Homebrew PCBs

"James Newton" <jamesmichaelnewton@...> writes:
> http://techref.massmind.org/techref/pcbholes.htm has a good over
> view of options for holes and layers in homemade PCBs.

What I've been doing lately is thusly:

Strip a couple inches of wire wrap wire.  It's 13 mil, fits into a
13.5 mil hole.

Put something under the PCB to hold it slightly off the working
surface.  I use solder, as it's 20 mil diam, so my board is 20 mil off
my table.  My boards tend to have enough bigger holes to run the bits
of solder through to hold them in place, or just wrap it around the
whole board.

For each via:  Drop the wire through the hole, solder the top, cut.

When you flip the board over, you see that each wire extends 20 mil
past the pcb.  Fold them flat if you want, or just solder them as-is.

It's not through-plating, but it is quick, easy, and reliable.