(insert joke about "showing etchings")

Ms. S, Mr. B and I had an evening of circuit board etching at S' house. I had picked up a few make-your-own-circuit-board kits from radio shack, but our theremin schematic was not going to fit within the kit's 3" by 5" size. Unsure of our accumen anyway, we decided to do a test run, using our recently purchased circuit board dry transfers and special purpose etch resist marking device.

After leaving the board in the etching solution for the recommended 20 minutes, very little of the board was exposed, although the transfers had clearly blocked a lot of the process. I was certain that this level of etching was sufficient, but Mr B quite accurately assessed that we need to keep them in longer. After about another 30 minutes, we had properly etched test boards.

I wanted to try out my smallest drill bit to see if it would work for fine electronic drilling. Oh, it did. I need a variable speed drill, I now realize.

A night of much edification. We are prepared to make the *real* circuit boards on wednesday (once I buy some bigger boards).