[sdiy] PCB/Schematic software

[Matthew Smith]

Quoth David G Dixon at 03/09/11 04:01...
> ... This makes my boards much easier to drill,
> as you don't have to hunt down all the pads -- just follow the straight
> lines.  I also make my pads bigger and circular, which also makes drilling
> nice.

It's the drilling that was the big show-stopper for making my own boards 
(well, that, the issue of plated through holes, not over-etching fine 
[0.012"] tracks, lack of solder mask...)

Do you use an X-Y table or something for the drilling? Before I came 
upon my $5/sq inch, high-quality, board maker 
http://dorkbotpdx.org/wiki/pcb_order where I just need to e-mail of my 
Eagle .brd file, I was giving serious consideration to building a little 
CNC table to take my Dremel to to all the dirty work for me - that or a 
manual X-Y table.

Now I only make my own boards when the physical size would make them too 
expensive a proposition for fabrication.

Cheers

M

-- 
Matthew Smith

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