Simple DIY Etched Circuit Board Using Nail Polish!

My dad and i tried out a way to make a really simple circuit board with materials most have around the house. We thought of this idea and wanted to see if it would really work. By doing this simple activity i was able to learn a lot about a simple circuit board and have a lot of fun. I hope by sharing this, kids who are interested in science like me can explore these topics at home.

We used a...

• Circuit board blanks
• ferric chloride etchant solution
• any color of traditional nail polish (ex regular OPI)
• nail polish remover
• sharpie (any color)
• misc. electronic components (LEDS, resitters, push button switches)
• soldering supplies/iron

Your first going to use the sharpie to draw what you want the circuit to look like. We drew out the paths of the circuit and skipped the parts where we wanted our components to bridge. Tip: we made our bridge spots large before the gap so future soldering would be much easier.

We then used nail polish to go over the sharpie lines. This prevents the acid from dissolving the copper lines needed for the circuit. We recommend using a light colored nail polish so you can see what lines you have gone over the sharpie already. We made the mistake of using a navy blue and because of this, had to fix a few lines later but everything still turned out fine.

Then, we put the copper plate in acid so its fully submerged. Leave it in the acid for 1 hour. This will dissolve all the copper exposed and leave copper underneath the nail polish intact. When taking out the copper plate, be careful to not to let any acid touch your skin.

After an hour, we took the copper plate out of the acid and cleaned off the nail polish using nail polish remover. We put acid on a q-tip to touch up any line mishaps.

Next, we drilled holes to mount our components then soldered our components. You dont have to drill holes, you could just solder components to the surface.