DIY PCB making, milling or chemical etching? (discuss.tchncs.de)

submitted 3 weeks ago by Rolive@discuss.tchncs.de to c/askelectronics@discuss.tchncs.de

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Which do you prefer? I have the option to do both but milling seems to take awfully long and produces a lot of noise and glass fiber dust. It has the benefit of not needing etch resist which is also messy.

Chemical etching with iron chloride is also quite messy. First applying etch resist, removing part of it, etching etc. It is much simpler though and you don't need a CNC machine for this.

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[-] Tolookah@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 3 weeks ago

This isn't the kind of answer you wanted, but jlcpbc is beyond cheap if you have the budget for time. I'm getting 5 boards for less than $5 USD (coupon applied that lowered it by maybe $5). It's made it so that I don't have to think about chemicals for etching anymore. (I've done it a little but nothing recently)

[-] Rolive@discuss.tchncs.de 6 points 3 weeks ago

I know but where's the fun in that? I've ordered from JLCPCB a few times but it is a hell of a lot more satisfying when I've made the whole PCB myself.

[-] Tolookah@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 3 weeks ago

Fair enough. My preferred battles are getting the MCU to respond the first time. It's a great feeling when the supplies are up and you can read the id.

this post was submitted on 15 Jul 2026

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