are there any really thin single sided copper clad boards?

[Michael]

Hi - when you're etching your own circuit boards with the iron on method -
lining up the sides of a really fine two sided board can be really
difficult. So today I was thinking that instead of battling that - why not
just get two boards and only etch one side of each - and then drill all the
holes and then glue them together.That way all the holes would be lined up
perfectly (well if you can drill straight that is) The only problem I see
is added cost and added thickness. So to combat the latter of those two -
has anyone seen any really thin single sided copper clad boards? thanks,

Mike N.

 

[Ian Buckner]

Hi - when you're etching your own circuit boards with the iron on method -
lining up the sides of a really fine two sided board can be really
difficult. So today I was thinking that instead of battling that - why not
just get two boards and only etch one side of each - and then drill all the
holes and then glue them together.That way all the holes would be lined up
perfectly (well if you can drill straight that is) The only problem I see
is added cost and added thickness. So to combat the latter of those two -
has anyone seen any really thin single sided copper clad boards? thanks,

Mike N.

Sure. Multilayer PCB's are made up of lots of thinner laminates, some
are single sided , others double sided. Find a local PCB manufacturer
and see if they will let you have some.

The last couple of boards I did were 12 layer, overall thickness
1.5mm,
so you can work out how thick the individual laminates were. Other
boards with fewer layers but still 1.5mm thick are built up with
fewer,
thicker laminates.

Regards
Ian

 

[Bill Sloman]

Hi - when you're etching your own circuit boards with the iron on method -
lining up the sides of a really fine two sided board can be really
difficult. So today I was thinking that instead of battling that - why not
just get two boards and only etch one side of each - and then drill all the
holes and then glue them together.That way all the holes would be lined up
perfectly (well if you can drill straight that is) The only problem I see
is added cost and added thickness. So to combat the latter of those two -
has anyone seen any really thin single sided copper clad boards? thanks,

Multilayer boards are built up of thin double-sided printed circuit
boards, spaced by copper-free "prepregs" which I understand to be
glass-fibre boards impregnated with partially cured FR4 epoxy resin.
In a 1.5mm (1/16 inch) 8-layer board, the individual dielectric layers
are just over 0.2mm thick.

The thin dielectric layer isn't going to be a problem, but getting a
thin single-sided board might be difficult - I suppose you could etch
all the copper off one side, but then the board will probably warp.

When I was young and naive, I tried to get a three-layer board made to
give myself a single buried ground plane, with no nasty
discontinuities in the ground plane at crossovers. This occasioned a
certain amount of hilarity ...
"everybody" knew that you could only have even numbers of layers in a
multilayer board.

 

[Arg]

Now that made me chuckle..... ;-)

 

[Gary Lecomte]

Hi - when you're etching your own circuit boards with the iron on method -
lining up the sides of a really fine two sided board can be really
difficult. So today I was thinking that instead of battling that - why not
just get two boards and only etch one side of each - and then drill all the
holes and then glue them together.That way all the holes would be lined up
perfectly (well if you can drill straight that is) The only problem I see
is added cost and added thickness. So to combat the latter of those two -
has anyone seen any really thin single sided copper clad boards? thanks,

Mike N.

I have 3 Ft x 4 Ft Sheets of 1/32 inch board. It is about 1/2 the
normal thickness of the 1/16" PCB Material.
And can easily be used for this purpose.

Take care........Gary

 

[John Popelish]

Hi - when you're etching your own circuit boards with the iron on method -
lining up the sides of a really fine two sided board can be really
difficult. So today I was thinking that instead of battling that - why not
just get two boards and only etch one side of each - and then drill all the
holes and then glue them together.That way all the holes would be lined up
perfectly (well if you can drill straight that is) The only problem I see
is added cost and added thickness. So to combat the latter of those two -
has anyone seen any really thin single sided copper clad boards? thanks,

Mike N.

Digikey sells 1/32 inch and .014 inch thick, single sided, copper clad
board stock.

 

[Robert Baer]

Hi - when you're etching your own circuit boards with the iron on method -
lining up the sides of a really fine two sided board can be really
difficult. So today I was thinking that instead of battling that - why not
just get two boards and only etch one side of each - and then drill all the
holes and then glue them together.That way all the holes would be lined up
perfectly (well if you can drill straight that is) The only problem I see
is added cost and added thickness. So to combat the latter of those two -
has anyone seen any really thin single sided copper clad boards? thanks,

Mike N.

The "solution" you propose is more complicated and requires far more
work than needed.
Furthermore, the seperate drilling meand *twice* the work, and the
"glue" will be crap and can give problems: alignment, leakage, and
adhesion (for starters).
I have made many double-sided PCBs at home and routinely achieved
registration 10 mils or better.
For the negatives, i used orange ColorKey by 3-M.
I make an L-shaped frame of PCB material (same thickness as the PCB to
be exposed) and tape the negatives on the frame holder; thus ensuring
registration during exposure (which i do one side at a time).

 

[Jan-Erik Söderholm]

For cheap boards to test with, check
www.st-anna-data.se, click "PCB Laminate".
It's dbl lsided, but just etch one side away.

9" x 12" high quality FR4 at $2.50 !!
0.05, 0.20, 0.35, 0.50, 0.70 and 0.80 mm

Regards
Jan-Erik.
PS.
Check out the Carbide drills at the same time...
DS.

 

[Rich Webb]

Hi - when you're etching your own circuit boards with the iron on method -
lining up the sides of a really fine two sided board can be really
difficult. So today I was thinking that instead of battling that - why not
just get two boards and only etch one side of each - and then drill all the
holes and then glue them together.That way all the holes would be lined up
perfectly (well if you can drill straight that is) The only problem I see
is added cost and added thickness. So to combat the latter of those two -
has anyone seen any really thin single sided copper clad boards? thanks,

Try at craft/art/hobby stores. Ages and ages ago I did pretty much what
you described to make a double sided edge connector for an Amiga 1000
expansion port. I no longer remember exactly why I did it that way
instead of just etching double sided stock -- availability, maybe? --
but even though the Amiga hasn't been fired up for years, I still have
that little board and it's still all one piece.

 

[Roger Johansson]

Ages and ages ago I did pretty much what
you described to make a double sided edge connector for an Amiga 1000
expansion port. I no longer remember exactly why I did it that way
instead of just etching double sided stock -- availability, maybe? --

Because you needed the extra thickness to fit into the printer port?

I did the same when I bought my first printer. It came without a
suitable cable, so I made my own, two pieces of singlesided pcb gave
the needed thickness, used a file to create the pattern, was faster
than etching, screwed the two pieces together with machine screws and
created "wings" on the design so the fastener things on the printer
could hold the homemade connector steadily.

...to make what you need with the things you can get hold of..

 

[Dan Fraser]

I have a 2 or 3 3' x 4' sheets of 1/32" thick single sided copper clad
with 2 oz copper on them. Will selll 1/2 of best commercial price you
can find.

--
Dan Fraser

From Costa Mesa in sunny California
949-631-7535 Cell 714-420-7535

Check out my electronic schematics site at: http://www.schematicsforfree.com
If you are into cars check out www.roadsters.com