Anyone have the trick set up for quickly making quality vias on home (toner transfer) etched boards? They really seem like a PITA.
I’ve been sticking wire into the hole and soldering one side. Then flip the board and solder the other. Sometimes it heats up the pad that’s already soldered on the other side - the wire slides, making a bio-o-mess.
Anyone have any pointers? different methods? Thanks in advance.
That’s the easiest and cheapest way.
Join the Yahoo Homebrew-PCB group if you want to discuss this sort of thing with the experts.
I might have to make my way over to yahoo(if I have to) - but wouldn’t mind discussing it here. Thanks.
Anyone with some insight?
That's the method I've been using for years...except I almost always never need to flip the board to solder the other side. As long as you use a bit of quality RMA flux dabbed on both sides, the solder will flow right thru the hole and wet the pad on the other side. Also, after I put the wire thru the hole, I give it a bend of about 30-ish degrees on both sides so it doesn't slide around, then clip it short after soldering.george graves:
Anyone have the trick set up for quickly making quality vias on home (toner transfer) etched boards? They really seem like a PITA.I’ve been sticking wire into the hole and soldering one side. Then flip the board and solder the other. Sometimes it heats up the pad that’s already soldered on the other side - the wire slides, making a bio-o-mess.
Anyone have any pointers? different methods? Thanks in advance.
It’s all in the flux…
I’ll have to try that. I wonder if solder paste might work the the same effect???..dispense paste from a needle to both sides, and heat one side.
I’ve seen a link to a company that sells very small parts, that look like rivets. Anyone give that a go?
Solder paste won’t work on its own.
Rivets are OK, but are more work. They also require tools to insert them properly, which can be expensive.
george graves:
I’ll have to try that. I wonder if solder paste might work the the same effect???..dispense paste from a needle to both sides, and heat one side.
I made a video of my method which uses paste once, but it’s too blurry to be useful. I’ve explained this a few times, but for some reason nobody has bothered to try it. It does need paste and a hot air station, though.
I have a wooden desk. The vias are drilled so that my 22ga wire fits in snuggly. I lay the PCB flat on the desk and insert the wire into a via and cut it off flush with PCB using side cutters. I can step through all the vias like this. So at the end, all the vias will have a small piece of wire in them. I use the syringe to put a dab of paste on each via then hit it all with hot air. After that I put it in a clip and flip it over. Paste the other side and hit it with hot air again. It’s pretty quick. You need to do all the via’s first and it takes a bit of experimentation to get it working all the time.
http://www.higginstribe.com/uc/msp430/r … 20-001.jpg
I saw a technique once that I loved.
Drill out all your vias.
take your copper wire - super thin - and thread it in one via, then out another then in the next and out the other until you have the wire running through every via. Then solder it - it wont come unsoldered when you switch sides!
Once all your vias are done, cut the wire and you’re all done!
I plan on trying this tonight with some stranded separated into 3-5 strand chunks.
There are brass rivots available for miniature model building. They have .016" diameter and .032" heads. I drop them through .020 vias on the top of the board, solder the top, then put masking tape over them. Then I flip and snip, solder, and remove the tape. I used to lace wire from hole to hole, but I find this technique much quicker. The down side is they are about 10 cents a piece. Between this technique and using an Epson 1400 with special transparency film, my prototype boards look like they come from a board house.
Ron
brucethehoon:
take your copper wire - super thin - and thread it in one via, then out another then in the next and out the other until you have the wire running through every via. Then solder it - it wont come unsoldered when you switch sides!
That’s a great idea! I’ll definitely be giving that a try next time.
RonnyM:
There are brass rivots available for miniature model building. They have .016" diameter and .032" heads. I drop them through .020 vias on the top of the board, solder the top, then put masking tape over them. Then I flip and snip, solder, and remove the tape. I used to lace wire from hole to hole, but I find this technique much quicker. The down side is they are about 10 cents a piece. Between this technique and using an Epson 1400 with special transparency film, my prototype boards look like they come from a board house.Ron
I’m KICKING myself right now. I never realized you could use the eyelets without using the crimper. I was in an AMAZING electronics store in Santa Maria, CA last weekend and found a bag of 500 of them for $4 and didn’t get them because they didn’t have it!
I will say, that the threading technique worked like a charm last night, though. Between that and the solder mask I bought from eBay, my boards are really looking great!
I struggled with this also, but I’ve made a good DIY solution to create copper rivets for Vias. They are easy to place too.
http://paulwanamaker.files.wordpress.co … tsmall.jpg
I have an article about this on http://paulwanamaker.wordpress.com
brucethehoon wrote:
take your copper wire - super thin - and thread it in one via, then out another then in the next and out the other until you have the wire running through every via. Then solder it - it wont come unsoldered when you switch sides!
I was doing that before, but with time some bias lose connection the solution for me was after install the copper wire, cut them short and press each one with a press tool, solder at final to make this most robust.
The wire lacing is OK for some tasks, but if you do alot of RF prototype boards, I think the rivet idea is very good.
Ron
Being someone that is always saving stuff for later if it looks reusable I would always use resistor legs for this, the bits you snip off - put them in a tin and use them for making your own vias.
Yep - the ends are really great. I keep them in a bin called “zero ohm” 
I received some feedback on my DIY Copper Via Rivet article from someone that had experience with rivet failure in old TV PCBs back in the 60’s. (I realize those boards were similar to FR2 (phenolic) so the CTE would be worse than FR4).
I am in the process of building a Thermal Cycling Test Rig to determine the reliability of these rivets in FR4 PCB material. I should have it done over the next week. You can follow along at http://paulwanamaker.wordpress.com
I also find the threading method to be the easiest / fastest.
One thing that helps is to design boards quite differently for home production vs factory production. I make the vias quite large for home boards, about 2-3mm squares, with very small, 0.4mm or so holes. I will drill out with a bit larger than 0.4mm, but the large via area helps if my top / bottom alignment is a bit off, and the extra space helps when threading.
I use a braided audio cable which unravels to very thin (sub 0.1mm) strands that are probably just pure copper. Thread through all the vias, then quickly solder the whole top, then the whole bottom, then cut all the connecting threads from both sides. Once you’ve done it a bit, it only takes a few minutes.
Also when designing the board, if possible I try to put all the vias in a nice line or rows. That makes threading fast / easy.
