I helped build the shop we had in Vista, in fact I think Chuck Tex of Tex
Engineering was doing the same thing in San Diego back then...but he had
more money to work with than my dad did. We got technical help from Tony
Jaime at Burrows Corp. when we got started and Jim Gering of Swan
Electronics to help manufacture boards.. There were some big orders that
nearly sunk us for under bidding them... but most of the work we did,
including the design work I was doing, was in short run proto's.
My summers were spent in a 'Quonset hut' (a corrugated steel covered half
pipe shaped building) that housed our messy processes like the Hydro
Squeegee and the high speed router and drilling operations... My best friend
in high school worked with me drilling boards by hand looking though a
magnifying glass at boards that were pinned 3 high and we put a piece of
masking tape to make a 'flag' on the drill to spin and blow the white
epoxy/glass 'chips' away... We turned up the radio loud and played Beatles
songs and Beach boys caste tapes ... oh well those were the days.. We looked
like two High school kids masquerading as snow men.
Trichloroethylene was used in open containers... the fumes , the etchant,
Ammonium Persulfate, Mercuric chloride, and concentrated Ammonia for
stripping the ink from the boards...The Dark room for developing the
orthographic films, and no EPA to answer to...or OSHA...
Kind of like the 'Wild West' of PCB manufacturing... :)
- Bill Brooks
-----Original Message-----
From: Scott McCurdy [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Tuesday, January 20, 2004 9:47 AM
To: 'Brooks,Bill'
Subject: RE: [DC] Hole size for test points
Bill,
All of your descriptions sound exactly like the way I grew up. We even used
a 12" Pyrex baking dish and tip plated RHODIUM over nickel on some
connectors fingers. Yikes, and how I remember those days running' the
pin-router and getting covered in "epoxy snow"....
I also remember using a DeVilbis paint spray gun to coat KPR-3 liquid
photoresist on panels for imaging (pre-dry film days....)
Yikes - I'm getting old...
Scott
Bill Brooks
PCB Design Engineer , C.I.D., C.I.I.
Tel: (760)597-1500 Ext 3772 Fax: (760)597-1510
-----Original Message-----
From: Kowalewski, Andy [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Tuesday, January 20, 2004 9:34 AM
To: (Designers Council Forum); Brooks,Bill
Subject: RE: [DC] Hole size for test points
The stories you could tell, combined with the stories of all the other
grey-hairs, would be fascinating reading. I for one would buy the book.
Maybe someone in the designer community would be willing to make a
project of it.
No, don't even think about me doing it - I can't. I already have too
many things going on, like desperately making a living :-)
Andy K.
Sychip Inc
Office (972) 202 8852
-----Original Message-----
From: DesignerCouncil [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
Brooks,Bill
Sent: Tuesday, January 20, 2004 11:16 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [DC] Hole size for test points
Well of course we didn't make multilayer boards Scott... only 2 sided
boards.. We could not afford the cost of the plated through line back in
1975, I can't even remember the name of the company that my dad got to
bid putting it in with... We did a lot of gold and nickel plating though,
finger edge connectors were popular back then.
We used a couple of platinum plated electrodes and a glass dish like you
cook your meat loaf in as a 'plating tank'..
All of our equipment was home made including the design for the etcher
My dad came up with...
We had a lot of fun, I was covered head to toe with fiberglass epoxy
'shavings' from drilling boards with a hand operated mini-drill press
that Cambion made back then...
What stories I could tell... <grin>
Bill Brooks
PCB Design Engineer , C.I.D., C.I.I.
Tel: (760)597-1500 Ext 3772 Fax: (760)597-1510
-----Original Message-----
From: Scott McCurdy [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Tuesday, January 20, 2004 8:51 AM
To: '(Designers Council Forum)'; 'Brooks,Bill'
Subject: RE: [DC] Hole size for test points
In my deep dark past at McCurdy Circuits, I stuffed a lot of eyelets and
terminals back in the 60's and early 70's. I seem to remember that
USECO was "United Shoe Eyelet Company"....
Kinda tough to make a multilayer board with eyelets and get a reliable
interconnect, eh..?
Scott McCurdy
IPC Designers Council president - Orange County Chapter
-----Original Message-----
From: DesignerCouncil [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
Brooks,Bill
Sent: Tuesday, January 20, 2004 8:38 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [DC] Hole size for test points
That's very interesting... It makes sense though that the idea to put
eyelets in boards was probably from someone who used them in other
products. They put them in tarpaulins and clothing and in metal so why not
in boards as well.
I bet the high speed automation of eyelet installation in boards was
Pretty much a disappointment when plated through hole technology came
along..
It sounds like great material for a 'history of the eyelet or plated
Through hole' article to me.
It might be a fun research project for someone.
I remember the name USECO, do you know what that acronym stood for? I'm
Just curious. Probably something like 'U.S. Eyelet Co.' We said it like a
word, "you-see-co".
By the way JaMi, that means you're older than I am, by a bit... I didn't
graduate from High School until 1973, although I had been working with my
father making PC boards all through high school. I think that would have
put me in Junior High school when you were at Lear Siegler. (Still wet
behind the ears) Thanks for the insight, as always.
Bill Brooks
PCB Design Engineer , C.I.D., C.I.I.
Tel: (760)597-1500 Ext 3772 Fax: (760)597-1510
-----Original Message-----
From: [log in to unmask] [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Tuesday, January 20, 2004 4:46 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [DC] Hole size for test points
Some of the earliest commercial insertion equipment was made by US Shoe
company, I think... Used to work at a place (big automotive electronics
co.) where the line had beaucoup heads, each inserting one component.
Pretty sure the makers of the assembly equip. also made lines for shoe
factories...
"Brooks,Bill"
<[log in to unmask]> To:
[log in to unmask]
Sent by: DesignerCouncil cc:
<[log in to unmask]> Subject: Re:
[DC] Hole size for test
points
01/19/2004 01:23 PM
Please respond to
"(Designers Council
Forum)"; Please respond to
"Brooks,Bill"
You used to put the eyelets into shoes for shoe strings?
Bill Brooks
PCB Design Engineer , C.I.D., C.I.I.
-----Original Message-----
From: JaMi Smith [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Friday, January 16, 2004 12:10 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [DC] Hole size for test points
Jean-Francois and Bill,
Ok,
I've tried to follow the thread, but the one thing that I missed was
whether
the hole size was for a plated thru hole or a non-plated thru hole.
Somehow I think that that the Manufactures Spec may have been for a
non-plated thru hole.
It does make a difference.
Don't forget that if it is a plated thru hole, that you can't rely on a
connection made to it on an inner layer, since there can be seperation
of
the wall plating when the hole is put in compression. It used to be that
you
were not allowed to use plating on any hole that would be put in
compression
for just this reason.
On a different note, Ah yes, eyelets.
I can remember when we at Cimron Division of Lear Siegler went to the
very
first Nepcon Show in 1968 in Long Beach California with our brand new
Eyelet
Machine designed exclusively for Printed Circuit Boards (as opposed to
shoes
(USECO)), that could be used to install .060 Funnel Flange Eyelets at a
rate
of up to 100 a minute.
JaMi Smith
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