Modding Etching a Mobo...

I was hit with a bit of inspiration last night and I have a thought. It might not be the best of ideas... hmmm well most of my late night ones usually arent.

What I would like to know is this, would etching a mobo or cpu be possible? I know that it would kill the mobo and maybe the chip, I'm thinking of an old 386 chip and mobo.

Has anyone ever tried it?

I will also be cutting the mobo, I was thinking of using a jig-saw... would this work? Not to worry I have about 7 of these boards.

 

well as long as you don't use them afterwards, you should be fine, neat idea

with the jigsaw, try and use one with variable speed settings (choose slow) and a fine blade - otherwise board might get ripped or snapped

 

Wear a respirator if you do. The dust from phenolic resin is naaaaasty stuff.

 

/me works for a company that makes PCBs for high-tech applications.

There's all kinds of nasty lead and other substances you don't want in your lungs too.

PCBs can be real fibrous, like cutting cheap-ass fiberboard, so take it slow or you'll bend it.

Could be a pretty nifty project though. Play it safe, and show us pics when you're done

 

Howsabout making something like this:

http://store.thetech.org/techtest/reccirboarpr.html

 

Thx for the advise, I will post pics as soon as possible. No digital cam so makes it a little harder. I will defenitly wear a respirator and work in a well ventalated place.

I have access to a lot of powertools, such as table saws and the like. Would it be better to use them instead?

My dad and me have a renovation company, so got a garage full of tools. Mostly table saws, jigsaws, skillsaw, handsaw, chopsaw... man come to think of it we do lots of cutting.

Would it be easier just to score it fairly deep and try and snap it?

 

Here's an idear, take a bunch of old Mobos and sand them down to a smooth finish, cut them and form a box and make a small cube caase with them...

I think that would look damn cool

 

I took pics last night of my office where my wife used old pcb's, hdd platters, and cd's to make a border for a mirror on the wall. I can validate Linear's concerns, I cut the pcbs with a dremmel and you MUST use respiratory protection... dust goes everywhere and no telling the number of bad ingredients in there.

I should have pics posted soon I don't have digital camera and had to use snail film