Poor mans 3d printed PCB  

RE: Poor mans 3d printed PCB

Posted by: @towlerg

I wonder is it's possible (I don't see why not) to print directly onto blank copper clad board? If so, is there a printable material that's reasonably resistant to ferric oxide?

Added later.  How to get it off after etching?

RE: Poor mans 3d printed PCB

This is just bad idea from start to finish.

If you want to do a "printed" PCB you should try LaserPrinter + Transfer paper. This is how I did it in past. Laser toner is resistant to ething process.

RE: Poor mans 3d printed PCB

Years (decades) ago at my one former employer we did one-off PC boards using a Sharpie on a HP X-Y plotter, drawing directly on a bare copper-clad board.  Smartwork was the name of the program used to do the drafting and layout.  IIRC it worked best with two passes and gave a much better finished product using ammonium perchlorate in lieu of the more common ferric chloride that was used at the time.  We actually did some prototype double-sided boards this way, although for any kind of production runs it was the usual litho negatives with precise registration targets and photo-resist.

Yes, I've thought of doing a similar thing using a single layer of filament, and most any plastic should be insoluble in any common etchant.

There are some so-called conductive filaments made for doing PC boards, but IIRC the typical resistance of traces was something like a couple hundred ohms per inch.

RE: Poor mans 3d printed PCB

@hooch

Probably not such a good idea if you don't own a LaserPrinter, which I do not.

RE: Poor mans 3d printed PCB

@jsw

Thanks for the info. I guess the resistance of conductive filament would exclude it from almost any application. How the hell do you connect components, surely not solder!

I suspect getting the plastic off without damaging the board would be the stumbling block.

RE: Poor mans 3d printed PCB

@towlerg

You can get new laser printer for less then good filament roll. There is really no excuse here.

RE: Poor mans 3d printed PCB

@hooch

True. I just had a dumb idea and wondered if it could work.

RE: Poor mans 3d printed PCB

Posted by: @towlerg

@jsw

Thanks for the info. I guess the resistance of conductive filament would exclude it from almost any application. How the hell do you connect components, surely not solder!

I suspect getting the plastic off without damaging the board would be the stumbling block.

I have no clue how you would connect components, particularly those of any significant mass, to the printed traces.

Back in the Biomed Lab days we would remove the remnants of the Sharpie resist with an acetone-soaked wipe.  Since acetone readily attacks ABS, I would suspect that one layer of ABS would be fairly easy to dissolve with acetone.