Etching: Speeding up with induction burners?

When I did an etch of a very small board, it took me quite a while to get the copper off, much longer than I expected. Obviously, part of the problem was that the FeCl got too cold and didn't work very fast. It occurred to me that given the iron content, it should be possible to heat it up with an induction burner, thus speeding up the process quite a bit. Has anybody tried that? I have been wanting to get a stand-alone induction burner anyway, this would be a good occasion for it.

Thanks in advance,
-Lars

If you know chemistry, then you know that if you provide heat, it will speed up the process. But make sure you dont heat it too much, else it will vaporise and product toxic gasses.

I know that. I was pondering whether with an induction heater, you can heat the FeCl while etching, even if you have it in a plastic container that would melt/deform from ordinary heat sources.

So warm the etching solution before you pour it next time. What's the big deal?

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This is the standard equipment for etching: -


The tank holds the board vertical so the sludge sinks to the bottom leaving clean FeCl where the board is.

The immersion heater on the right heats the solution. A thermometer on the left lets you see the temperature, IIRC 40-45C is best.

An aquarium pump bubbles air up through the tank to agitate the solution. All pretty simple low tech stuff, not too expensive.

The immersion heater is just a test tube with nichrome wire wound on a mica support. Cheap and 100% efficient so no need for an induction heater.

When I was a kid I did it on the cheap by floating a plastic dish in a sink full of hot water and manually agitating it.

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[www.hydraraptor.blogspot.com]

I did use boiling water for my etching. Still took forever.

Define "forever", IIRC it takes about 20 minutes with the kit above and nowhere near boiling solution. As Mr Seeker said, if you get it too hot you get caustic fumes.

FeCl gets slower and slower if you reuse it but when fresh it is reasonably quick.

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[www.hydraraptor.blogspot.com]

You can also use Muriatic acid(HCl) and hydrogen peroxide, it wont get slower and slower and you can re-use it whenever you want. The cool thing about this is that you will end up with copper...

See also this topic on etching: [hackaday.com]

During my apprenticship we used Anhydrous feric crystals with cold tap water.

A photography developing tray on top of a heater plate set to 48C

All of that was mounted on a see saw plate driven by a small motor.

Using the Anhydrous feric has a small chemical heating effect with water.

In the UK Maplin sell Feric in the Anhydrous form.



I use an electric wine warming plate and agitate by the etch bath hand tilting it gently. I have used both Feric and Sodium persulphate this likes to alo be at about 48C to work effectivly. Maplin in the UK sell both of these for home use.

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adding a little citric acid to the FeCl (1 tsp/qt) will speed up the process and produce a cleaner etch. But the muratic acid etch is best, safe, fast and green (in more ways than one).

Nophead, where did you get that etching equipment? Did you buy all the parts seperatly or were they part of a kit?
Thanks

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I bought them as separate items from Maplin [www.maplin.co.uk] about 14 years ago. I don't think they sell the same stuff these days. They have dumbed down somewhat since then.

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[www.hydraraptor.blogspot.com]