How to make a board from foil textolite. Polymer technology. How did you get out of this difficult situation?

Hello dear blog readers. Now the weather is wonderful outside, and I'm in a great mood. Today I want to tell you about how you can make high-quality printed circuit boards at home.

]Generally, the method of manufacturing printed circuit boards using laser iron not complicated. Its essence lies in the method of applying a protective pattern to the foil textolite.

In our case, we first use the printer to print the protective pattern onto photo paper, its glossy side. Then, as a result of heating with an iron, the softened toner is fried to the surface of the textolite. Read the details of this action below ... BUT in the following articles you will find even more useful information from the field of amateur radio technology, so be sure to subscribe.

So let's get started.

To make a board using LUT technology, we need:

1. foil textolite (single or double sided)
2. laser printer
3. metal scissors
4. glossy photo paper (Lomond)
5. solvent (acetone, alcohol, gasoline, etc.)
6. sandpaper (with fine abrasive, zeroing is fine)
7. drill (usually a motor with a collet chuck)
8. toothbrush (a very necessary thing, not only for dental health)
9. ferric chloride
10. actually the drawing of the board itself drawn in Sprint-Layout

Textolite preparation

We take metal scissors in our hands and cut out a piece of textolite according to the size of our future printed circuit board. I used to cut textolite with a hacksaw, but it turned out to be not so convenient compared to scissors, and textolite dust was very annoying.

We thoroughly sand the resulting printed circuit board blank with sandpaper - zero until a uniform mirror shine appears. Then we moisten a piece of cloth with acetone, alcohol or some other solvent, carefully wipe and degrease our board.

Our task is to clean our board from oxides and "sweaty hands". Of course, after that we try not to touch our board with our hands.

Preparation of a printed circuit board drawing and transfer to textolite

The printed circuit board drawing drawn in advance, we print on photo paper. And in the printer, turn off the toner saving mode, and print the picture on the glossy side of the photo paper.

Now we take out the iron from under the table and turn it on, let it heat up. We lay a freshly printed sheet of paper on the textolite with a pattern down and begin to iron it with an iron. With photo paper, unlike tracing paper, there is no need to stand on ceremony with self-adhesive substrates, we “crawl” with an iron until the paper begins to turn yellow.

Here you can not be afraid to overexpose the fee, or go too far with pressure. After we take this sandwich with fried paper and carry it to the bathroom. Under a stream of warm water, with the pads of your fingers, we begin to roll up the paper. Next, we pick up the prepared toothbrush and carefully pass it over the surface of the board. Our task is to peel off the white chalk layer from the surface of the picture.

We dry the board and carefully check it under a bright lamp.

Often the chalk layer is torn off the first time with a toothbrush, but it happens that this is not enough. In this case, you can use electrical tape. Whitish fibers stick to electrical tape leaving our handkerchief clean.

Board etching

To prepare an etching solution, we need ferric chloride FeCL3.

This miracle powder in our radio store costs about 50 rubles. Pour water into a non-metallic vessel and pour ferric chloride there. Usually, one part of FeCL3 is taken to three parts of water. Next, we immerse our board in the vessel and give it time.

The etching time depends on the thickness of the foil, the temperature of the water, and the freshness of the prepared solution. The hotter the solution, the faster the etching process will take place, but at the same time, in hot water there is a chance of damaging the protective pattern. Also, the etching process is accelerated by stirring the solution.

Some adapt for this "bulbulator" from the aquarium or attach a vibration motor from the phone. We take out the etched board and wash it under running water. We pour the etching solution into a jar and hide it under the bath, the main thing is that the wife does not see it.

This solution will be useful to us later. We clean the etched scarf from the protective layer of toner. I use acetone for this, but it seems like alcohol or gasoline is also not bad.

Board drilling

An etched and cleaned board needs to be drilled, as it is not always possible to use surface mounting. For drilling the board, I have a small drill in store. It is a DPM-type motor with a collet chuck mounted on the shaft. I took it in the radio store for 500r. But I think you can use any other motor for this, for example, from a tape recorder.

We drill the board with a sharp drill, trying to maintain perpendicularity. Perpendicularity is especially important when making double-sided boards. We do not need to punch holes for drilling, since the holes in the foil were formed automatically during etching.

We go through the board with a zero sandpaper, removing burrs after drilling, and getting ready for tinning our board.

Board tinning

I try to tin my boards, and I do it for several reasons:

• A tinned board is more resistant to corrosion, and after a year you will not see rust marks on your device.
• The layer of solder on the printed pattern increases the thickness of the conductive layer, thus reducing the resistance of the conductor.
• It is easier to solder radio components on a pre-tinned board; prepared surfaces contribute to high-quality soldering.

We degrease the board and clean it from oxide. Let's use acetone, and then literally dip it in a solution of ferric chloride for just a second. We paint the pinked board abundantly with flux. Next, we take out a more powerful soldering iron and, having collected a small amount of solder on the tip, we quickly walk along the paths of our printed pattern. It remains only to walk a little sandpaper over the drawing, and as a result we get a beautiful, shiny scarf.

Where can I buy

Where can you buy foil textolite? Yes, however, not only textolite but also other tools for amateur radio creativity.

Currently I don't have any problems with this, as there are several decent radio shops in my city. There I buy textolite and everything that is required.

At one time, when there was no normal radio store in my city, I ordered all the materials, tools and radio components in the online store. One of these online stores where you can find textolite and not only is the Dessie store, by the way, I even talk about it.

Custom printed circuit boards

There are situations when there is a printed circuit board drawing, but you absolutely don’t want to face technological troubles, and the printed circuit board is oh so needed. Or it happens that you don’t mind trying, comprehending all the mysteries of this process, but there’s no time for evil and it’s not known what it will lead to (the first result is not always close to ideal) In this case, you can do it easier, you can get a quality result.

So WARNING!!! If you are interested in custom printed circuit boards then be sure to read!

Well, so we got acquainted with the method of making printed circuit boards with our own hands at home. Necessarily subscribe for new articles , because there will be a lot of interesting and useful things to come.

In addition, one more progressive way of subscribing through the form of the Email mailing service has appeared relatively recently, this method is notable for the fact that Everyone who signs up gets a GIFT!!!, and this gift will undoubtedly be appreciated by any radio amateur. So people subscribe and get nice bonuses, so welcome.

So build your devices, do printed circuit boards, a LUT technology will help you.

Sincerely, Vladimir Vasiliev.

I propose to watch a good selection of videos on each stage of the LUT - technology.

Printed circuit board- this is a dielectric base, on the surface and in the volume of which conductive paths are applied in accordance with the electrical circuit. The printed circuit board is intended for mechanical fastening and electrical connection between each other by soldering the leads of electronic and electrical products installed on it.

The operations of cutting a workpiece from fiberglass, drilling holes and etching a printed circuit board to obtain current-carrying tracks, regardless of the method of drawing a pattern on a printed circuit board, are performed using the same technology.

Manual application technology
PCB tracks

Template preparation

The paper on which the PCB layout is drawn is usually thin and for more accurate drilling of holes, especially when using a handmade home-made drill, so that the drill does not lead to the side, it is required to make it denser. To do this, you need to glue the printed circuit board pattern onto thicker paper or thin thick cardboard using any glue, such as PVA or Moment.

Cutting a workpiece

A blank of foil-coated fiberglass of a suitable size is selected, a printed circuit board template is applied to the blank and outlined around the perimeter with a marker, a soft simple pencil, or drawing a line with a sharp object.

Next, fiberglass is cut along the marked lines using metal scissors or cut with a hacksaw. Scissors cut faster and no dust. But it must be taken into account that when cutting with scissors, fiberglass is strongly bent, which somewhat worsens the strength of gluing copper foil, and if re-soldering of the elements is required, the tracks may peel off. Therefore, if the board is large and with very thin tracks, then it is better to cut it off with a hacksaw.

A printed circuit board pattern template is glued onto the cut-out blank using Moment glue, four drops of which are applied to the corners of the blank.

Since the glue sets in just a few minutes, you can immediately start drilling holes for radio components.

Hole drilling

It is best to drill holes using a special mini drilling machine with a 0.7-0.8 mm carbide drill. If a mini drilling machine is not available, then you can drill holes with a low-power drill with a simple drill. But when working with a universal hand drill, the number of broken drills will depend on the hardness of your hand. One drill is definitely not enough.

If the drill cannot be clamped, then its shank can be wrapped with several layers of paper or one layer of sandpaper. It is possible to wind tightly coil to coil of a thin metal wire on the shank.

After drilling is completed, it is checked whether all holes have been drilled. This is clearly visible if you look at the printed circuit board through the light. As you can see, there are no missing holes.

Drawing a topographic drawing

In order to protect the places of the foil on the fiberglass, which will be conductive paths, from destruction during etching, they must be covered with a mask that is resistant to dissolution in an aqueous solution. For the convenience of drawing tracks, it is better to pre-mark them with a soft, simple pencil or marker.

Before marking, it is necessary to remove traces of Moment glue, which glued the printed circuit board template. Since the glue has not hardened much, it can be easily removed by rolling it with your finger. The surface of the foil must also be degreased with a rag with any agent, such as acetone or white spirit (as refined gasoline is called), and any dishwashing detergent, such as Ferry, can also be used.

After marking the tracks of the printed circuit board, you can begin to apply their pattern. Any waterproof enamel is well suited for drawing tracks, for example, alkyd enamel of the PF series, diluted to a suitable consistency with a white spirit solvent. You can draw tracks with different tools - a glass or metal drawing pen, a medical needle and even a toothpick. In this article, I will show you how to draw PCB tracks using a drawing pen and a ballerina, which are designed to be drawn on paper with ink.

