this post was submitted on 15 Jul 2026
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DIY PCB making, milling or chemical etching? (discuss.tchncs.de)
submitted 2 weeks ago by Rolive@discuss.tchncs.de to c/askelectronics@discuss.tchncs.de
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Which do you prefer? I have the option to do both but milling seems to take awfully long and produces a lot of noise and glass fiber dust. It has the benefit of not needing etch resist which is also messy.

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

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[–] RedBauble@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 weeks ago

Yeah I know about that kind of approaches but I haven't been able to test them, the resins don't look cheap and I don't make pcbs often enough to justify the cost. But I have tried engraving FR4 to get silkscreens on single sided boards. Decent results, but the smell is awful