Re: Homemade PCBs!

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "David Brown" <davidncbrown-at-hotmail-dot-com> 


It will be hard to make a pcb insulated at 12KV.  There will also be 
capacitance between traces at that voltage.




Original poster: "Hydrogen18" <hydrogen18-at-hydrogen18-dot-com>

I'm going to try something soon...any tips on making a PCB insulated to
15000 volts?

Also on the subject of CNC routers...they can be made cheap. Search the web.
For prototyping purposes btw, you could use a drill press and a routing bit.

---Eric
----- Original Message -----
From: "Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
To: <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
Sent: Sunday, April 25, 2004 5:00 PM
Subject: Re: Homemade PCBs!


 > Original poster: "Jim Lux" <jimlux-at-earthlink-dot-net>
 >
 > Having been through both approaches in a va! riety of environments, I have
the
 > following observations:
 > 1) If you have the room to make the boards (including exposures, etc.) and
 > do it often enough that your process skills remain fresh, there is a
certain
 > appeal to being able to zap out a board "on impulse".  Draw the circuit,
 > make the board, solder the parts, and be testing in a couple hours.  20
 > years ago I bought a big stat camera which can do 1:4 reductions just for
 > this sort of thing.  Too bad I don't make enough boards to keep the
 > chemicals and film fresh, much less my photographic skills.  The camera
 > sits, unused, in my garage.
 >
 > 2) The commercial products will almost always turn out better (unless
you're
 > a business where prototyping is part of the day to day work).  While
making
 > good quality two layer boards is fairly straightforward, drilling by hand
is
 > a pain, decent robotic drills are expensive (more than a kilo! buck,
although
 > I'd love to hear about a cheaper one), and doing plated through holes is a
 > real pain.  Then there's the solder mask and silkscreen..
 >
 > 3) On a cost basis, they'll probably turn out about the same, within the
 > significance of the measurement.  More dollars invested up front (or time
 > scrounging equipment and materials) for home fab, but fairly low piece
 > costs.
 >
 > 4) Multilayer (4 or more) are not real feasible for home fabrication. It
can
 > be done, but process controls are tough. There's also the problem of
minimum
 > order quantities for things like prepreg.
 >
 > 5) A very attractive alternative for a lot of prototyping is the computer
 > controlled router approach.  It will do the traces, and do the holes.
Won't
 > do the plated through, but it's definitely a hot ticket for RF
prototyping.
 > A tad pricey (! again, if someone knows of a decent (assembled) system for
 > un der $1000 (exclusive of PC), I'd love to hear about it).
 >
 > 6) There are some interesting approaches I've seen commercially, but I
 > haven't seen in hobby applictions, although I think they'd be appropriate.
 > Things like the "multiwire" where it essentially "plots" a special
insulated
 > wire onto the substrate, or various stereolithographic schemes (like the
 > computer controlled glue gun things).  I've also seen systems (based on
the
 > same scheme they use for making custom vinyl signs) that cut copper foil
on
 > a backing, which is then "glued" to a substrate.  Peeling the unused
copper
 > away doesn't strike me as a lot of fun (like peeling rubylith!) but might
 > give good results.
 >
 >
 > ----- Original Message -----
 > From: "Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
 > To: <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
 > Sent: Saturday, April 24, 2004 6:55 PM
 > Subject: Re: Homemade PCBs!
 >
 >
 >  > Original poster: "Jim Mitchell" <Electrontube-at-sbcglobal-dot-net >
 >  >
 >  > Or for about the same price it costs to get all the materials and
things
 > to
 >  > do photo etching,  you can have 10, 3X5 soldermask and silkscreened
boards
 >  > for 65$....
 >  >
 >  > Regards - Jim Mitchell
 >  > ----- Original Message -----
 >  > From: "Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
 >  > To: <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
 >  > Sent: Saturday, April 24, 2004 8:53 PM
 >  > Subject: Re: Homemade PCBs!
 >  >
 >  >
 >  >  > Original poster: Matthew Smith <matt-at-kbc-dot-net.au>
 >  >  >
 >  >  > Eric ("Hydrogen18") writes:
 >  >  > >I'm looking to make some homemade PCB's for a voltage multiplier,
 > whats
 >  >  > >the best way to do thi! s? I've seen those kits where you draw
 > everything,
 >&n
msnip...