Previously, there were no computers and all the drawings were drawn with simple pencils on whatman paper and then transferred with ink to tracing paper, from which copies were made using copiers.

Drawing a picture begins with contact pads, which are drawn with a ballerina. To do this, you need to adjust the gap of the sliding jaws of the drawer of the ballerina to the required line width and to set the diameter of the circle, adjust the second screw by moving the drawer from the axis of rotation.

Next, the drawer of the ballerina for a length of 5-10 mm is filled with paint with a brush. For applying a protective layer on a printed circuit board, paint of the PF or GF brand is best suited, as it dries slowly and allows you to work calmly. NC brand paint can also be used, but it is difficult to work with it, as it dries quickly. The paint should lay down well and not spread. Before drawing, the paint must be diluted to a liquid consistency, adding a suitable solvent to it little by little with vigorous stirring and trying to draw on scraps of fiberglass. To work with paint, it is most convenient to pour it into a nail polish bottle, in the twist of which a solvent-resistant brush is installed.

After adjusting the drawer of the ballerina and obtaining the required line parameters, you can begin to apply contact pads. To do this, the sharp part of the axis is inserted into the hole and the base of the ballerina is rotated in a circle.

With the correct setting of the drawing pen and the desired consistency of paint around the holes on the printed circuit board, circles of perfectly round shape are obtained. When the ballerina begins to draw poorly, the remnants of dried paint are removed from the drawer gap with a cloth and the drawer is filled with fresh paint. to outline all the holes on this printed circuit board with circles, it took only two refills of the drawing pen and no more than two minutes of time.

When the round contact pads on the board are drawn, you can start drawing conductive tracks using a manual drawing pen. The preparation and adjustment of a manual drawing pen is no different from the preparation of a ballerina.

The only thing that is additionally needed is a flat ruler, with pieces of rubber glued on one of its sides along the edges, 2.5-3 mm thick, so that the ruler does not slip during operation and the fiberglass, without touching the ruler, can freely pass under it. A wooden triangle is best suited as a ruler, it is stable and at the same time can serve as a support for the hand when drawing a printed circuit board.

So that the printed circuit board does not slip when drawing tracks, it is advisable to place it on a sheet of sandpaper, which is two sandpaper sheets riveted together with paper sides.

If, when drawing paths and circles, they touched, then no action should be taken. It is necessary to allow the paint on the printed circuit board to dry to a state where it will not stain when touched, and use the edge of a knife to remove the excess part of the pattern. In order for the paint to dry faster, the board must be placed in a warm place, for example, in winter, on a radiator. In the summer season - under the rays of the sun.

When the pattern on the printed circuit board is completely applied and all defects are corrected, you can proceed to etching it.

Printed circuit board drawing technology
using a laser printer

When printing on a laser printer, the image formed by the toner is transferred electrostatically from the photo drum, on which the laser beam painted the image, onto paper. The toner is held onto the paper, preserving the image, only due to electrostatics. To fix the toner, the paper is rolled between rollers, one of which is a thermal oven heated to a temperature of 180-220°C. The toner melts and penetrates the texture of the paper. After cooling, the toner hardens and adheres firmly to the paper. If the paper is heated again to 180-220°C, the toner will again become liquid. This property of the toner is used to transfer the image of current-carrying tracks to a printed circuit board at home.

After the file with the printed circuit board drawing is ready, it is necessary to print it using a laser printer on paper. Please note that the image of the printed circuit board drawing for this technology must be viewed from the side of the installation of parts! An inkjet printer is not suitable for these purposes, as it works on a different principle.

Preparing a paper template for transferring a pattern to a printed circuit board

If you print a printed circuit board pattern on ordinary paper for office equipment, then due to its porous structure, the toner will penetrate deeply into the body of the paper and when the toner is transferred to the printed circuit board, most of it will remain in the paper. In addition, there will be difficulties with removing paper from the printed circuit board. You will have to soak it in water for a long time. Therefore, to prepare a photomask, you need paper that does not have a porous structure, such as photographic paper, a substrate from self-adhesive films and labels, tracing paper, pages from glossy magazines.

As the paper for printing the PCB design, I use tracing paper from old stock. Tracing paper is very thin and it is impossible to print a template directly on it, it jams in the printer. To solve this problem, before printing on a piece of tracing paper of the required size, apply a drop of any glue in the corners and stick it on a sheet of A4 office paper.

This technique allows you to print a printed circuit board pattern even on the thinnest paper or film. In order for the toner thickness of the pattern to be maximum, before printing, you need to configure the “Printer Properties” by turning off the economical printing mode, and if this function is not available, then select the roughest type of paper, such as cardboard or something like that. It is quite possible that you will not get a good print the first time, and you will have to experiment a little, choosing the best print mode for a laser printer. In the resulting print of the pattern, the tracks and contact pads of the printed circuit board must be dense without gaps and smearing, since retouching is useless at this technological stage.

It remains to cut the tracing paper along the contour and the template for the manufacture of the printed circuit board will be ready and you can proceed to the next step, transferring the image to the fiberglass.

Transferring a pattern from paper to fiberglass

Transferring the PCB pattern is the most critical step. The essence of the technology is simple, paper, with the side of the printed pattern of the tracks of the printed circuit board, is applied to the copper foil of the fiberglass and pressed with great effort. Next, this sandwich is heated to a temperature of 180-220°C and then cooled to room temperature. The paper is torn off, and the pattern remains on the printed circuit board.

Some craftsmen suggest transferring a pattern from paper to a printed circuit board using an electric iron. I tried this method, but the result was unstable. It is difficult to simultaneously heat the toner to the desired temperature and evenly press the paper against the entire surface of the printed circuit board when the toner solidifies. As a result, the pattern is not completely transferred and there are gaps in the pattern of PCB tracks. It is possible that the iron did not heat up enough, although the regulator was set to the maximum heating of the iron. I did not want to open the iron and reconfigure the thermostat. Therefore, I used another technology that is less laborious and provides a 100% result.

On a printed circuit board cut to size and degreased with acetone, a blank of foil fiberglass was glued to the corners of a tracing paper with a pattern printed on it. On top of the tracing paper put, for a more uniform pressure, heels of sheets of office paper. The resulting package was placed on a sheet of plywood and covered with a sheet of the same size on top. This whole sandwich was clamped with maximum force in the clamps.

It remains to heat the made sandwich to a temperature of 200 ° C and cool. An electric oven with a temperature controller is ideal for heating. It is enough to place the created structure in a cabinet, wait for the set temperature to reach, and after half an hour remove the board for cooling.

If an electric oven is not available, then you can also use a gas oven by adjusting the temperature with the gas supply knob according to the built-in thermometer. If there is no thermometer or it is faulty, then women can help, the position of the regulator knob, at which pies are baked, will do.

Since the ends of the plywood were warped, just in case, I clamped them with additional clamps. to avoid this phenomenon, it is better to clamp the printed circuit board between metal sheets 5-6 mm thick. You can drill holes in their corners and clamp the printed circuit boards, tighten the plates with screws and nuts. M10 will be enough.

After half an hour, the design has cooled down enough for the toner to harden, the board can be removed. At the first glance at the removed printed circuit board, it becomes clear that the toner transferred from the tracing paper to the board perfectly. The tracing paper fit snugly and evenly along the lines of the printed tracks, the rings of the pads and the marking letters.

The tracing paper easily came off almost all tracks of the printed circuit board, the remains of the tracing paper were removed with a damp cloth. But still, there were gaps in several places on the printed tracks. This can happen as a result of uneven printing of the printer or remaining dirt or corrosion on the fiberglass foil. Gaps can be filled with any waterproof paint, nail polish or retouched with a marker.

To check the suitability of a marker for retouching a printed circuit board, you need to draw lines on paper with it and moisten the paper with water. If the lines do not blur, then the retouching marker is suitable.

Etching a printed circuit board at home is best in a solution of ferric chloride or hydrogen peroxide with citric acid. After etching, the toner from the printed tracks is easily removed with a swab dipped in acetone.

Then holes are drilled, conductive paths and contact pads are tinned, and radioelements are soldered.

This form was taken by a printed circuit board with radio components installed on it. The result was a power supply and switching unit for an electronic system that complements an ordinary toilet bowl with a bidet function.

PCB etching

To remove copper foil from unprotected areas of foil fiberglass in the manufacture of printed circuit boards at home, radio amateurs usually use a chemical method. The printed circuit board is placed in an etching solution and, due to a chemical reaction, the copper, unprotected by the mask, dissolves.

Etching solution recipes

Depending on the availability of components, radio amateurs use one of the solutions shown in the table below. Etching solutions are listed in order of popularity for their use by radio amateurs in the home.

Etch printed circuit boards in metal utensils are not allowed. To do this, use a container made of glass, ceramic or plastic. It is allowed to dispose of the spent pickling solution into the sewer.

Etching solution of hydrogen peroxide and citric acid

A solution based on hydrogen peroxide with citric acid dissolved in it is the safest, most affordable and fastest working. Of all the listed solutions, by all criteria, this is the best.

Hydrogen peroxide can be purchased at any pharmacy. Sold in the form of a liquid 3% solution or tablets called hydroperite. To obtain a liquid 3% solution of hydrogen peroxide from hydroperite, you need to dissolve 6 tablets weighing 1.5 grams in 100 ml of water.

