Well albeit such kind of repair aren't my daily food, i use just a small, sharp, flat, screwdriver or a fresh blade from a cutter.

Then GENTLY and PATIENTLY, scratch the enamel until the copper is exposed. Here hurry is the enemy of a good job.

That said, in your case I would check if the broken traces end in a visible component/connector pin.

If so, better to sold starting from there than from a via or an uncovered tiny trace, even if that implies a longer rework wire.

Do you have a microscope or some type of magnifier?

I've trace repairs like that using a microscope, fine-pitched copper trace material and fine tip soldering iron.

For example, I had a situation where a bunch of close proximity traces on a Voodoo 2 were scratched with one of them being broken. I first applied solder mask over everything, to seal up the exposed traces.

Then I scratched some exposed trace on either side of the broken trace and soldered a tiny piece of replacement copper trace to the exposed ends. End result effectively bridged the trace by going over top the broken bit.

This was all done under a microscope, which took some patience and a steady hand.

Shponglefan wrote on 2026-09-28, 13:39:

Do you have a microscope or some type of magnifier?

I've trace repairs like that using a microscope, fine-pitched copper trace material and fine tip soldering iron. There's not really any trick to it, it just involves magnification and a steady hand.

No I don't, the best thing I have is a magnifier loupe. Yes the space is very tiny and I suppose that a microscope to make such repair will cost several hundred eur?

Silver paint and masking tape is also an option for people not equipped with the right soldering tools or not skilled enough in soldering.

If the traces aren't critical even the good old pencil can be an option

Nemo1985 wrote on 2026-09-28, 13:41:

No I don't, the best thing I have is a magnifier loupe. Yes the space is very tiny and I suppose that a microscope to make such repair will cost several hundred eur?

I haven't tried using a magnifier loupe before so I don't know how much magnification it provides or how easy it would be to solder using one.

The microscope I use is an Amscope 7x-45x stereo microscope. They're about 500€ or more. But they are rock solid especially the base they come with, which makes them good for microsoldering where you need a steady image.

There are cheap digital microscopes available for less. Though a lot of them don't have very large platforms, so it can limit the size of circuit board you could use with them.

In the lieu of that, a swing arm magnifier with a light might be another option.

For small scratches I use a Dremel with a green rubber tip to get the solder mask removed around the scratch. Just use it on low speed and don't apply pressure. Then use solder to bridge the gap. After that use some solder mask (or nail polish if you don't have it) to cover it up. Is the scratch deeper or longer you need some some thin copper wire to bridge the gap of course.

Shponglefan wrote on 2026-09-28, 13:54:

I haven't tried using a magnifier loupe before so I don't know how much magnification it provides or how easy it would be to sol […]
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Nemo1985 wrote on 2026-09-28, 13:41:

No I don't, the best thing I have is a magnifier loupe. Yes the space is very tiny and I suppose that a microscope to make such repair will cost several hundred eur?

I haven't tried using a magnifier loupe before so I don't know how much magnification it provides or how easy it would be to solder using one.

The microscope I use is an Amscope 7x-45x stereo microscope. They're about 500€ or more. But they are rock solid especially the base they come with, which makes them good for microsoldering where you need a steady image.

There are cheap digital microscopes available for less. Though a lot of them don't have very large platforms, so it can limit the size of circuit board you could use with them.

In the lieu of that, a swing arm magnifier with a light might be another option.

That's a very good suggestion. A magnifier loupe is very uncomfortable considering I will need to work on the motherboard while watching at the same time. The problem is indeed that's a motherboard so the microscope should be high enough from the plate.
I checked the AmScope - 7X-45X, I found it for less than €500, in your opinion would be suitable for the motherboard? The plate doesn't seem big enough. I will check the swing arm magnifier maybe it's the best low cost solution.

A loupe while very powerful isn't going to let you see much on a board - Here's what I eventually came up with "on the cheap":

Over the head magnifying visor - I've got one at 3x which I use for most things, and a 7x one I use for finer detail work.

High magnification lens surrounded by LED lights on a stand that I can position over things.

Cheap USB microscope - it's just a camera on a stand that can focus in close and shows it's output on a PC screen - actually works very well

---

As for the actual repair - how steady are your hands? My usual technique in repairing traces is to carefully clear on either side with an xacto knife (I actually have a set with includes some very small/fine scraper tools) and solder on a piece of thin wire - usually I just use a bit of "wire wrap" wire, but for really small/fine stuff, I sometimes use a single strand of a fairly fine flexible multi-strand wire. Depending on how protected it's going to be in the final use, I sometimes spread a bit of glue on top (make sure it's non-conduction) or just plop on a little square of "black tape".

