[sdiy] Personal Pcb milling machines ???

[Robert Spencer]

ha! of course! Love these simple solutions.

:) 

Rob Spencer
GMSN!







On 31/12/2015 14:05, "Synth-diy on behalf of charlie wallace" <synth-diy-bounces at dropmix.xs4all.nl on behalf of charlie at finitemonkeys.com> wrote:

>works the same way as most cnc's, conductive pathway  it makes or
>breaks a circuit with the tip of the bit or some other way and you or
>the machine subtracts a known depth. or it pushes a spring loaded
>switch since some machines don't have a consistent electrical pathway
>through the spindle.
>
>i use a piece of FR4 with a wire soldered on the copper, the machine
>moves slowly down til it makes contact to set the z height, then it
>subtracts the thickness of the board which gives me the Z.
>
>there are button press style ones on ebay but i've found them to vary
>in height, i bought a nicely machined one from ebay and it was off by
>a few 100 microns, it stays fairly stable but its just awkward if your
>software doesn't maths
>
>you can set them to set on break or make, if they're spring loaded, so
>either the machine is moving towards it and stops when it breaks the
>switch, then moves away even slower til the switch remakes a lot of
>that depends on backlash of the Z and if you're using a floating head
>which my pcb mill does, the floating definitely gives me the best
>consistency
>
>btw metrixcreatespace has the same pcb mill i have
>
>my openbuilds C-Beam would probably do a decent job of pcb milling,
>but not at 4 mil, the othermill is a popular one as well these days, i
>see a lot of hackers getting them
>
>cheers
>
>
>
>
>On Thu, Dec 31, 2015 at 6:45 AM, Robert Spencer <rob at gmsn.co.uk> wrote:
>> Is there special hardware required for the Auto-Level function on
>> ChilliPepper?
>>
>> Rob Spencer
>> GMSN!
>>
>> From: Synth-diy <synth-diy-bounces at dropmix.xs4all.nl> on behalf of Julien
>> Delgoulet <jdelgoulet at free.fr>
>> Date: Thursday, 31 December 2015 01:47
>> To: Dan Snazelle <subjectivity at hotmail.com>
>> Cc: sdiy <Synth-diy at dropmix.xs4all.nl>
>> Subject: Re: [sdiy] Personal Pcb milling machines ???
>>
>> Have a look at CNC like the shapeoko. Users have successfully mill PCB for
>> thru hole and SMD. One of the key thing is having a floating head (like on
>> some LPKF) or having the software calculate the planearity of the board
>> (like http://chilipeppr.com/tinyg does)
>>
>> For drilling there are some softwares that make use of a camera and some
>> manually registered holes to create a transformation matrix to prevent you
>> from having to perfectly align the board.
>>
>> Le 30 déc. 2015 à 23:10, Dan Snazelle <subjectivity at hotmail.com> a écrit :
>>
>> Thanks for all the advice !!!!
>>
>> Sent from my iPhone
>>
>> On Dec 30, 2015, at 4:43 PM, rsdio at audiobanshee.com wrote:
>>
>>
>> I didn't realize you were talking about milling the entire PCB, rather than
>> just drilling the holes after etching the copper through some other means.
>> Metrix has done both. They originally used the milling machine for the whole
>> process, then they got an LPKF Protolaser S that can cut 2 mil trace / space
>> PCBs without breaking bits. They now use the milling machine for drill holes
>> only, thus the need for registration points when moving the board from one
>> process to the next.
>>
>>
>> My point is that the equipment costs can be shared if you live in an area
>> where there are other PCB designers.
>>
>>
>> Brian
>>
>>
>>
>> On Dec 30, 2015, at 11:09 AM, rsdio at audiobanshee.com wrote:
>>
>> Metrix Create:Space here in Seattle has a milling machine that they use and
>> also make available by the hour for customer projects. I don't know its
>> capabilities, but I do recall that drill bits break, and alignment is done
>> by drilling guide holes before the PCB is fabricated - so that the drilling
>> can line up with the traces. I also don't recall how long it takes to
>> complete a board.
>>
>>
>> I believe it's a lot of work to master the many steps required to finish a
>> board this way. I suppose it can be faster than ordering a board from an
>> outside shop, but you'll be spending a lot of time that you could use more
>> productively on something else.
>>
>>
>> Brian
>>
>>
>>
>> On Dec 30, 2015, at 6:18 AM, Dan Snazelle <subjectivity at hotmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Does anyone on here own a pcb Miller ? I am starting to spend a lot on quick
>> prototypes and am just wondering if throwing down a couple grand would mean
>> I could go straight from a gerber to a testable board in an hour
>>
>>
>> But I'm sure there are downsides
>>
>>
>>
>> Any info appreciated!!
>>
>>
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