Citric acid in the form of crystals is sold in any grocery store, packaged in bags weighing 30 or 50 grams. Table salt can be found in any home. 100 ml of pickling solution is enough to remove 35 µm thick copper foil from a 100 cm2 printed circuit board. The spent solution is not stored and cannot be reused. By the way, citric acid can be replaced with acetic acid, but because of its pungent smell, you will have to pickle the printed circuit board in the open air.

Pickling solution based on ferric chloride

The second most popular pickling solution is an aqueous solution of ferric chloride. Previously, it was the most popular, since ferric chloride was easy to get at any industrial enterprise.

The etching solution is not picky about the temperature, it etchs rather quickly, but the etching rate decreases as the ferric chloride in the solution is consumed.

Ferric chloride is very hygroscopic and therefore quickly absorbs water from the air. As a result, a yellow liquid appears at the bottom of the jar. This does not affect the quality of the component and such ferric chloride is suitable for the preparation of an etching solution.

If the used solution of ferric chloride is stored in an airtight container, then it can be used repeatedly. To be regenerated, it is enough to pour iron nails into the solution (they will immediately be covered with a loose layer of copper). Leaves hard-to-remove yellow spots upon contact with any surface. At present, a solution of ferric chloride for the manufacture of printed circuit boards is used less frequently due to its high cost.

Etching solution based on hydrogen peroxide and hydrochloric acid

Excellent pickling solution, provides high pickling speed. Hydrochloric acid, with vigorous stirring, is poured into a 3% aqueous solution of hydrogen peroxide in a thin stream. Pouring hydrogen peroxide into acid is unacceptable! But due to the presence of hydrochloric acid in the etching solution, great care must be taken when etching the board, since the solution corrodes the skin of the hands and spoils everything it gets on. For this reason, an etching solution with hydrochloric acid at home is not recommended.

Etching solution based on copper sulphate

The method of manufacturing printed circuit boards using copper sulphate is usually used if it is impossible to manufacture an etching solution based on other components due to their unavailability. Copper sulfate is a pesticide and is widely used for pest control in agriculture. In addition, the PCB etching time is up to 4 hours, while it is necessary to maintain the temperature of the solution at 50-80°C and ensure that the solution is constantly changed at the etched surface.

PCB etching technology

For etching the board in any of the above etching solutions, glass, ceramic or plastic utensils, such as dairy products, are suitable. If there was no suitable container size at hand, then you can take any box made of thick paper or cardboard of a suitable size and line its inside with plastic wrap. An etching solution is poured into the container and a printed circuit board is carefully placed on its surface with a pattern down. Due to the forces of the surface tension of the liquid and the low weight, the board will float.

For convenience, a cork from a plastic bottle can be glued to the center of the board with glue. The cork will simultaneously serve as a handle and a float. But there is a danger that air bubbles form on the board and in these places the copper will not corrode.

To ensure uniform etching of copper, you can put the printed circuit board on the bottom of the tank with the pattern up and periodically shake the bath with your hand. After a while, depending on the pickling solution, areas without copper will begin to appear, and then the copper will completely dissolve on the entire surface of the printed circuit board.

After the final dissolution of copper in the pickling solution, the printed circuit board is removed from the bath and thoroughly washed under running water. The toner is removed from the tracks with a rag soaked in acetone, and the paint is well removed with a rag soaked in a solvent that was added to the paint to obtain its desired consistency.

Preparing the printed circuit board for the installation of radio components

The next step is to prepare the printed circuit board for the installation of radio elements. After removing the paint from the board, the tracks must be processed in a circular motion with fine sandpaper. You don’t need to get carried away, because the copper tracks are thin and can be easily grinded off. Just a few passes with a low-pressure abrasive is sufficient.

Further, the current-carrying tracks and contact pads of the printed circuit board are covered with an alcohol-rosin flux and tinned with soft solder with an electric soldering iron. so that the holes on the printed circuit board are not tightened with solder, you need to take a little of it on the soldering iron tip.

After completing the manufacture of the printed circuit board, all that remains is to insert the radio components into the intended positions and solder their leads to the sites. Before soldering, the legs of the parts must be moistened with alcohol-rosin flux. If the legs of the radio components are long, then they must be cut with side cutters before soldering to a protrusion length of 1-1.5 mm above the surface of the printed circuit board. After completing the installation of the parts, it is necessary to remove the remains of rosin using any solvent - alcohol, white spirit or acetone. They all successfully dissolve rosin.

It took no more than five hours to implement this simple capacitive relay circuit from the PCB traces to the production of a working sample, much less than the layout of this page.

Printed circuit board- this is a dielectric base, on the surface and in the volume of which conductive paths are applied in accordance with the electrical circuit. The printed circuit board is intended for mechanical fastening and electrical connection between each other by soldering the leads of electronic and electrical products installed on it.

The operations of cutting a workpiece from fiberglass, drilling holes and etching a printed circuit board to obtain current-carrying tracks, regardless of the method of drawing a pattern on a printed circuit board, are performed using the same technology.

Manual application technology
PCB tracks

Template preparation

The paper on which the PCB layout is drawn is usually thin and for more accurate drilling of holes, especially when using a handmade home-made drill, so that the drill does not lead to the side, it is required to make it denser. To do this, you need to glue the printed circuit board pattern onto thicker paper or thin thick cardboard using any glue, such as PVA or Moment.

Cutting a workpiece

A blank of foil-coated fiberglass of a suitable size is selected, a printed circuit board template is applied to the blank and outlined around the perimeter with a marker, a soft simple pencil, or drawing a line with a sharp object.

Next, fiberglass is cut along the marked lines using metal scissors or cut with a hacksaw. Scissors cut faster and no dust. But it must be taken into account that when cutting with scissors, fiberglass is strongly bent, which somewhat worsens the strength of gluing copper foil, and if re-soldering of the elements is required, the tracks may peel off. Therefore, if the board is large and with very thin tracks, then it is better to cut it off with a hacksaw.

A printed circuit board pattern template is glued onto the cut-out blank using Moment glue, four drops of which are applied to the corners of the blank.

Since the glue sets in just a few minutes, you can immediately start drilling holes for radio components.

Hole drilling

It is best to drill holes using a special mini drilling machine with a 0.7-0.8 mm carbide drill. If a mini drilling machine is not available, then you can drill holes with a low-power drill with a simple drill. But when working with a universal hand drill, the number of broken drills will depend on the hardness of your hand. One drill is definitely not enough.

If the drill cannot be clamped, then its shank can be wrapped with several layers of paper or one layer of sandpaper. It is possible to wind tightly coil to coil of a thin metal wire on the shank.

After drilling is completed, it is checked whether all holes have been drilled. This is clearly visible if you look at the printed circuit board through the light. As you can see, there are no missing holes.

Drawing a topographic drawing

In order to protect the places of the foil on the fiberglass, which will be conductive paths, from destruction during etching, they must be covered with a mask that is resistant to dissolution in an aqueous solution. For the convenience of drawing tracks, it is better to pre-mark them with a soft, simple pencil or marker.

Before marking, it is necessary to remove traces of Moment glue, which glued the printed circuit board template. Since the glue has not hardened much, it can be easily removed by rolling it with your finger. The surface of the foil must also be degreased with a rag with any agent, such as acetone or white spirit (as refined gasoline is called), and any dishwashing detergent, such as Ferry, can also be used.

After marking the tracks of the printed circuit board, you can begin to apply their pattern. Any waterproof enamel is well suited for drawing tracks, for example, alkyd enamel of the PF series, diluted to a suitable consistency with a white spirit solvent. You can draw tracks with different tools - a glass or metal drawing pen, a medical needle and even a toothpick. In this article, I will show you how to draw PCB tracks using a drawing pen and a ballerina, which are designed to be drawn on paper with ink.

Previously, there were no computers and all the drawings were drawn with simple pencils on whatman paper and then transferred with ink to tracing paper, from which copies were made using copiers.

Drawing a picture begins with contact pads, which are drawn with a ballerina. To do this, you need to adjust the gap of the sliding jaws of the drawer of the ballerina to the required line width and to set the diameter of the circle, adjust the second screw by moving the drawer from the axis of rotation.

Next, the drawer of the ballerina for a length of 5-10 mm is filled with paint with a brush. For applying a protective layer on a printed circuit board, paint of the PF or GF brand is best suited, as it dries slowly and allows you to work calmly. NC brand paint can also be used, but it is difficult to work with it, as it dries quickly. The paint should lay down well and not spread. Before drawing, the paint must be diluted to a liquid consistency, adding a suitable solvent to it little by little with vigorous stirring and trying to draw on scraps of fiberglass. To work with paint, it is most convenient to pour it into a nail polish bottle, in the twist of which a solvent-resistant brush is installed.

After adjusting the drawer of the ballerina and obtaining the required line parameters, you can begin to apply contact pads. To do this, the sharp part of the axis is inserted into the hole and the base of the ballerina is rotated in a circle.

With the correct setting of the drawing pen and the desired consistency of paint around the holes on the printed circuit board, circles of perfectly round shape are obtained. When the ballerina begins to draw poorly, the remnants of dried paint are removed from the drawer gap with a cloth and the drawer is filled with fresh paint. to outline all the holes on this printed circuit board with circles, it took only two refills of the drawing pen and no more than two minutes of time.

When the round contact pads on the board are drawn, you can start drawing conductive tracks using a manual drawing pen. The preparation and adjustment of a manual drawing pen is no different from the preparation of a ballerina.

The only thing that is additionally needed is a flat ruler, with pieces of rubber glued on one of its sides along the edges, 2.5-3 mm thick, so that the ruler does not slip during operation and the fiberglass, without touching the ruler, can freely pass under it. A wooden triangle is best suited as a ruler, it is stable and at the same time can serve as a support for the hand when drawing a printed circuit board.

