Some ideas I haven't tried: Use a stainless steel stirrer such as is used for making milk shakes. Make some stirrer vanes out of suitable plastic, drive them with small DC motors (so you can adjust speed by adjusting the voltage). Make a centrifugal pump out of plastic. It doesn't have to be terribly efficient, just needs to direct a stream of etchant across the board to be etched. Use an oscillating room fan, or a windshield wiper mechanism to move the board around in the etchant solution. Chemical supply houses have a combination hotplate/stirrer. The stirrer works by having a rotating magnet underneath the beaker, and inside the beaker you put another magnet that is coated with some inert material. You might be able to use a "cow magnet" as the coated magnet. These are fed to cows to attract iron nails and stuff in the cow's digestive system and get them out of the system. (That's no bull :-) I just called a veterinary supply company and they sell a 2-inch coated cow magnet for $2.65.) You might not even need the cow magnet. Since the etchant is conductive, it will try to stay stationary with respect to any magnetic field. So, if you rotate a strong magnet adjacent to the tank, the solution may rotate in the same direction. This is the principle that makes induction motors work. Use a peristaltic pump, such as from scrapped medical equipment. Cheers, - Jan
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Stirring or pumping etchant
2003-04-22 by Jan Kok
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