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Build Your Own PCB Milling Machine
mwandel writes "It used to be that one off amateur printed circuit boards were all etched in acid. A lot of companies nowadays use a special form of milling machine to mill them out of solid copper clad circuit boards. This guy Jonathan Westhues built his own PCB milling machine out of various parts, with a laminate trimmer as the milling head. Lots of other neat hacks on his Webpage as well."
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Seems like a lot of trouble to go to when it's pretty cheap to get small-quantity custom boards done.
They're still called PCBs even if they are milled. It's a naming convention that has stuck. It is in no way incorrect.
Also, It is not difficult to make a double sided PCB with a milling machine. There are many times in circuit board design that you don't need more than one or two layers. This is a solution that solves a lot of smaller problems every day.
If you want to build a machine to mill circuit boards, do it right. Build a machine designed by John C Kleinbauer. The Brute is designed to make PCBs cheaply. I recently bought some of John's plans (well worth it) and they are quite nice. They are very well done, easy to understand, don't need things that are exotic and hard to get (if your in the US). He includes a booklet on how to mill PCBs with The Brute, or you can order it seperatly. He even maintains and activly participates on his forum, Hardware Store CNC.
I've started to build a brute, and things are going pretty well considering I'm doing this in my spare time with only some time to work on it. If you guys are like me (I really like to build things with my hands) this is a ton of fun. I can't wait to get it running so that I can make PCBs, robot parts, a wooden clock and more.
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
It seems dabbling in electronics is a dying hobby for the younger crowds... I hope projects like this spawn new curiosity and interest.
i tcellar.com/
For those new to this hobby... here are some publications that could be of great value to you:
http://www.nutsvolts.com/
http://www.circu
http://www.poptronics.com/
Anyone know of any others?
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Yes, it is a salt. Copper is more reactive than iron, so the etch works by the chlorine trading iron for copper. The "filings" left after etching are the iron that was freed in the reaction.
Some folks see it anything that 'eats' away at something as being caused by an acid, even if no acid is really involved. Wouldn't it be nice if chemistry was taught? And taught in a way that was effective?
I don't subscribe to RMS's GNUtopian vision.
As for CNC not being easy, it's not easy, but it's not impossible. Especially if all you're doing is PCBs. How expensive is the software? Dirt cheap. You can use the free version of TurboCAD to make your parts. You export them as DXF files. Then the program that controlls your motors can convert that to gcode for you (or you can use another piece of software). You can get free DXF->GCODE converters that work quite well. You can also get free software to run your motors, or nice commercial programs for $20.
It's true that a "real" CNC machines start in the 10s of Ks, but you can make one that will do just about everything a hobbiest will ever need for just a little. For more information see my other posts to this discussion, or see John's website.
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
Milling machines are not an overkill or a solution for amateurs, they are a very good solution for inexpensive prototypes or production needed in small-mid volume.
:)
Acid etching produces a functional board, but it simply does not look good, and you can't make 100 boards that are exactly alike. The lines are almost straight, the edges are not perfect, and if you are on a contract to deliver a product, this is not an option. Examples of where a milling machine is one of the best solutions: a university lab where the researchers are under government/industry contract and are supposed to deliver a working prototype or a small business with a military contract (small volume products).
I worked for a startup company for a while, and part of my job was to work on a QuickCircuit milling machine, and that thing had milling bits that were 4 mils thick (comparable to hair). You can hardly reach this precision with acid etching. I also adapted the machine to dice wafers, which replaced the company's practice of using an exactoknife
If you are in the IC design business, testing cheaply is of primary importance. You can get a full setup for producing boards for less than $10K. How's that compared to billions of $$$ for setting up an IC production plant? And if you are in the RF design business, you need the precision so that a crappy board does not screw up your high-frequency measurements.
Of course, milling is no option for producing high-volume PCBs with many layers, but don't think that ASUS spent months to design such a board to test their new motherboard design. First they have to verify that design works, which is done with a cheap PCB design, one that would hook up the ICs. Only after that stage can the final PCB design begin.
As long as the Z80 or 68K processors are still in use, simple PCBs will be here, and we need a cheap and fast way to design and make them.
See www.desktopcnc.com for a comparison of various tabletop cnc machines. Depends on your personal definition of "affordable", but there are some small machines $3k
.0001 tolerance on those low-end machines, but most of them would get close to .001, which is plenty for most hobbyist projects.
I don't think you could reach
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