So that the printed circuit board does not slip when drawing tracks, it is advisable to place it on a sheet of sandpaper, which is two sandpaper sheets riveted together with paper sides.

If, when drawing paths and circles, they touched, then no action should be taken. It is necessary to allow the paint on the printed circuit board to dry to a state where it will not stain when touched, and use the edge of a knife to remove the excess part of the pattern. In order for the paint to dry faster, the board must be placed in a warm place, for example, in winter, on a radiator. In the summer season - under the rays of the sun.

When the pattern on the printed circuit board is completely applied and all defects are corrected, you can proceed to etching it.

Printed circuit board drawing technology
using a laser printer

When printing on a laser printer, the image formed by the toner is transferred electrostatically from the photo drum, on which the laser beam painted the image, onto paper. The toner is held onto the paper, preserving the image, only due to electrostatics. To fix the toner, the paper is rolled between rollers, one of which is a thermal oven heated to a temperature of 180-220°C. The toner melts and penetrates the texture of the paper. After cooling, the toner hardens and adheres firmly to the paper. If the paper is heated again to 180-220°C, the toner will again become liquid. This property of the toner is used to transfer the image of current-carrying tracks to a printed circuit board at home.

After the file with the printed circuit board drawing is ready, it is necessary to print it using a laser printer on paper. Please note that the image of the printed circuit board drawing for this technology must be viewed from the side of the installation of parts! An inkjet printer is not suitable for these purposes, as it works on a different principle.

Preparing a paper template for transferring a pattern to a printed circuit board

If you print a printed circuit board pattern on ordinary paper for office equipment, then due to its porous structure, the toner will penetrate deeply into the body of the paper and when the toner is transferred to the printed circuit board, most of it will remain in the paper. In addition, there will be difficulties with removing paper from the printed circuit board. You will have to soak it in water for a long time. Therefore, to prepare a photomask, you need paper that does not have a porous structure, such as photographic paper, a substrate from self-adhesive films and labels, tracing paper, pages from glossy magazines.

As the paper for printing the PCB design, I use tracing paper from old stock. Tracing paper is very thin and it is impossible to print a template directly on it, it jams in the printer. To solve this problem, before printing on a piece of tracing paper of the required size, apply a drop of any glue in the corners and stick it on a sheet of A4 office paper.

This technique allows you to print a printed circuit board pattern even on the thinnest paper or film. In order for the toner thickness of the pattern to be maximum, before printing, you need to configure the “Printer Properties” by turning off the economical printing mode, and if this function is not available, then select the roughest type of paper, such as cardboard or something like that. It is quite possible that you will not get a good print the first time, and you will have to experiment a little, choosing the best print mode for a laser printer. In the resulting print of the pattern, the tracks and contact pads of the printed circuit board must be dense without gaps and smearing, since retouching is useless at this technological stage.

It remains to cut the tracing paper along the contour and the template for the manufacture of the printed circuit board will be ready and you can proceed to the next step, transferring the image to the fiberglass.

Transferring a pattern from paper to fiberglass

Transferring the PCB pattern is the most critical step. The essence of the technology is simple, paper, with the side of the printed pattern of the tracks of the printed circuit board, is applied to the copper foil of the fiberglass and pressed with great effort. Next, this sandwich is heated to a temperature of 180-220°C and then cooled to room temperature. The paper is torn off, and the pattern remains on the printed circuit board.

Some craftsmen suggest transferring a pattern from paper to a printed circuit board using an electric iron. I tried this method, but the result was unstable. It is difficult to simultaneously heat the toner to the desired temperature and evenly press the paper against the entire surface of the printed circuit board when the toner solidifies. As a result, the pattern is not completely transferred and there are gaps in the pattern of PCB tracks. It is possible that the iron did not heat up enough, although the regulator was set to the maximum heating of the iron. I did not want to open the iron and reconfigure the thermostat. Therefore, I used another technology that is less laborious and provides a 100% result.

On a printed circuit board cut to size and degreased with acetone, a blank of foil fiberglass was glued to the corners of a tracing paper with a pattern printed on it. On top of the tracing paper put, for a more uniform pressure, heels of sheets of office paper. The resulting package was placed on a sheet of plywood and covered with a sheet of the same size on top. This whole sandwich was clamped with maximum force in the clamps.

It remains to heat the made sandwich to a temperature of 200 ° C and cool. An electric oven with a temperature controller is ideal for heating. It is enough to place the created structure in a cabinet, wait for the set temperature to reach, and after half an hour remove the board for cooling.

If an electric oven is not available, then you can also use a gas oven by adjusting the temperature with the gas supply knob according to the built-in thermometer. If there is no thermometer or it is faulty, then women can help, the position of the regulator knob, at which pies are baked, will do.

Since the ends of the plywood were warped, just in case, I clamped them with additional clamps. to avoid this phenomenon, it is better to clamp the printed circuit board between metal sheets 5-6 mm thick. You can drill holes in their corners and clamp the printed circuit boards, tighten the plates with screws and nuts. M10 will be enough.

After half an hour, the design has cooled down enough for the toner to harden, the board can be removed. At the first glance at the removed printed circuit board, it becomes clear that the toner transferred from the tracing paper to the board perfectly. The tracing paper fit snugly and evenly along the lines of the printed tracks, the rings of the pads and the marking letters.

The tracing paper easily came off almost all tracks of the printed circuit board, the remains of the tracing paper were removed with a damp cloth. But still, there were gaps in several places on the printed tracks. This can happen as a result of uneven printing of the printer or remaining dirt or corrosion on the fiberglass foil. Gaps can be filled with any waterproof paint, nail polish or retouched with a marker.

To check the suitability of a marker for retouching a printed circuit board, you need to draw lines on paper with it and moisten the paper with water. If the lines do not blur, then the retouching marker is suitable.

Etching a printed circuit board at home is best in a solution of ferric chloride or hydrogen peroxide with citric acid. After etching, the toner from the printed tracks is easily removed with a swab dipped in acetone.

Then holes are drilled, conductive paths and contact pads are tinned, and radioelements are soldered.

This form was taken by a printed circuit board with radio components installed on it. The result was a power supply and switching unit for an electronic system that complements an ordinary toilet bowl with a bidet function.

PCB etching

To remove copper foil from unprotected areas of foil fiberglass in the manufacture of printed circuit boards at home, radio amateurs usually use a chemical method. The printed circuit board is placed in an etching solution and, due to a chemical reaction, the copper, unprotected by the mask, dissolves.

Etching solution recipes

Depending on the availability of components, radio amateurs use one of the solutions shown in the table below. Etching solutions are listed in order of popularity for their use by radio amateurs in the home.

Etch printed circuit boards in metal utensils are not allowed. To do this, use a container made of glass, ceramic or plastic. It is allowed to dispose of the spent pickling solution into the sewer.

Etching solution of hydrogen peroxide and citric acid

A solution based on hydrogen peroxide with citric acid dissolved in it is the safest, most affordable and fastest working. Of all the listed solutions, by all criteria, this is the best.

Hydrogen peroxide can be purchased at any pharmacy. Sold in the form of a liquid 3% solution or tablets called hydroperite. To obtain a liquid 3% solution of hydrogen peroxide from hydroperite, you need to dissolve 6 tablets weighing 1.5 grams in 100 ml of water.

Citric acid in the form of crystals is sold in any grocery store, packaged in bags weighing 30 or 50 grams. Table salt can be found in any home. 100 ml of pickling solution is enough to remove 35 µm thick copper foil from a 100 cm2 printed circuit board. The spent solution is not stored and cannot be reused. By the way, citric acid can be replaced with acetic acid, but because of its pungent smell, you will have to pickle the printed circuit board in the open air.

Pickling solution based on ferric chloride

The second most popular pickling solution is an aqueous solution of ferric chloride. Previously, it was the most popular, since ferric chloride was easy to get at any industrial enterprise.

The etching solution is not picky about the temperature, it etchs rather quickly, but the etching rate decreases as the ferric chloride in the solution is consumed.

Ferric chloride is very hygroscopic and therefore quickly absorbs water from the air. As a result, a yellow liquid appears at the bottom of the jar. This does not affect the quality of the component and such ferric chloride is suitable for the preparation of an etching solution.

If the used solution of ferric chloride is stored in an airtight container, then it can be used repeatedly. To be regenerated, it is enough to pour iron nails into the solution (they will immediately be covered with a loose layer of copper). Leaves hard-to-remove yellow spots upon contact with any surface. At present, a solution of ferric chloride for the manufacture of printed circuit boards is used less frequently due to its high cost.

Etching solution based on hydrogen peroxide and hydrochloric acid

Excellent pickling solution, provides high pickling speed. Hydrochloric acid, with vigorous stirring, is poured into a 3% aqueous solution of hydrogen peroxide in a thin stream. Pouring hydrogen peroxide into acid is unacceptable! But due to the presence of hydrochloric acid in the etching solution, great care must be taken when etching the board, since the solution corrodes the skin of the hands and spoils everything it gets on. For this reason, an etching solution with hydrochloric acid at home is not recommended.

Etching solution based on copper sulphate

The method of manufacturing printed circuit boards using copper sulphate is usually used if it is impossible to manufacture an etching solution based on other components due to their unavailability. Copper sulfate is a pesticide and is widely used for pest control in agriculture. In addition, the PCB etching time is up to 4 hours, while it is necessary to maintain the temperature of the solution at 50-80°C and ensure that the solution is constantly changed at the etched surface.

