PCB milling machines??

[patchell]

    I have never actually used or seen one of these machines in person.  While
it seems atractive, I have felt that the disadvantages outweigh what you have
to pay for it.  First off, the price.  While I cannot remember how much one
cost's, even if it was real low, like say $500 (us), it would still seem to be
only good for prototypes.  It will not give you plated through holes.  As long
as all your boards are single sided, this is no problem.  You would still have
to solder plate the boards.  You can either electro plate lead-tin and then
reflow, or use wave soldering, both rather involved.  You will also not have
solder mask unless you invest in the equipment and matarial to do this.  You
will also not have a legend.  It always seemed to me that for what you would
get, the boards would be pretty expensive.  But, this is only my humble
opinion.

    -Jim

John Speth wrote:

> I was paging through Electronic Design and saw a couple of ads for desktop
> PCB milling machines which basically goes from Gerber to drilled PCB by
> milling away copper and drilling holes.  Has anybody used these or know
> anything about them.
>
> John Speth
> Object Engineering, Inc
> mailto:johns at oei.com

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