Staining PCBs with Kat from Sonodrome

[darrylportelli]

wow this is excellent work and looks preety easy!!!, never dyed my pcb's on any of my projects since it doesnt effect the circuit so I never tought Id use it but it makes it 1000's of times more eye pleasing for 5 mins work!!!!!

thanks keep up the good work!!!!

[daviddanielgraham]

Absolutely brilliant.

[sixstringmania]

markers?Whooa.. MARKERS?!!! I must try this!!!great idea!

[sonodrome]

@sixstringmania who'd have thought?! Glad you like :)

[snowboy4k]

Love the part 1:37

[adrianmouse666]

i love the video can u tell me were the design came from for the sweeping flowers around the sonodrome sign

[sonodrome]

Thanks @adrianmouse666 glad you like the video. It was just something I'd drawn on Illustrator a while ago when trying to learn the programme. I wanted to etch something a bit different from the regular circuit boards so thought it'd be nice to have a play and see what happened. I quite like the idea of etching as a bit of an art, I wish I had more time to try out more designs to be honest.

[setoffo]

You are unbelieavble, this was some really nice information.. I will definitely try this out :D

[sonodrome]

@setoffo nice one, you'll have to let us know how you get on =)

[iceblu3710]

I got a pack of sharpies, some rubbing alcohol, some nail polish remover, makeup pads and paper towel.

I do exactly as in the video but when i use paper towel and polish remover/alcohol by the time the tracks are uncovered their barely a hint of color on the board. On the back if I dry rub the ink it becomes even but looks dull and thick, when i wipe with either things it just wipes the ink off.

I've also dried them overnight. Does the Tin-it solution help even out the color or something??

[sonodrome]

@iceblu3710 I've replied to your PM but for the benefit of anyone else reading - I think this problem may be to do with the material of the copper clad board. I use SRBP Copper Clad (which I get from Rapid Electronics) as opposed to FR4... it seems to be more porous and takes the ink really well, whereas the FR4 is woven glass epoxy and so I don't think it's quite as accepting of staining techniques. It'd be good to hear of other people's experiences with this over in our forum. Cheers, Kat =)

[technoetc]

Nice, thanks for the update!

[jonsar1]

Great technique - boards look lovely!

[sonodrome]

Cheers!

Yeh this way saves me a lot of time and resources... if you use isopropanol alcohol to clean off the excess ink, I've found you don't get any colour rubbing off later - the Posc boards you can see at the end were some of the earlier ones I made at the beginning of the year and as you can see they still look really bright. Different brands will give different results but I've tried a few and generally it's a really great way of getting good diverse colours, fast and efficiently =)

[alienmeatsack]

And I was going to try the older longer messier method. F that, I'm going to get some Sharpies and color away.

Have you tested them for color fastness, longevity, etc?

Beautiful boards. Even the one that has no function except to look pretty! :D