PCB etching technology

For etching the board in any of the above etching solutions, glass, ceramic or plastic utensils, such as dairy products, are suitable. If there was no suitable container size at hand, then you can take any box made of thick paper or cardboard of a suitable size and line its inside with plastic wrap. An etching solution is poured into the container and a printed circuit board is carefully placed on its surface with a pattern down. Due to the forces of the surface tension of the liquid and the low weight, the board will float.

For convenience, a cork from a plastic bottle can be glued to the center of the board with glue. The cork will simultaneously serve as a handle and a float. But there is a danger that air bubbles form on the board and in these places the copper will not corrode.

To ensure uniform etching of copper, you can put the printed circuit board on the bottom of the tank with the pattern up and periodically shake the bath with your hand. After a while, depending on the pickling solution, areas without copper will begin to appear, and then the copper will completely dissolve on the entire surface of the printed circuit board.

After the final dissolution of copper in the pickling solution, the printed circuit board is removed from the bath and thoroughly washed under running water. The toner is removed from the tracks with a rag soaked in acetone, and the paint is well removed with a rag soaked in a solvent that was added to the paint to obtain its desired consistency.

Preparing the printed circuit board for the installation of radio components

The next step is to prepare the printed circuit board for the installation of radio elements. After removing the paint from the board, the tracks must be processed in a circular motion with fine sandpaper. You don’t need to get carried away, because the copper tracks are thin and can be easily grinded off. Just a few passes with a low-pressure abrasive is sufficient.

Further, the current-carrying tracks and contact pads of the printed circuit board are covered with an alcohol-rosin flux and tinned with soft solder with an electric soldering iron. so that the holes on the printed circuit board are not tightened with solder, you need to take a little of it on the soldering iron tip.

After completing the manufacture of the printed circuit board, all that remains is to insert the radio components into the intended positions and solder their leads to the sites. Before soldering, the legs of the parts must be moistened with alcohol-rosin flux. If the legs of the radio components are long, then they must be cut with side cutters before soldering to a protrusion length of 1-1.5 mm above the surface of the printed circuit board. After completing the installation of the parts, it is necessary to remove the remains of rosin using any solvent - alcohol, white spirit or acetone. They all successfully dissolve rosin.

It took no more than five hours to implement this simple capacitive relay circuit from the PCB traces to the production of a working sample, much less than the layout of this page.

Getinax- sheet material: on pressed paper impregnated with bakelite varnish. Days of use at low frequencies produce getinaks with a thickness of 0.2 to 50 mm, at high frequencies; - from 0.4 to 3.8 mm. The latter is characterized by low dielectric losses. In addition, we produce foil (one- and two-sided) getinaks. This material at home is suitable for the manufacture of not only printed circuit boards, but also surf cases, cases of small reinforced blocks; walls and partitions made of filtered getinaks are connected by soldering.

Decorative plastic are getinax with a decorative, often one-sided, coating. The coating can have a different pattern, including imitating the texture of valuable wood. Sheets with a monochromatic coating of different colors and shades are also produced. The use of plastics in amateur designs allows you to give a good appearance to front panels, instrument cases, etc. It should be borne in mind that one-sided coated plastic tends to warp due to various mechanical stresses, arising in the base of the plastic and in the coating. Under the influence of temperature and humidity of the environment, the amount of deformation also changes with time, especially for large parts. Therefore, it is advisable to glue the front panels, doors of various cabinets from two pieces of plastic, cutting them out of sheets that are symmetrically deformed, and it is better with a bulge towards the decorative coating, so that tearing loads would act in the center of the sheets, and not on their edges.

If light-colored plastic is engraved during the manufacture of front panels, removing the decorative layer to a dark base, the inscriptions turn out to be contrasting without additional tinting.

Textolite- pressed cotton fabric impregnated with bakelite varnish. Textolite is produced in the form of sheets with a thickness of 0.5 to 50 mm and rods with a diameter of 8 to 60 mm. Various mounting plates and boards, fastening elements are made from sheets, fastening racks, bushings, rollers, tool handles and other parts are machined from rods.

Fiberglass- this is a textolite based on fiberglass, has increased mechanical strength, especially in bending. It is produced in the form of sheets with a thickness of 0.5 to 2.5 mm. Foiled fiberglass (one- and two-sided) finds the greatest application. It is used in the same way as getinaks. If necessary, a sheet of fiberglass can be stratified.

It must be borne in mind that the dust that is formed during the processing (cutting, filing, sanding) of fiberglass is very harmful to health. Therefore, work and clean the workplace should be in a respirator or at least in a multilayer gauze bandage.

Organic glass- thermoplastic plastic - a widespread and available material. Two main brands are produced - TOSP and SOL.

TOSP brand glass there are colorless and colored transparent, as well as colored opaque. Color: red, orange, yellow, green, blue. Differs in resistance to aggressive environments.

SOL brand glass- only colorless transparent, has better electrical insulating properties, and consequently, low water absorption, so it is worse for deep coloring.

Organic glass polished by hand with a clean and dry cloth or cloth with tooth powder. To obtain a shiny mirror surface, organic glass is finally polished with fine-grained polishing mixtures, for example, GOI paste. The use of toothpaste also gives good results.

In mechanical polishing, it is necessary to use a semi-oval circle made of cotton, and not made of cloth, since if the part is carelessly pressed sharply against the cloth rotating circle, the polished surface can be easily melted. It is very difficult to eliminate such a flaw, and sometimes impossible.

Celluloid sometimes amateurs still use it for decorative finishing of scales, nameplates, elements and details of cases. This material can be identified by the smell of camphor, which becomes especially noticeable if you run a file or a knife blade along the edge of the sheet. When heated to 90-100 ° C, celluloid softens and becomes plastic, and when cooled, it hardens again. Celluloid parts are firmly glued with nitro glue and well polished. But celluloid is flammable and, moreover, turns yellow under the influence of sunlight, therefore, if possible, celluloid is replaced by another, similar to it, but non-combustible and more durable plastic - triacetate film. Triacetate films in most cases are produced transparent. The technology of dyed celluloid and triacetate film is shown below.

Sheet marking. It is advisable to make the markup first on a separate sheet of paper (preferably with a millimeter grid) on a scale of 1: 1. All contour lines of the future part are applied to the sheet, holes and other elements are marked. The drawing is fixed on the workpiece and the necessary points are skewed onto the material with a center punch, in which holes are then drilled. This marking method keeps the workpiece surface smooth, without scratches and unnecessary traces.

To mark holes on thermoplastic, especially on organic glass, it is better to use not a center punch, but a special attachment for a soldering iron tip or a special replaceable tip. The holes are even, the organic glass does not crack. The depth of the holes depends on the duration of the touch of the nozzle to the part, the temperature of the nozzle and is determined empirically. For holes with a diameter of I - 10 mm, the sharpening angle of the nozzle should be 30-45 °, and for holes with a diameter of 15-25 mm - 100-1200.

In the manufacture of round parts, marking is done using a marking compass. So that the leg of the compass does not leave a trace in the center of the circle, it should be installed in a teat stuck in a washing gum. In this way, it is possible to mark out details of a more complex shape, if its elements are arcs of circles.

Sheet material cutting it is possible with a different tool, depending on the specific conditions, the configuration of the part, the grade of material, etc. The most convenient are special cutters made from an old hacksaw blade.

The cutter is driven along the edge of a tightly pressed ruler, and repeatedly. After the cutter is deepened by 0.2-0.3 mm, the ruler can be removed. Having made an incision on a third of the thickness of the sheet, the sheet is filed along the edges with a hacksaw, the workpiece is turned over and the operation is repeated on the reverse side. After that, putting the sheet on the table so that the cut line coincides with the edge of the table, break the sheet. The fracture is processed with a flat file. The cutter, the design of which is described in paragraph 6.14, allows you to cut round holes of large diameter.

Details of complex configuration have to be cut with a jigsaw using a hacksaw blade for metal.

Organic glass can be cut with ordinary thread No. 00. The thread is pulled in a hacksaw blade machine or in a jigsaw. Cut like a hacksaw. In this way, it is possible to perform curly cutting of organic glass with great accuracy. For curly cutting, you can also use a piece of nichrome length nickel wire with a diameter of 0.2-0.3 mm, stretched on insulators in a hacksaw blade machine or in a jigsaw and connected to the mains through a step-down transformer and an adjustable autotransformer. The temperature of the wire must be selected empirically by changing the voltage applied to it.

Glass cutting is done with a diamond or a glass cutter. This operation is simple and does not require much explanation. If the right tool is not at hand, you can use a quartz plate from a faulty resonator with a piece of corundum stone (from a bar or circle) or even a piece of a file. But sometimes it becomes necessary to cut out a part of a non-rectilinear configuration from glass. To do this, a contour is applied with the need for a shape or a drawing made on paper is placed under the glass, but in both cases so that one side of the drawing is on the edge of the workpiece. This edge is filed with a triangular personal file or a diamond file. Then, with a red-hot (at full heat) tip of the burning device, slowly, starting from the file, circle the drawn contour. Under the red-hot sting, a crack is continuously formed, visible to the naked eye. Next, the excess glass is broken off in small sections with the help of pliers (better, by immersing the glass in water). The edges can be sanded with an abrasive block. Then you need to boil the glass in water for at least an hour and let it cool in water to remove residual mechanical stresses. Otherwise, cracks may appear.

Instead of a burning device, you can use specially prepared charcoal folders. Birch charcoal is crushed into a fine powder and kneaded on a thick and warm paste, and even better on gum arabic. Thin sticks are rolled from the resulting dough-like mass. Dried sticks are ready to use. The coal tick is set on fire, inflated, applied to the edge of the glass and led along the contour of the pattern behind the resulting crack.

