Homebrew PCBs

I think the danger was more that if you forget to put the lid on or spill some, that may wind up causing an explosion the ruins your day.

 

So I googled ‘acetone explosion’ to see how often that happens, and got distracted by seeing ‘Mother of Satan’ in the results: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acetone_peroxide.  Note that just before the mention of ‘Mother of Satan’ there is a reference to PCB etching.

 

And now we’re all on the terrorist watch lists.  Bugger.

 

Tony

 

 

 

From: Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com [mailto:Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, 2 February 2016 5:40 PM
To: Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [Homebrew_PCBs] Chemical Exposure.

 

 

Hey I'm all for chemical safety, and I'm just an electronics guy, but my understanding was that acetone is pretty safe.

 

It isn't carcinogenic like many of the petrochemical solvents including gasoline.

It can be broken down by the body, similar to ethanol (drinking alcohol).

It is present in nature in low concentrations (fruit etc.).

It is a fairly clean substance without (unknown dangerous) crap mixed in.

 

Any or all of the above may be wrong, again I am no expert, but I have carefully studied the information as far as I can understand it and years ago decided ethanol and acetetone should be my go-to solvents rather than stuff like paint thinner. 

 

Please discuss.

 

ST

 

 

On Mon, Feb 1, 2016 at 11:19 PM, 'keith printy' keethpr@... [Homebrew_PCBs] <Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

 

We all know how flammable gasoline is , there is a scale rating what is most flammable , with 1 being the most and 10 being the least.  Gasoline comes in at number 6   

Number one is acetone. A friend once told me it is so volatile if you threw a teaspoon of it up into the air it would not hit the ground. Best to work with that one and anything else you may breath outside if you can.

 

From: Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com [mailto:Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com] 
Sent: Monday, February 01, 2016 9:04 AM
To: Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [Homebrew_PCBs] Chemical Exposure.

 

  

I did chemistry up to tertiary level and my father was a Canadian 
trained chemist...He is now blind in one eye and cannot smell AT ALL due 
to constant exposure to these very same type of hi volatility chemicals.
My first job as a 'sales' engineer had me going to Paint companies to 
promote filtration. The techs washed their paint smeared hands daily in 
a concoction full of aromatic rings..benzene,xylene, toluene; acetone 
was always there as well.

After working for a week with them I started to have problems smelling 
things properly as well. I left that job.

My fellow hobbyists, you must be aware that frequent exposure to that 
volatile stuff WILL penetrate your skin and breathing it in will get it 
into your system. Don't compromise your long term wellness for a bit of 
convenience. These chemicals are also a serious fire hazard and do not 
mix well with nearby mechanical/electrical experiments creating little 
sparks when prototyping or metal working. Even the internal arcing from 
a Dremel drill can ignite a nearby open acetone bottle or solvent damp 
paper towel. It may not happen the first 50 times you do it, but it can 
happen anytime and once is enough to take out your lab.

I always wear safety glasses when dremeling, once when cutting off a 
6-32 screw the cut piece shot straight into the safety glasses and 
ricocheted off before I could even blink. Once in many years, but that 
once would have cost me an eye without due care.

Use HP generic toner and one pass hot lamination guys...no fuss, no 
muss... no long term risks.

This is how I do it...down to better than 10 mil accuracy.
https://hackaday.io/project/7938-pcb-smt-maker-lab-home

Ancel