A Guide to make PCB at home

In general PCB has two sides-

1. Front side – Also known as Components side, which is used for placing variety of electronic components.

2. Back side - Also known as Track side, which is printed with electrically conductive pathways for connecting the components.



Following are the things required for making a PCB at home-

1. Copper clad sheet

Copper clad sheet are available in different size and dimensions. You have to select the size of sheet according to your circuit. Always cut the sheet little bigger than the required in your circuit. Thickness of copper clad sheet also plays an important role, used thickness equal to1.2 to 1.5mm approx. Reason being less thickness sheet will start bending during the process of etching.

Copper clad sheet has following two sides-

a. One is known as copper side which has a coating of copper used to make conducting traces and soldering is also done on this side.

b. Another side has plastic or Bakelite coating used for mounting the components.

Note-Before using the copper clad sheet wash it properly. No dirt or water vapor should be present on it. You can also use pencil eraser to clean the surface of PCB.


3. Ferric chloride solution

Also known as FeCl3 used to remove the unwanted copper from the copper clad sheet or used for making conducting path. Time of etching depends on the concentration of FeCl3 mixed with water. Basic ratio used for etching PCB is 50gms of Ferric chloride dissolved in 100ml of water.

Take care while using FeCl3 is a toxic solution and can cause skin burn and irritation so be careful, use hand gloves during etching. If your eyes come in contact with FeCl3, immediately wash with water.

Kindly do not throw the remaining FeCl3(after etching) into the drain because it contain copper ions which is dangerous to environment, neutralize it with the help of sodium Carbonate or sodium hydroxide and check the ph value it should be approx. 7-8 before disposing it or you can add more water to dilute it.

4. PCB drilling machine and drill bit

Drill machine are used to make hole in PCB for mounting the components. While drilling the PCB, be careful about the size of hole, because different components leads have different sizes. Kindly measure the leads before drilling or refer datasheet of the components. In general use, following sizes for making hole for different components.

a.1mm-for IC Base

b.1.2mm-for Resistor, Capacitor, Transistor, and LED

c.1.5mm-for Diodes, Preset

d.5mm-for Nuts, Screws

e.8mm-for Switch

5. Permanent Marker, Sticker paper, Iron, Whitepaper, Cello tap, Tray for etching, Scrubber for cleaning PCB.

Steps for making PCB are as follows-

1. First of all draw your required circuit diagram on butter paper clearly.

2. Now take sticker paper and remove the front part to put it above your circuit and draw only conducting path and drills points. Be careful while copying it on sticker paper so that it does not overlap the conducting traces. As shown in fig. below.





3. Now darken the layout with the help of permanent marker. Draw carefully there should be no overlapping or shorting of tracks or components present in it. Check once more if required. The neatness of PCB lies in pattern drawing so clean and clear PCB is more appropriate to work for the first time. You can also take the print out of the same on sticker paper, if you are using any software for drawing PCB.

4. Now carefully cut the required copper clad sheet and wash it properly. Now place the sticker paper on copper side of copper clad sheet.


5. Carefully cover the sticker paper on copper clap sheet with the help of tap. Be careful there should be no air bubble inside.


6. Now take an iron(used for ironing clothes) set the temperature to approx. in middle and iron your sheet on the sticker paper side by applying pressure for approx.10 minutes.


7. After that put your PCB underweight. If you do not do this then there is a chance that your PCB may bend. Keep it underweight until it become cool.


8. Now remove the paper very slowly and see you have transformed the print on copper clad sheet.


9. Now carefully examine the sheet for shorting, missing of tracks with help of circuit diagram.


10. Now again darken the traces with the help of permanent marker.


11. Fill the extra space present on Copper Clad Sheet with marker it will save your etching time. As shown in fig below.







12.Now put your PCB in feCl3 solution for etching keep it for 15 minutes then see if it is properly etch or not.

13. After this wash it properly with the help of Scrubber. Your PCB may look like this.