When I first started making my own PCBs, I used to get SRBP boards from a small shop where they sold off-cuts, scored them with a knife and peeled off the unwanted copper. If you lifted up a corner with a knife, it worked. My boards had copper in big rectangular patterns, with holes wherever the drill bit would stop slipping around. When the world started switching over to fibreglass boards, they were much more difficult to peel - i ended up with more fingers bleeding from cut edges, and I changed to a resist pen and ferric chloride. I loved doing curvy traces, just like the PCBs from my favourite HP equipment. I realised FeCl etched all metals, not just copper when I tried to do my first etchings in an aluminium tray .. the FeCl went right through the tray and went on eating into the concrete floor of the garage. (a scene that Ridley Scott stole later for Alien). I blame giving up Chemistry before O level exams at school - an excuse my father didn't accept.
Brown SRBP boards had a particular odour when you drilled them, or soldered them, and I still refer to those moments when the magic smoke escapes as 'the nasty brown smell'. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "neonixie-l" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to neonixie-l+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send an email to neonixie-l@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/c0905b98-e85a-4d7a-85cc-ce4d16945ee1%40googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
