Hi All
I just made an exciting discovery for 'tinning' my home made pcb's.
Many people say that it is too much hassle to tin your pcb's at home, indeed the tinning solution can be quite expensive and is very toxic.
There is a commercially available silver plating called which silver plates your pcb's which got me thinking.
I looked into making my own solution with Silver Nitrate (very expensive), making my own solution (very expensive and very dangerous).
A number of people sell solutions on eBay for Silver Plating or re-plating your silver goods, a number of which are electro less (ie. just apply, wait, then polish off)
I bought such a solution called Instant Silver Amazing Silver Plating Formula for $18 usd including shipping.
When it arrived I tested it immediately, I whipped up a test PCB by the toner transfer and Hydrochloric/ Peroxide method then applied it as per the instructions.
I sprayed the solution on, waited a minute or so then polished it off.
The solution seems to work reasonably well and was no problem to solder.
I have attached a photo of the test PCB. The porous looking solid area it a problem with my toner transfer method, my laser printer does not seem to like printing solid blocks of black.
The solution came in a 45ml spray bottle, I believe there will be much more efficient and less wasteful ways to apply but these are early days.
I would be interested to any body elses experiences or feedback.
Regards
Bruce
I just made an exciting discovery for 'tinning' my home made pcb's.
Many people say that it is too much hassle to tin your pcb's at home, indeed the tinning solution can be quite expensive and is very toxic.
There is a commercially available silver plating called which silver plates your pcb's which got me thinking.
I looked into making my own solution with Silver Nitrate (very expensive), making my own solution (very expensive and very dangerous).
A number of people sell solutions on eBay for Silver Plating or re-plating your silver goods, a number of which are electro less (ie. just apply, wait, then polish off)
I bought such a solution called Instant Silver Amazing Silver Plating Formula for $18 usd including shipping.
When it arrived I tested it immediately, I whipped up a test PCB by the toner transfer and Hydrochloric/ Peroxide method then applied it as per the instructions.
I sprayed the solution on, waited a minute or so then polished it off.
The solution seems to work reasonably well and was no problem to solder.
I have attached a photo of the test PCB. The porous looking solid area it a problem with my toner transfer method, my laser printer does not seem to like printing solid blocks of black.
The solution came in a 45ml spray bottle, I believe there will be much more efficient and less wasteful ways to apply but these are early days.
I would be interested to any body elses experiences or feedback.
Regards
Bruce
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