Model Railroading > Etching your own PC boards

Quick question about making your own boards. Doing a signal circuit out of a Model Railroader
from 3-01 and 4-01, and it has the circuit layout so you can photoetch your own boards.
Unfortunately, the stuff they tell you to use from Radio Shack is discontinued and gone.
Anyone know of a good alternative? Or should I just use the blank copper, and etch it
using the resist pens to keep what I want (photo etching would be more accurate)
Thanks in advance!

I always just used a paint marker with good results. For close parallel runs I would cut very narrow strips of Scotch tape and use it to mask off the strips to be removed. Manually removing the paint in some areas works also; I used an Xacto knife.

Small complex patterns require quite a bit of skill, and I called in favors from draftsmen and artists a time or two.

Jameco has a Photoetch kit. I'm not sure how close it is to the Radio Shack kit, but it looks like it'll do the job. It's Jameco part number 16731CF and sells for $39.95. http://www.jameco.com

Another alternative, but a touch more expensive would be to go with this company: http://www.pcbexpress.com/

I'm in no way connected, just to be clear.

They have some online tools that you can use to design a circuit, crude by some standards, but for what we as Model RRers do, they would work just fine. Their prices are alittle higher than doing it yourself, but you'll get some good quality etched boards.

As a PCB Designer by trade, I've sent them files I've created and their boards come back close to something we'd use in products we ship to customers.

Again, a touch more expensive than a kit but, you don't have any chemicals to deal with and you know you'll get a perfect board with plated through holes and clean traces.

Chessie-Fan-2

An easy way is to use nail polish to cover the copper sections on the board you want to retain. Soak it in the solution then when complete just sand off the polish.

Todd

If its just for a single project and time is short, I have ( carefully ) used the smallest burr bit on my dremel. Makes alot of dust and some odor, so use care, mask, and eye protection.

Ive done this a few times to make a test board, not for production. If you have a good circuit and need lots of them, have a house do them. Better results and quality. Most places will do small boards if you supply the layout. you can get alot of small boards on their basic size layout ( larger sheet )

Randy