Glass drilling always done through a conductor (a metal plate 4-5 mm thick with a hole corresponding to the diameter of the drill), tightly pressed against the glass. The glass should lie on a hard and even surface. Drill with a hand drill in one of the following ways, without pressing hard and reducing the pressure when the drill exits.

1st way. Drilled with a regular drill. But it is first re-hardened, for which the tip is heated to white, then it is pressed into the sealing wax with quick movements until the sealing wax stops melting. The drilling site must be continuously moistened with the following composition (in mass fractions) camphor - 8, turpentine - 12, ether - 3.

2nd way. They drill with a flat drill, sharpened with a spatula (preferably re-hardened), rotating the drill alternately in one direction and the other. As an emulsion, you can use silicate glue (liquid glass). Change the emulsion as soon as it becomes cloudy.

3rd way. The drill can be a copper tube of suitable diameter, slightly expanded at the end with a center punch or other suitable tool. A few drops of silicate glue with emery powder (preferably corundum) are applied to the drilling site. When drilling, the mixture is periodically updated.

4th way. If it is necessary to drill a hole with a diameter of 6.5 mm, you can use a carbide roller from a glass cutter as a drill, fixing a rod or tube with a diameter of 4-5 mm on the rivet axis in the slot (Fig. 1). The drilling site is moistened with water. Drilling a hole in this way in glass 6 mm thick takes 4-6 minutes.

Fig.1. Glass cutter roller drill: 1 - carbide roller, 2 - rivet axle, 3 - rod or tube

5th way. The place on the glass where you want to make a hole is thoroughly washed from dirt and grease with gasoline, acetone or alcohol. Then wet fine sand is poured in and with a stick sharpened in the form of a truncated cone, a funnel is made in the wet sand, which takes out the glass. Molten lead or solder is poured into the mold prepared in this way. After 2-3 minutes, the sand and the cone of solidified lead or solder are removed - there will be a through hole in the glass. If the glass has a high thermal strength, you need to try to increase the thermal shock. To do this, the following can be done: firstly, increase the depth of the funnel to 20-30 mm, so that the mass of molten metal would have a large heat capacity; secondly, put the glass on a pillow of the same wet sand, forming a funnel of the appropriate diameter in the place of the future hole; thirdly, if possible, pre-cool the sand and glass; fourthly, use a more refractory metal, such as zinc. It should be borne in mind that glasses of small thickness (up to 3-3.5 mm) are amenable to such processing.

Drilling plastic. When drilling holes in plastic, especially in decorative laminate and getinax, the material on the reverse side is often chipped. To prevent this from happening, you should first use a drill, the diameter of which is approximately half that required. Then, with a drill, the diameter of which is 0.5-1.0 mm larger than the required one and the sharpening angle is 60-90 °, countersink the holes obtained on both sides and finally ream them with a drill of the required diameter. This method completely eliminates the risk of chips and cracks and makes it possible to obtain accurate, clean holes that do not require any additional processing.

Threading in plastics can also be done with a homemade tap. To do this, take a steel stud, screw or bolt with the required thread and file the end (2-5 mm) into a cone. The head of the screw (bolt) is cut off with a trihedral file with the help of a drill, and the grinding wheel of the corresponding profile is made 3-4 cuts along the 6olt to get cutting edges.

The shank of the manufactured tap can be sharpened under the knob or, having cut a slot 2-4 mm wide to it, insert a metal bar and solder it.

Quite satisfactory results, especially for threads M4 and less, can be obtained without sawing through the cutting edges, but by sawing off the screw thread or ": studs on both sides. In order for the thread to be cut to be cleaner, the thread of the manufactured tap must be “passed” with the corresponding bird or nut. A hairpin, bolt or vit is taken from a threaded one; instead of threaded

Bending of sheet thermoplastic material(organic glass, polystyrene, vinyl plastic, etc.) can be carried out only by heating the material, and a good bend of the correct shape is obtained only with uniform heating of the sheet at the bend on both sides at a width of 5-15 mm, depending on the thickness of the sheet.

For heating, strips of the desired width from thin aluminum foil are applied to the plastic sheet on both sides along the bend line and pressed. The ends of the strips are connected to the outputs of a step-down transformer (6-15 V), the network winding of which is connected through a laboratory autotransformer, and the required voltage is selected. Overheating should not be allowed, as this may change the transparency or color of the material along the bend line noticeably. As soon as the material warms up, the foil is removed, the sheet is bent to the required angle and the workpiece is kept until it cools completely.

getinax, plastic, textolite, plexiglass, fiberglass, celluloid, plastics, polystyrene, vinyl plastic, nylon, capron, dederon, acrylate, etc. - processing, production of art crafts and souvenirs

Thermoplastic casting. The raw material for casting is secondary raw materials from polyamides (old nylon stockings, rags from nylon nylon, silon, dederon, dacron, fishing veins, etc.), acrylates (acrylic plastics, organic glass), polystyrene. On stockings made of nylon, it is necessary to cut off the seams, toe and heel, as they are often made with the addition of another material.

The raw material is carefully degreased in a 10% soda solution at a temperature of 50-60 CC for 1 hour, then washed in warm water, dried, crushed (the solid material is crushed to particles less than 5 mm in size) and loaded into a press machine.
The design of a homemade press machine is shown in fig. 2. The press machine is made from a piece of brass pipe with soldered
m bottom to bottom. In the upper part of the pipe, in special slots, there is a crossbar with a central threaded hole M10 or M12, where a pin bent in the form of the letter G is screwed in (you can use a screw from a clamp). With the help of this pin or screw, a piston moves in the pipe, which squeezes the softened material through the sprue into the mold prepared for casting.

Fig.2. The design of a homemade press machine

The raw material softens at a temperature of 30-200 °C. To heat the internal volume of the press machine, a straightened spiral from a household electric stove is wound on the generatrix of the cylinder, and under its base a straightened spiral from a household electric stove is guessed on a layer of mica. The spiral is wrapped with a paste made from crumbs of mica or asbestos and silicate glue. Then the cylinder is wrapped with an asbestos cord and installed on a wooden base, placing an asbestos sheet under it. To regulate the heating temperature, the spiral is connected to the mains through the LATR and an isolation transformer (in order to ensure electronic safety).

To obtain various decorative edgings, it is necessary to make dies of the desired configuration. The die is screwed onto the sprue. The extruded mass takes on the profile of the die opening. The mass released from the die must be cooled in water. In this way it is possible to obtain various insulating gaskets and edgings from PVC. The softening temperature of PVC is 30-100 C.

Casting from denture plastics. Dental plastics of the acrylic group (for example, protacryl) are an excellent material for the manufacture of handles and keys, plain bearings, decorative elements and many other details.

Protacryl- self-hardening plastic based on acrylic polymers of the powder-liquid type. This plastic is resistant to abrasion (not inferior to capron) and has high adhesion. It produces good plain bearings for miniature mechanical devices (motors, gearboxes, etc.), which do not require lubrication, and work for a long time without noticeable wear. The electrical characteristics of this material (without filler) are slightly higher than those of organic glass.

Molds for producing parts from this plastic can be made from tin, papier-mâché wood (p. 4.16, recipe 6), clay, plasticine, gypsum and other materials.

Gypsum produces sufficiently wear-resistant molds for repeated use; manufacturing process: characterized by low labor intensity. Gypsum is preliminarily sifted, stirred in cold water until a creamy cash register is formed. A box of suitable size is half washed down with gypsum. Half of the model is pressed into liquid plaster, having previously lubricated it with a thick soapy solution, so that later it can be removed without destroying the molds. After hardening along the edges of the mold, without touching the contour of the model, 2-3 shallow holes are drilled, which will guide the day of the other half of the mold. This half of the mold, including the hole guides, is smeared with a thick soapy solution and dried. Then the second portion of gypsum is kneaded and poured into a box. When the plaster hardens, the mold halves are carefully separated and the model is removed.

After that, both halves of the mold are carefully coated with an anti-adhesive agent: lubricated with silicone oil or rubbed with graphite powder. Somewhat worse results are given by ordinary sunflower oil. The prepared plastic is poured into the first and second halves of the mold and both halves are folded to the guides. The form is tightly tightened with a clamp or wrapped with a thin wire and placed in a bowl of cold water. Water is slowly heated and brought to a boil.

Heat treatment of parts from protacryl by such methods is carried out for 1.5-2 hours, and it is better to do this 1-2 days after pouring the plastic into the mold, that is, when the preliminary polymerization in the deep layers of the plastic is completely completed.

At the end of the heat treatment, the mold is cooled, opened and the manufactured part is removed from it. If required, the part is further processed. To increase the durability of molds, crushed asbestos is added to gypsum.

When manufacturing a batch of parts, it is necessary to use a metal mold. The model in this case is prepared from aluminum or duralumin. The first half of the mold is cast from lead or hart (printing alloy), the second half from an alloy of lead and low-melting denture alloy (or low-melting solder) in a ratio of 1:1.

If it is necessary to make duplicates of any plastic part, then first a plaster mold is made from the original and a lead duplicate of the part is cast. A metal mold is made from a duplicate) "one half - from an alloy of lead and low-melting solder, the second - from low-melting solder.

Homemade "plastics" used in the manufacture of equipment design details (cases, boxes, platbands, frames), various auxiliary parts (racks, brackets, clips), handles of various tools, as well as for filling holes in abrasive wheels, etc.

