Prepping the Copper Board

Unwrap the Board

• First pull off the plastic from the copper board
• Next prep the board by roughing it up, perhaps by dipping it into etchant, or using a roughing stone
• Next clean the board with acetone

One suggestion is to use auto primer to make the paint stick the board better

Spray the Board

Next we need to spray the board.
The general view is that the more coats of paint the better, and that there should be at least 2 coats so that when removing the invisible layer left by the laser the smaller traces can remain on the board during cleaning

Paint Types

There’s a few different suggestions on the types of paint. The main two mentioned in the links are

• Black Auto primer (car paint I think)
• Rustoleum Painters Touch 2xCoverage paint

There’s also

• http://hackaday.com/2010/08/17/negative-laser-etching/
• Black acrylic spray paint (Krylon brand) - suggested on instructables
• Plastifier mask (acrylic varnish / plastifiant)

I’ve also got some black acrylic paint from WHS Smiths to try out (Humbrol). For black acrylic paint, the suggestion is to use 3 - 5 coats allowing time for each coat to dry.