Homebrew PCBs

On Fri, 10 Dec 2004 00:32:43 GMT, Philip Pemberton <philpem@...>  
wrote:

>
> Heh - I only just noticed that
> My etchtank is a modified polypropylene cereal storage tub. I drilled  
> three
> holes in the cover (one for the heater's power cable, one for the bubbler
> hose, one for a thermometer). The only problem is, when the bubbler is
> running, it produces a fair bit of FeCl3 mist. Plugging the holes with
> Blu-Tack and kitchen paper (and careful setting of the air pressure)  
> seems
> to lessen the effect though.
> The only major problem is the loss of etchant when the tank gets drained  
> and
> cleaned. I seem to be losing about 10mL each time I use the tank. Not a  
> big
> problem, 'cos I can always top the etchant up, but it gets annoying when  
> you
> need to etch a Eurocard and the etchant level is a bit too low to etch  
> the
> board properly :-/
> Later.

I have solutions for both problems:
Mist: put the inlet of your pump in the tank too. Make sure the pump is  
made completely of plastic/rubber.
This causes the mist to be recycled and not expelled.

Losses: Don't empty your tank. i leave the etchant in all the time, but i  
have a homebrew tank.

ST