Help needed PCB Tinning Machine

[thetrueman]

Please suggest me that is it possible to make small home made PCB tinning machine. Thanks.

[th_sak]

Homemade? I suggest you buy a guillotine paper trimmer for around 50$.

[pickit2]

I would google PCB tinning for where you live, the best method I know is to a chemical bath.
see http://www.rapidonline.com/Tools-Equipment/Tin-plating-crystals-29475



th_sak's Guillotine may come in handy, for other jobs about workshop. (jk)

[Sideshow Bob]

Why do you want to tin your home made PCB. If you want to seal your boards. You can get a PCB coating spray. That also is solder able. I can dig up some vendors if you are interested.

[notes5]

Read :

- http://www.electricstuff.co.uk/pcbs.html

73...

[thetrueman]

Why do you want to tin your home made PCB. If you want to seal your boards. You can get a PCB coating spray. That also is solder able. I can dig up some vendors if you are interested.

Thanks for replies. Actually I want to do it my small qty pcbs 10-100 at home because it takes too much time from PCB maker if I ask him to tin PCBs also it increases sufficient cost.

[solutions]

It takes no extra time and takes almost zero additional cost to tin a board at a vendor.  You are making bad assumptions without checking on facts. Especially since you now need to acquire tooling (yes, even a pot is tooling) and low quantities of material to do your tiny run.

I suspect you may be doing something illegal and do not want anyone to see your artwork.  It's the only rational reason for what you are asking.

[thetrueman]

It takes no extra time and takes almost zero additional cost to tin a board at a vendor.  You are making bad assumptions without checking on facts. Especially since you now need to acquire tooling (yes, even a pot is tooling) and low quantities of material to do your tiny run.

I suspect you may be doing something illegal and do not want anyone to see your artwork.  It's the only rational reason for what you are asking.

solutions did not give any solution rather to imagine illegal things. maybe in ur country it is no cost but here it is costly so I want to make it by myself to start PCB business with cheaper tinning solutions.

I wonder nobody know that there are two rollers, which one is dipped in the melted solder. when we cross the pcb through rollers the solder makes a thin layer on the pcb and it is called tinning.

so can anybody know some site where to see such machine? Thanks.

[bbarney]

Ever here of Google ?  

[Ichan]

Pcb "Tinning"

1. Chemical tinning mostly use stannous tin as a main content of immersion plating process, you can make it your own. The tin coating of this process is very tin, it will degrade quickly by time - the tin will dissolve into copper producing intermetallic copper-tin which is almost un-solderable.

2. Electrolytic Tin plating, good solderability over time but it is been said have a negative effect of Tin Whiskers (google for it). As electrolytic process it must be done before etching.

3. Electrolytic Tin-Lead plating, better than Tin only but difficult to maintain.

4. Roller Tinning, what a know it is for single side board only. One of it in here:
http://www.megauk.com/tinning_and_drying.php (not an advertising please...)

5. HASL (Hot Air Solder Leveling), the widest usage nowaday. The pcb is dipped into molten solder and then sprayed with very hot high pressure air. The machine is big and heavy, I ever had a dream to build a miniature benchtop HASL machine, the detail 3d design of it is ready but then forgotten. I will dig my archive if you are interested, it is an Autodesk Inventor project.

-ichan

[solutions]

solutions did not give any solution rather to imagine illegal things. maybe in ur country it is no cost but here it is costly so I want to make it by myself to start PCB business with cheaper tinning solutions.

It is not costly no matter where you are.  You are just imagining it as costly so you can cut corners in YOUR costs, which are frankly irrelevant if you want customers to come back to you. There are easier ways to steal money and run if that's your goal.

Tin is a very dangerous material for circuit reliability if you don't know what you are doing.

HASL machines and processes are made so you yield surface mount assemblies consistently.

Your, or your customer, costs are product life cycle, which includes manufacturing yield, and reliability returns, not the INEXPENSIVE tinning of a circuit board.

It also sounds like you are not a metallurgist or a manufacturing engineer. You'll lose more than your shirt if you try to cut corners when your customer comes after you. There are reasons why things are done the way they are and reasons why you should not consider doing what you are to cut cost. We've spend over a decade getting tin right, and even now, there are industries that refuse to use it.

[thetrueman]

I ever had a dream to build a miniature benchtop HASL machine, the detail 3d design of it is ready but then forgotten. I will dig my archive if you are interested, it is an Autodesk Inventor project.

-ichan

Sure I'll willing if it is something beneficial. Thanks for all replies.

[Froggy]

Hello!

if i well understand, you want to build a roller tin machine?

i've never seen plans or a DIY machine but if you found one i'll love to see it (i'll not build it but just curious)

the principle looks relatively simple: a roller turn in a melted tin solution and the second one is just here to hold the pcb (it's how i think it work). maybe the first roller have also a heater in it ()

the main problem is the fact of  working with melted metal and the toxics vapors that can be produced

[Sideshow Bob]

solutions did not give any solution rather to imagine illegal things. maybe in ur country it is no cost but here it is costly so I want to make it by myself to start PCB business with cheaper tinning solutions

How will you apply the solder stop layer. That is quite important for SMD type PCBs

[thetrueman]

Froggy got it all. So there are no DIY plans but same idea. If I make it then show here. Thanks.

[Sideshow Bob]

Froggy got it all. So there are no DIY plans but same idea. If I make it then show here. Thanks.

This may give you some ideas
http://cms.diodenring.de/de/electronic/mikrocontroller/95-pcb-diy

[Ichan]

Here is my design of "Benchtop HASL", remember that this is still a conceptual design - never been realized yet.

The link to all the Autodesk Inventor files (3.66 MB) is on the .txt file.

-ichan

[bigtoy]

MG Chemicals has a "liquid tin" product. All you need to do is soak the board in the liquid for 5 minutes. Nothing else required.

http://www.mgchemicals.com/products/421.html

I've personally never used it so I can't vouch for how well it works. But I have used other MG Chemicals products and they've all worked as advertised.

[sgoum]

This is a very fast clean and LOW cost method.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upE12oObR8c