Tutorials on making PCBs and IC extractor and more

[security_man]

Hello, I have the following site about making PCBs with good quality by yourself (toner transfer method), and also about on how to make a low cost IC suction extractor to help desolder large integrated circuits. Check it:
http://quelhas-diy.vze.com

 

[(*steve*)]

There's a number of things you should look at.

1) using a higher resolution laser printer
2) using some of the special film that adheres to toner preventing the etchant from getting through it.
3) optimising your etching process to minimise undercutting (you can also use thinner copper too)

You should be able to use these techniques to get even cleaner boards with narrower tracks (required for some surface mount work, e.g. anything with a pitch finer than 0.65 for example).

I do like the technique you have for transferring the toner to the copper. I think that you could take advantage of a more thorough cleaning of the copper too, and perhaps some roughening of the surface to assist the toner in adhering.

I'm a bit disturbed by your hot air gun. How easily (accurately) can you control the heat and air flow with this?

 

[poor mystic]

Greetings security man!
I think your site is great!
Of course Steve has some excellent suggestions but the whole self-reliant, inventive character of the approach you have taken is quite admirable.
My only criticism is that the English grammar is not as good as it could be, but I have a solution for that. If you'd like to contact me through PM's on this forum or through Skype (my Skype name is poor.mystic) I'd be very happy to put a couple of hours in and I'm sure I could get the grammar sorted out for you. I'd consider it a worthwhile service to the community to do so.

 

[security_man]

Hello, thanks for the tips, one of the possible optimizations I also considered is on the etching process placing a heater to give temperatures of 50ºC, making the etching more efficient and capable of dissolving higher amount of copper making the same etching liquid last longer. But really right now I don't have much time to dedicate to this, so each person does their own personal improvements and the best one can do, the improvements I showed were the ones I made.
About my heat gun, I think you can control the temperature pretty well, the gun has a display that shows the temperature reading, so it's easy to control it.
And about my abilities to write in English, possibly it could be better, well when I have time, I'm going to read again the web site and correct the mistakes and bad sentence constructions that the text may have. I also use the Google translator to help me in some parts!! , but it's hard using Google to translate, sometimes it translates the sentences in some crazy weird ways.

Thanks for viewing the website.