. Plus this gives me an opportunity to learn this skill without spending too much money.

Tools of the Trade:

• Press-n-Peel Blue (I bought mine here)
• Access to a computer
• Laser Printer (not dot-matrix or ink jet)
• A board drawing software. I use “Eagle“
• Paper cutter (with a good sharp blade)
• PCB board panel
• Ferric Chloride Soln (I bought mine here)
• Masking Tape
• Pressing Iron
• Number 70 Drill bit (I bought mine here)
• A hand-press drilling tool or a drill machine w/ drill press
• a plastic tray
• Steel wool
• Some Alcohol for washing the PCB (my wife would know – I stole her nail-polish-cleaner-thingy)

Steps:

Circuit Transfer to PCB:

1. Design your board and print it out on paper using a laser printer
   1. Before printing,
      1. ensure that the “Solid” option is selected on your Eagle software
      2. Also ensure, you pick 300 dpi vs 600 dpi. The 300 dpi ensures the pins alignment is accurate
      3. 
2. Take your Press-N-Peel paper and cut to fit the printed board drawing – add about 1/2″ extra on all sides
   1. Use a paper cutter to get the square edges on the P-n-P paper.
   2.  
3. With the DULL side of P-n-P cut paper facing UPWARDS, tape it over the printer paper (using thin masking tape) w/ the printed drawing so that the P-n-P covers the drawing on the printer paper.
   1. Make sure you line up the P-n-P paper with the edges.
   2.  
4. Now, place the P-n-P that is over the printed paper facing DOWN into the printer tray (check w/ your printer specs, yours might need it facing up). I’m using HP Laser 6P – which needs it facing down.
5. Now RE-PRINT the drawing from Eagle software
6. By now, the Drawing is now printed on the DULL side of the P-n-P paper
   1. While the drawing is being printed, set up your press-iron to either “wool” or “polyester” setting. Let it heat up. Temperature is very CRITICAL
7. Carefully remove the P-n-P paper from the printer paper making sure your DON’T touch the dull side w/ your fingers. Finger prints can cause issues later on
   1. Carefully remove the masking tape from printer paper and the P-n-P
   2. Carefully set aside the P-n-P in a dust free place. Use a small plastic box to cover over it.
   3. 
8. Now, take the PCB copper panel and using steel wool and some alcohol wipe and wash off the panel.
9.    
   1. make sure you don’t touch the face of the panel board
   2. Repeat the washing 2-3 times to make sure the face is bright and shiny and void of any goo spots
10. Now, using a clean paper towel, wipe of the PCB panel so that it is completely dry and free of any felt or other remains.
    1. Starting now on, ensure you touch and lift the PCB board ONLY by its corners
11. Once the PCB is all dry
    1. take the prepared P-n-P w/ the drawing
    2. with the DULL side facing DOWN, line it up over the cleaner face of the PCB panel.
    3. And, using thin masking tape, tape the edges – making sure your are NOT covering up the drawing.
    4. Make sure there are no ripples or air bubbles – we want full contact over the PCB
    5.  
12. While this moment, your pressing-iron must be ready by now.
    1. On a flat surface, lay a paper down (printer paper should work well)
    2. SWITCH OFF the steam setting on your iron – NO STEAM
    3. With the P-n-P side facing UP, place the PCB  over the paper (step 12.2)
    4. Now take another paper and lay it OVER the PCB
    5. 
13. Take your iron and place it over the PCB and press firmly over moving it about over the PCB.
    1. We need to ensure the heat is transfered to the PCB evenly
    2. After abt 3 minutes of firm presses and moving the iron about over the PCB, set the iron over the PCB and leave it alone for about 4 minutes
    3. Now, again, with firm presses move about the iron for another 3 minutes making sure you are running the iron right over the P-n-P side of the PCB
    4. Now take away the printer paper that was place over the PCB
    5. Using your iron, move about the iron with firm presses over the P-n-P DIRECTLY (w/o the paper over it), making sure you’re catching all the corners
    6.    
14. At this time, you can check the status of the transfer of the drawing over to the PCB by briefly lifting the P-n-P from the PCB.
    1. Once all the drawing is transfered to the PC, you can safely remove the P-n-P completely from the PCB
    2. You’re now done w/ transfering the drawing to the PCB
15. Switch off the iron
16. Carefully peel off and separate the P-n-P from the PCB.
    1. Make sure again, you are NOT touching the PCB face
    2.   
17. Let the PCB cool off for 2 minutes – be careful PCB will be HOT
18. Take the PCB and cut to size using the paper cutter- It worked great for me. Making sure you are NOT cutting off the drawing – that would be bad and defeats the purpose.
19.  

 Etching:

1. In a plastic container – prefereably w/ a deep flat one
   1. Place the PCB, with the drawing facing up
2. WARNING:
   1. Wear rubber gloves to protect your hands from the Ferric Sulfate
   2. Wear safety glasses
   3. Be at a place where there’s sufficient lighting and ventilation
   4. 
3. Pour the Ferric Chloride just enough to cover the PCB
4. Now using both your hands, tilt the plastic container to/fro and side-to-side alternating
   1. do this for about 10 minutes
   2. At this time, the copper coating over the PCB should start eroding and eventually should be gone
      1. Leaving alone the drawing portion of the PCB
      2.   
5. Once the drawing side is free of all copper, using your tweazers, turn the PCB bottom side up
   1. Now again using both your hands, tilt the plastic container to/fro and side-to-side alternating
      1. do this for about 10 minutes
      2. At this time, the copper coating over this side of PCB should start eroding and eventually should be gone
      3.   
6. Once all the copper is gone over all the parts of the PCB except the drawing portion, carefully take out the PCB to a sink with running tap water.
7. Place the PCB under running water making sure the PCB is completely washed free of any left over chemical
8.  
9. Now with steel wool, firmly rub over the drawing areas of the PCB while letting it run under the running tap.
   1. This removes the laser ink from the board revealing the copper layer.
   2. Wash off until all toner ink is gone
   3.    
10. Wipe off with dry cloth or paper towel
11. Discard the chemical under running tap water – you don’t want any stains left
12. 

Drilling:

1. For drilling holes thru the vias, I am using a #70 drill bit and a Dremel drill housed over a workbench
2. line up each of the PCB hole targets and vias and start drilling away.
3.         

You’re now a successful PCB Homebrewer!

This was my 2nd attempt to making my own PCBs and this board took me 35 minutes start-finish.

Hope that was useful and helpful in your experiments

BTW, thanks to my dear wife for taking these pictures. Had to sneak that in there!!

ciao

Nagi