13 Apr
2010
13 Apr
'10
11:33 a.m.
On 13 Apr 2010 at 10:28, dwight elvey wrote:
Plating is a little bit science and a lot of
knowledge. Most of
us have bench supplies that could be used for plating. What
we need is some of the know-how to get something working.
What materials would I need? What current rate for specific
area is practical? What do I paint in the holes to get the plating
started? Dwight
Commercial houses use a witches' brew of stannous chloride, followed
by palladium, followed by electroless copper to get plated vias.
Probably more than you'd want for casual use.
Multicore used to offer a "Copperset" system; basically fine solder
that's been copper-plated. Stick in into a via, flare the ends and
heat to firmly solder. I've been toying with plating some solder and
trying this. I think the Copperset system went defunct because of
RoHS issues (Multicore is a UK company).
Pulsar still offers copper rivets and there's discussion in their
tech support forum about using winshield defogger repair ink to make
"plated through, sort of" vias.
--Chuck