Homebrew PCBs

A friend and I just made our first boards using the "Press-n-Peel 
Blue" film. We got great results. We came up with two things that 
seemed critical to success: 1) Don't "peek" at the board when it is 
hot and 2) let the board cool slowly, when just warm, but not hot you 
can put under cold water and remove the film.

If you pull back the plastic film to look at the traces when the 
board is hot the toner is still soft and some will stick to the film 
damaging those traces. And if you take the hot board and put under 
water the film will contract and mess up traces.

As for drilling the holes, do that after you etch the board. Get a 
set of carbide drills of assorted sizes. (On this board I used 0.80 
for resistors and transistors, 1.00 for diodes, and 1.2 to 2.2 for 
connectors with various sized pins.)

We used a dremel tool mounted in the small drill press accessory to 
drill the holes.  The secret to getting all the holes to line up 
perfect is an OPTIVISOR. Just do a google search on "optivisor" and 
you will find links to them. The one I use looks like the photo on 
this page:  http://www.tri-esssciences.com/optivisor.htm

Get a good light source near the drill, position the bit just a very 
tiny amount over the board, perhaps 1/16 to 1/8 inch - the closer the 
better. Wear a dust mask, put on the optivisor and get your nose 
about 2 inches from the drill bit. This is tedious, but you can 
really drill perfect holes this way.

As a heat source I picked up a plug in electric griddle at Target for 
$15. I set this to 300 degrees. The board goes face down, then a 
small piece of cardboard, small piece of wood, and then a lead brick 
I happened to have from days working with radioactive stuff in a lab. 
We let it sit for 3 minutes, then cool. Great results.

I have no connection with any company selling the optivisors, but 
recommend these as the best thing ever invented. I use them for 
drilling, soldering, and lots of other such close up work. (If you 
are under 20 you might not fully appreciate this technology, but if 
you are over 40 you most certainly will.)

As for the Sharpie pen, it works well with Ammonium Persulfate etch. 
I suspect it will work equally well with the ferric cloride you are 
using. But "dab" it on, and use multiple coats letting it dry just a 
little between dabs. The solvent in those pens will dissolve the 
toner somewhat if you just run it over the traces, at least that was 
our expeience.