Pre-sensitised PCBs

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Needed some PCB material with the photo resist coating - the sort you use for making your own. I ran out a couple of months ago - and that 'stock' was several years old, just stored indoors in a drawer. The new stuff came from CPC - after Maplin, who are cheaper for apparently the same stuff - f***ked up by taking ages to deliver - then sending the wrong bits. CPC delivered this morning after ordering yesterday.

But what I noted on the CPC blurb is the shelf life is only 6 months when stored between 10-20C. Are they just being conservative? As I said the last stuff worked perfectly after more than that in years.

[Graham.]

Wrap it in cling-film and keep it in the fridge.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I'd need a fridge the size of the house if I used that advice for everything it's given for. ;-)

[whisky-dave]

"Photoresist. Fotoboard is 1/16" thick, 1 oz copper. It has a minimum shelf life of one year "

Other makes might differ of course

[Andrew Mawson]

Well your experience is encouraging Dave, as I have some in a drawer that is at least 6 years old, possibly 8 !

AWEM

[The Other John]

As it's designed to be UV sensitive, provided you keep it in the dark it should last for ages IMHO.

TOJ.

[Tricky Dicky]

We used to buy Rapid's economy board at the start of the academic year and this performed well, but we noted as the year went on there were more failures and etching times increased even when using fresh enchant.

Richard

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I've only ever used the Maplin stuff - I don't use that much. And could pick it up from the local shop. Since I had all the data sussed to give excellent results, I didn't want to change in case those changed. And it is perhaps surprisingly cheaper than CPC. However my local shop no longer stocks it - mail order only.