And in cases where It isn't a good spot/size to work, I'm not above finding a couple nearby through-holes or components where it connects and putting on a little wire "jumper" to connect both sides of the broken trace.

Nemo1985 wrote on 2026-09-28, 14:01:

I checked the AmScope - 7X-45X, I found it for less than €500, in your opinion would be suitable for the motherboard? The plate doesn't seem big enough.

The Amscope I have came with a boom arm. This allows the microscope head to swing out and provides plenty of room for working on even large circuit boards like motherboards.

The base is very heavy which makes the microscope stable even when fully extended.

I subsequently replaced it with an articulating arm, though the articulating arm is much less stable than the boom arm. I had to fashion a makeshift brace to keep it steady for soldering with the microscope.

You dont need to buy microscope just for one repair 😀 Find your local hackerspace, they will have one. If no hackerspaces nearby you can try contacting nearest university with EE/engineering dep.

Fixing tracks close to each other:
1 scrape enamel from both sides of the break using as otehrs already suggested dremel with rubber end/ sand paper/ sharp implement. Dont worry about scraping too much, you will be soldering it all back anyway.
2 next step is masking with either kapton tape or UV hardened solder mask (nail polish is tempting but too low thermal resistance)
- with kapton tape you glue it so only one track is exposed at a time, solder a wire, then move the tape to expose another break
- with solder mask you can paint over everything, scrape just one track, fix break, paint over it, scrape another, repeat

for fixing use single thin copper strands from multistrand wire for example

The Solutor wrote on 2026-09-28, 13:47:

Silver paint... good old pencil

will work on things like bootup straps but not live fast signals, resistance is too great

rasz_pl wrote on 2026-09-29, 12:39:

You dont need to buy microscope just for one repair :) Find your local hackerspace, they will have one. If no hackerspaces nearb […]
Show full quote

You dont need to buy microscope just for one repair 😀 Find your local hackerspace, they will have one. If no hackerspaces nearby you can try contacting nearest university with EE/engineering dep.

Fixing tracks close to each other:
1 scrape enamel from both sides of the break using as otehrs already suggested dremel with rubber end/ sand paper/ sharp implement. Dont worry about scraping too much, you will be soldering it all back anyway.
2 next step is masking with either kapton tape or UV hardened solder mask (nail polish is tempting but too low thermal resistance)
- with kapton tape you glue it so only one track is exposed at a time, solder a wire, then move the tape to expose another break
- with solder mask you can paint over everything, scrape just one track, fix break, paint over it, scrape another, repeat

for fixing use single thin copper strands from multistrand wire for example

The Solutor wrote on 2026-09-28, 13:47:

Silver paint... good old pencil

will work on things like bootup straps but not live fast signals, resistance is too great

Thank you for the tips rasz, I have no universities near to me.

I have the sand paper 180 or 600. I tried the latter on a testing board and it seems to work fine, the problem is that the space is really tiny, there is no way I can just scrape one trace. Space seems big on those zoomed but the actual distance is really thin.
About the dremel do you think those points are ok? https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71Acrr4KO … _AC_SL1000_.jpg
That's my first issue.
I also worked on where to connect the traces and I thought to do something like that, I marked the 2 broken traces: the blue one is from a via to a via so my idea was to do the jump wire from one to the other.
The purple one goes somewhere else and my idea was to make the jump wire where it has more space.

To scrape solder mask/trace I would use an exacto blade or fine tweezer tip.

I would not use a demel for something that small. Dremel tips are too imprecise in my experience.

Nemo1985 wrote on 2026-09-29, 14:19:

there is no way I can just scrape one trace.

doesnt matter, you will be soldering and later paint it over

Nemo1985 wrote on 2026-09-29, 14:19:

make the jump wire where it has more space.

if you dont care about aesthetics :
1 solder flying wire directly between blue vias
2 now you have 2x more space for soldering the purple break, blob it over
3 cut the blue track near vias on both sides and near the blob

the key to such tiny repairs is masking nearby solder (kapton tape or painting over it) so when you are soldering you dont destroy nearby already fixed track fix or short to it.