These plastics are convenient in that not materials are obtained from them, but finished parts. This significantly reduces the complexity of the process. True, you have to make a model or a mold, but this pays off with the simplicity of processing the finished part. A model (form) is made from an easily workable material, such as soft wood, foam plastic, and covered with a thin layer of paraffin or wax paste, prepared as for waxing wood.

The preparation of such plastics and work with them are not difficult. Below are a few recipes:

1st recipe Fiberglass and epoxy glue are excellent materials for the manufacture of various cases, decorative architraves, and frames.

The model is covered with paraffin or plain paper, fix it with any glue on areas as small as possible, for example, at several points, so that the finished product is easier to compress. Then the first layer of fiberglass is laid and glue is applied to it; put the next layer and make sure that it is well saturated with glue. Impregnation improves if the fiberglass is pressed (smoothed or as if pierced) with a stiff brush lightly soaked in acetone. It is not recommended to lay more than 4-6 layers of fiberglass at one time. Before continuing work, the surface is sanded until fiberglass fibers are found, otherwise the following molded layers, including putty, will not hold well. Preparation for the next stage of coating can be simplified if, when finishing work, powder the last layer with wood flour - dry, finely sifted sawdust or even ordinary flour, preferably rye.

2nd recipe. Homemade "textolite" can also be made on a conventional fabric base impregnated with glue. Apply carpentry or casein glue, but always with the addition of an antiseptic agent. Instead of glue, you can use thickened nitro-lacquer or nitro-paint.

Cases for instruments, various casings, rear walls and other parts are made from home-made textolite. For small details, cotton or silk knitwear is used (old but clean T-shirts, shirts, etc. are suitable). For large structures, it is better to use burlap.

The fabric is stretched over a model protected from tissue adhesion, hooked and smeared with glue; then the next layer of fabric is stretched, etc. Carpentry glue is best used when hot. It is convenient to fasten the fabric with long shoe nails, as they are easier to remove when attaching the next layer. Excess material on the roundings of the form is cut off so that the fabric at the cut lines can be sewn end-to-end and so that the joints of the top layer do not coincide with the seams of the bottom. Each subsequent layer is stretched and fastened with nails, after removing the nails that fastened the previous layer. 4-8 layers are laid in this way and dried for 8-10 days.

Next, the workpiece, without removing it from the model, puttied with a mixture of hot carpentry glue with neck chalk talc and finally dried. You can also use other putty, produced for woodworking or prepared according to one of the recipes given in table. 5.1. The putty layer should be no more than 0, "2-0.3 mm, i.e., in order to only hide all the irregularities and the structure of the material. Complete drying occurs after 20-25 days, after which there is no danger of warping of the workpieces. The dried workpiece is cleaned with sandpaper, cut off the edge on it and remove it from the model.Remove carefully, using a wide chisel as a lever.You can separate the workpiece from the model, passing between them, for example, a metal measuring ruler.The removed workpiece is primed and painted on both sides.For final finishing, it is better to use nitro-varnishes or nitro-paints with an appropriate primer, as they dry quickly and the part does not have time to warp.After painting, the part is polished to a mirror finish.

3rd recipe. Home-made "plastic" from strips of paper can be used to make cases, case covers, back walls of a complex profile, spherical loudspeaker cases. For small-sized structures, strips of newsprint can be used, for large-sized structures, thin wallpapers can be used.

The model is covered with a thin layer of paraffin and the first layer of paper strips soaked in hot water is applied to it. Then glue the strips of paper for the next layer. You can use various adhesives, but preference should be given to carpentry or casein glue with the obligatory addition of antiseptics.
The paper is allowed to soak properly with glue. If the paper has absorbed the glue, it is smeared again. The next layer of strips is glued perpendicular to the strips of the previous layer. Having pasted 4-5 layers in this way, intermediate drying is done during the day. The process is repeated several times until the required thickness is obtained. The dried billet is further processed in the same way as recommended in the 2nd recipe.

4th recipe Thoroughly mix 65 mass fractions of fine sawdust and 35 magnesite. The mixture is poured with 0.1 34% magnesium chloride solution and stirred until a homogeneous pasty state. The main way to obtain blanks from this "plastic" is casting into molds and molds. When hardening, the “plastic” acquires a sufficiently high strength and at the same time it is well processed: it is easy to saw, drill and grind. It is usually used for the manufacture of: racks, brackets, for filling holes in abrasive wheels, etc.

5th recipe. Small sawdust and ground talc are mixed in a mass ratio of 5: 2, poured with prepared wood glue (sour cream consistency) and thoroughly mixed until a doughy state. It is desirable to introduce into the OD-0.5 mixture a mass fraction of aluminum or aluminum alum, which prevent the appearance of mold and thereby maintain the strength of the "plastic". In order for the "plastic" to be more plastic, it is necessary to introduce 0.5 mass fraction of natural drying oil into it.

You can replace carpentry glue with casein glue, in which you need to introduce an antiseptic agent.
This "plastic" is less durable than that prepared according to the 4th recipe. From it, it is possible to produce parts that are not subjected to large mechanical loads, platbands, frames, various decorative elements, etc. If desired, the “plastic” can be dyed by adding an aniline dye of the desired color to its composition.

After drying, the manufactured part, if required, is puttied, sanded and painted, and it is better to prepare the putty based on the glue that was used to make the “plastic” itself.

A more durable and quick-drying "plastic" is obtained if, instead of glue, I used thickened or thickened nitrolac (nitro-paint). Details from this "plastic" are also made by drinking.

6th recipe During the preparation of papier-mâché, newsprint is crushed, brewed with boiling water and kept in hot water for 1-2 days. When a suspension of fine consistency is formed, the water is filtered off and the mass is dried. Dried: the mass easily turns into a powder, which serves as the basis for papier-mâché. The powder (10 mass fractions) is mixed with finely sifted chalk or talc (3) and poured with a paste prepared from dry carpentry nibble: (2) and wheat flour (3). For antiseptics, 0.2 mass fractions of aluminum or potassium alum must be added to the paste. The mass can be dyed with aniline dyes.

The prepared mass is applied to the model, pre-coated with paraffin. Parts can be cast into molds or moulds. After complete drying, the part is treated with sandpaper so that there are no irregularities, primed and painted.

7th recipe."Plastic" with better mechanical properties than papier-mâché can be obtained using the following components (in mass fractions): dry paper pulp - 5; joiner's glue (dry) - 28; finely screened chalk - 60; glycerol - 2.5; ethyl alcohol-3.5; dry ocher - 1.0. Dry paper pulp is poured with a warm solution of wood glue, chalk, glycerin, alcohol and ocher are added with constant stirring. After thorough mixing, the resulting mass should not stick to the hands. The further process is similar to the preparation and processing of "plastic" described in the 5th or 6th recipe.

8th recipe. "Plastic" with good insulating properties can be prepared with 60 mass fractions of cottage cheese and 40 quicklime.

Fresh cottage cheese is wrapped in a clean cloth and put under pressure for several hours to squeeze well. The squeezed cottage cheese is rubbed and poured into a deep glass vessel, the lime is carefully ground separately and sent in small portions to the cottage cheese, stirring the mass with a wooden stick. Reacting with lime, the curd forms a casein mass - a thick "syrup" that quickly hardens. "Syrup" is poured into molds. Forms should be greased with petroleum jelly or oil. Casein "plastic" has more strength if it hardens under pressure.

It should be borne in mind that with a poor quality of quicklime, the solidification of the mass occurs slowly and is accompanied by an abundant release of moisture, the excess of which must be removed. In this case, the ratio of components should be clarified empirically.
Celluloid and triacetate films can be dyed by boiling them for several hours in water containing an organic dye for fabrics such as aniline. However, this method is laborious and does not always give the desired shade of color. One method of surface dyeing of these materials is to treat them in a hot acetic acid solution containing the dye. If the photographic film is dyed, then it is pre-treated with substances that decompose gelatin, for example, with a hot alkali solution. Washing out of the emulsion can be accelerated by brushing the film.

The concentration of the dye solution and the approximate dyeing time are given in table. 1. The dye is poured with a large amount of boiled hot water and stirred until a homogeneous mass (infusions) is obtained. Then add the rest of the hot water and 50 ml of acetic acid (95%) to the paste. Instead of acid, you can take 60 ml of vinegar essence per 940 ml of water or 550 ml of table vinegar (9%) per 450 ml of water. The solution is filtered through several layers of gauze, poured into an enamel pan and covered with a lid. Before painting, the surface must be sanded, degreased with gasoline or alcohol and dried. It is also useful to additionally wash the product in a hot powder solution for: washing natural silk fabrics (2 mass fractions of powder per 100 water), and then in warm water. The product is immersed in a dye solution heated to 40-50 ° C, and make sure that it does not touch the bottom of the dish.

Depth staining of organic glass allows you to get an evenly and firmly painted surface while maintaining the texture of the material. Coloring is carried out in water-alcohol solutions of dispersed dyes. The process is simple and allows you to get rich shades.

Before painting, the surface of the products must be thoroughly cleaned, otherwise an even color and tone may not be obtained. The surface is wiped with a soft cloth swab dipped in gasoline or alcohol, dried and immersed for 15 minutes in an aqueous solution of detergent. The temperature of the solution should be in the range of 50-60 °C. Then the product is thoroughly rinsed in cold water and immediately transferred to the dye solution, which is prepared as follows: mix until a homogeneous mass (paste) is formed 5-15 g of disperse dye (when choosing a color, you can be guided by Table 4 1), 2-3 g neutral washing powder (for washing natural silk fabrics) and 20-30 g of alcohol (ethyl, butyl or benzyl) and add hot water to a volume equal to one) "liter. After thorough mixing, the solution is filtered through a nylon fabric folded in half (you can use a nylon stocking) .

