I have seen many articles about how to make reasonable circuit boards without spending a lot of money. I have tried Techniks Blue Press and Peel, sharpies, photo paper and laser jets, and probably some others. Unfortunatly none give great results. Blue press and peel works ok for small boards but it is really expensive, and you have to use a laser jet. I even tried to modify an ink jet so you could print directly onto a circuit board and bake it. Then you can etch. It ended up being a lot of work, and I eventually ended up sacrificing parts to fix a PS2, so it went in the garbage. The best thing I came up with is a photo lithography technique. Normally you need a special UV setup and everything. I use Datak Premier pre-sensitized positive acting printed circuit boards. Google it, you can buy it at a lot of places. It comes pre coated with a photo emulsion. It is not too expensive either, only 10 or 20 percent more expensive then plain board, which for the results is completely worth it.
This is how the board comes packaged in a light proof bag.
They also have powdered ferric chloride etchant which is pretty reasonably priced, personally I like radio smack etchant. Last time I bought it there it was not too expensive, and they give you enough to do a few boards. The datak one is cheaper and it etches faster, but you have to mix it, and it gets really hot so make sure you are ready to cool the outside of the bottle.
This picture shows someone cutting a board with a dremel, It also shows the nifty layer that comes on the board. This is some white plastic that has a black backing. It allows you to cut the board in areas of more light. I wouldn't bring it in sunlight, but it is plenty of protection to bring the board into your shop and cut it. After you peel the protection off the board cannot be exposed to more than a 25W incandecent bulb at a couple of feet.
Here is one of the circuit design programs printing out. A great program to design them on is Eagle, on debian you can just sudo apt-get install eagle. They have all other versions here.
They allow hobbiests to make 6" boards free otherwise you have to buy it (actually not any more now only 4"). You can either print them out on a laser jet or an ink jet just make sure you have the right transparencies. On either, make sure the transparancies are reasonably dark and there are no gaps in the ink. On my inkjet printer I find that setting the quality to best, and the ink volume to the lowest amount gives the best result (good quality, not so much ink that it beads up). It is ok if you can see through the ink a little bit, just as long as it is reasonably dark. One important note is to make sure that if you print on an ink jet that the rough side of the transparancy is facing out when it is exposed. If the ink is directly against the board you get weird reuslts, you end up with an outline of the circuit, and the middle of the circuit gets exposed, its weird.
This is a two sided relay board I helped someone with. The way to go is to line up your transparancies, and tape 3 sides together into a pocket. Then you clamp the board in there and expose both sides.
And here is me clamping the board in its little pocket. I used hemostats, they are quite handy for soldering. In this picture the board has its protective white layer removed. The room is lit by a 25W incandecent bulb.
After everything is clamped, you put your board under a piece of glass to hold it down. Unfortunately since i made a pocket, and the glass was only 1/8 inch glass I had to use some weights. Those are what is inside a 6V lamp battery. To expose there are instructions which I have included at the bottom of the page, I like to use a 100W bulb at 12 Inches (12 inches to the bottom of the bulb, not the center). The instructions say 10-12 minutes, but I found 15 for inkjet, 13 for laser, works much better.
After the board is exposed to light you need to develop the blue emulsion. Use Datak 12-402 or 12-404 (4 oz bottle) (Boards and developer are available from www.vetco.net). Keep it refridgerated it will last over a year. The instructions say mix 1 to 10, but I found this does not work well, if you mix at 1 to 5 you can devolop the board in about 3 minutes. You will know when its done it is pretty obvious, just make sure there is no film where it should not be. You can give the board an extra 30 seconds it won't hurt it. I usually do not recyle the developer (I use very ittle of it). I usually just mix enough, something like 1 plastic teaspoon of developer and 5 teaspoons of hot water. Swish around until it is developed. I don't have any pictures. After it is developed run it under cold water to harden the emulsion. And throw it it etchant. Like I mentioned I usually use ferric chloride, just don't get it on anything you don't want to be perminantly brown. I like to float my boards on top of the etchant with the board facing down since I don't have an agitation tank. Just make sure to rock the tray every once in a while and in 20 minutes you will have something like this.
This person wanted the blue removed after it was etched. I personally prefer to leave it. It melts when soldered, and if you are careful not to scratch it you can use it to protect the traces from corrosion. Here is a board I made for myself. You can see a little copper, because I filled in a few of the pads with orange sharpie before etching I wanted to use tiny leads. This board is for making a budget force gauge. I will write an article about it later.
I like to drill normal sized component leads with a 1/32" bit. Make sure before you drill it you use something pointy to make indents so your bit doesn't walk. Use a drill press or dremel to drill. Finally here is the instruction book for datak stuff, it is pretty bootleg.
Perminant link http://www.thekofc.net/projects/circuitboards