Homebrew PCBs

I have tried this method with minimal success.  I typically use a via hole size of 20mil, a #74 drill.  I found it easier to not laminate the board prior to drilling.  Just drill the holes, use a paint brush to apply the permatex to fill each hole, vacuum it out, then repeat for the second side.  When done, use a paper towel with a little acetone to remove the ink from the surface of the board, being somewhat careful not remove any of the permatex from the holes.

As I said, I had minimal success with this...high impedance across vias.  I now use a silver bearing ink to prep the holes and then electroplate with copper.  Electroplating turns out to be fairly inexpensive, easy, and safe, with near 100% success.

Amazon has a deal to buy 12 packages of the permatex for about $80.  If you have many holes it takes nearly a whole bottle to do one board...around $9.00 per board.  A little pricey.

Good luck.

--- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, Chris Kleeschulte <laconia@...> wrote:
>
> I am going to trying using James Mitchell's plated-thru hole method this
> week and I wondering about the via creation in Eagle. What size hole is good
> to use for this procedure? I am drilling the hole using a Micro-mark running
> at 6500 rpm, so I may not get a super duper clean hole, but I think that it
> should still work since I am using the thinner 1/32" fr-4. What do you all
> think about this?
> 
> On another note, I finally mastered the double-sided PCB creation process,
> but now I am really really tired of hand soldering pins into vias. Front,
> back, front, back, yuck.
> 
> 
> thanks,
> Chris
> 
> 
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>