One of the conditions for good staining is the protection of the solution from contamination, its continuous mixing during operation, periodic filtration during repeated use and the addition of alcohol as the solution is consumed. Color saturation depends not only on the temperature of the solution, but also on the duration of dyeing. To obtain an average color saturation, the dyeing time should be 15-20 minutes.

After dyeing, the product is thoroughly rinsed in cold water and dried.

Coloring should be done in dishes made of materials that are resistant to the dye used (glass, porcelain), otherwise the color may not turn out juicy, and the dishes will be damaged. You can also use enamelware.
Surface coloring of organic glass makes it possible to obtain a film containing a dye and directly associated with the surface of organic glass, since the composition of the dyes used includes glass-dissolving substances. The coating is durable and well polished. There are many coloring recipes, of which we will give the five most acceptable in amateur practice.

1st recipe. The dye of the desired color, from the set of aniline paints, is dissolved in acetic acid, adding it little by little until the desired shade of color is obtained. The solutions are filtered and mixed in a 1:1 volume ratio with a mixture of toluene (70% by volume) and dichloroethane (30%). The resulting mixture is again filtered and organic glass chips are dissolved in it in such an amount that the resulting dye can be sprayed with a spray gun. The dye is applied to the surface of organic glass in several layers at intervals of 10-15 minutes.

2nd recipe. Mix 30% (by volume) dichloroethane, 60% benzene and 10% acetic acid. In this composition, the paint is dissolved. The solution is filtered and chips or sawdust of organic glass are added to it. Coloring is also done with a spray gun.

3rd recipe. In 10 volume fractions of vinegar essence I dissolve 1 g of paste for ballpoint pens. With a smaller amount of paste, the solution wets the painted surface worse. To obtain a more saturated color, the content of the pass in the solution is increased. You can use superimposed ballpoint pen refills by cutting them into pieces 6-10 mm long and placing them in a bottle of vinegar essence. To speed up the dissolution of the paste, the vial must be periodically shaken vigorously.

The dye is applied to the glass with a soft brush with longitudinal non-overlapping strokes. The dye flows well, forming a uniform layer.

4th recipe. In 6 volume fractions of vinegar essence, dissolve 1 fraction of sawdust or organic glass shavings and add a paste for ballpoint pens. It is better to apply the composition with a spray gun.

5th recipe Dissolve the required amount of ballpoint pen paste in dichloroethane. Apply * the solution to the surface of the part: using a spray gun, but you can also use a soft brush or a soft cloth swab.
Products painted according to the above recipes are dried for at least a day. All operations must be performed outdoors or in a fume hood. Store prepared dyes in a well-sealed container (preferably with a ground stopper)

Coloring of organic glass in a milky color is made by immersing it in concentrated sulfuric acid for 1-10 minutes. (Glass brand TOSP, resistant to aggressive environments, cannot be treated in this way.) When held for 1-3 minutes, the surface of organic glass does not lose its gloss and acquires a milky color. If the glass is etched further, then its surface becomes white and slightly matte. As the exposure time to the acid increases, the white layer becomes thicker. If this layer is not deep enough, the process can be repeated. After treatment in acid, organic glass is thoroughly washed in running water and dried. Rinse carefully, as the resulting layer is soft and can be easily damaged. It should also be borne in mind that the mechanical strength of the surface layer during deep processing is insufficient even after drying. To leave transparent places on the product, these surfaces are covered with a thin layer of wax. After washing and drying, the wax is removed

If the etching time is increased, for example, to 20-30 minutes, then after drying, the surface wrinkles and takes on the appearance as if it was covered with "moire" varnish. Organic glass treated in this way can be colored as described above.
Coloring of the insulation of installation wires of the MGShV, MGV and PMV types (polyvinyl chloride white insulation) can be carried out in an aqueous solution of a dye for nylon, wool or cotton fabric, and when using a dye for wool or cotton fabric, the color of the insulation is different than the color of the dye. So, for example, in black dye, the wire insulation becomes orange, in blue or cornflower blue - yellow.

The coloring solution is prepared by dissolving a package of dye in 2-3 liters of warm water. A coil of wire to be painted is immersed in a solution heated to 85-90 ° C. The color is determined by the control segment of the same wire, periodically removing it from the solution. After dyeing, the wire is washed in cold running water.

To prevent the solution from getting under the insulation, the ends of the wire should be sealed before painting. To do this, the insulation is melted at the ends in a flame or the ends are lowered for a few seconds into Unicum, Moment-1 or BF glue and dried.

On a note:

A small sheet of fiberglass can be stratified from the fragility with a non-sharp knife and divided into two thin sheets. Foiled fiberglass also lends itself to this technique.

One-sided foil fiberglass can be made double-sided by gluing two blanks with epoxy glue or, in extreme cases, with BF-2 glue. The surfaces to be bonded must be carefully cleaned with a coarse-grained sandpaper. If the material is thick, you can pre-laminate its thinnest sheets (clause 4.22).
After two thermal shocks and drying, mica is easily glued into plates up to 0.02 mm thick. To do this, the mineral must be heated to 400-600 ° C, immediately cooled in water and the operation repeated.

In the manufacture: and repair of various equipment and tools, especially soldering irons, it is sometimes necessary to bend the mica gasket with a small bend radius. In order for mica to become more elastic, not to break or crumble, it must be calcined, heated to a light yellow color and allowed to cool slowly.

Bonding dissimilar plastics, such as organic glass or polystyrene with celluloid, is difficult because dichloroethane, which dissolves organic glass and polystyrene, does not dissolve celluloid, and acetone (celluloid solvent) does not dissolve organic glass. A mixture of acetone-based adhesive with dichloroethane-based adhesive does not provide high bonding strength. The strength of the adhesive joint, equal to the strength of the materials being glued, can be obtained if the celluloid part is lubricated with acetone glue, and the part made of organic glass or polystyrene with dichloroethane. After the glue has dried, each part is smeared again with the appropriate glue and pressed one to the other. Final drying is carried out at room temperature for 4 hours.

In the absence of dichloroethane, small parts made of organic glass can be glued together with an aerosol insect repellent - dichlorvos. It must be remembered that such a "glue" is no less toxic than dichloroethane. Therefore, the work is carried out only in the open air, observing the rules for handling dichlorvos, and the resulting compound, after it hardens, is thoroughly washed with a brush with soap and water.

Garlic juice adheres well to tightly fitting, even surfaces of glass and plastic. To do this, coat the parts to be glued with a cut garlic clove. The place of gluing remains transparent.
Fluoroplast is glued together by none of the adhesives used so far in everyday life.

Moment-1, 88N, Unicum adhesives are most suitable for gluing or gluing parts made of microporous rubber, since they create a “flexible” adhesive seam.

Softness and elasticity can be restored to old rubber products by immersing them for 20-30 minutes in a weak solution of ammonia or for 1-2 hours in pure kerosene. At the same time, it should be remembered that a long stay of rubber in kerosene not only softens it, but also significantly increases its volume. Softened rubber should be washed in warm water with detergent and wiped dry.
The progress of a crack in organic glass can be stopped if a hole with a diameter of 2-3 mm is drilled at the end of the crack.
Organic glass of some brands, after boiling for several hours in water, acquires a milky color, alone! care must be taken to ensure that the material does not deform when heated.

You can polish glass with a set of abrasive powders. Scratches and other damages on the glass are preliminarily polished - first with a coarse-grained, then fine-grained powder. After that, the surface is polished with a paste, which is prepared by mixing a fine-grained abrasive with a thick lubricant. You can also use an aqueous suspension. If there are no powders, then fine-grained corundum waterproof sandpaper is suitable for grinding, and GOI paste, green gouache of eider crocus (calcined and crushed iron oxide) are suitable for polishing.

Round glasses can be cut out by attaching a roller from a glass cutter to one sponge of a shtash-en1girkul that has served its time. Another sponge through the washer and rubber lining must be supported on the glass. The roller is rolled several times in a circle, after which 3-4 tangents are made with a conventional glass cutter, which facilitates chipping the glass along the boundaries of the cuts. Sharp edges are cleaned with a file, go with an abrasive stone under water (or under running water).

So that when cutting glass or plastic, the metal ruler does not slip, it is enough to glue a few pieces of thin rubber to it.

If sticky tape or even wet newspaper is stuck along the groove made by the glass cutter, then tapping is less likely to ruin the glass.

Even the smallest pieces of glass in the workplace can be removed with a piece of plasticine.
If, when cutting rubber, I periodically lubricated the blade of the knife with soap, and it will be easier to solve, and the edges will turn out smoother.
Resins with fillers and colorants are a good material for cold casting. From it you can make an exact copy of a broken handle or other part of the device, make new ones. Miniature plug connectors can be soldered directly to the end of the wire using special molds). In many cases, you can get by with a plasticine mold by making an imprint of the desired part in it.

DRC

Every PCB manufacturer has technology restrictions on minimum trace widths, trace spacing, hole diameters, and so on. If the board does not meet these restrictions, the manufacturer refuses to accept the board for production.

When creating a PCB file, the default technology limits are set from the default.dru file in the dru directory. As a rule, these limits do not correspond to the limits of real manufacturers, so they need to be changed. You can set the limits just before generating the Gerber files, but it's better to do it right after the board file is generated. To set restrictions, press the DRC button

gaps

Distances

Minimum dimensions

Belts

masks

Running a check

Gerber file generation

For a drill file, the output device ( device) should be EXCELLON, but not GERBER_RS274X