Considering Jan Rowland runs CNC machine on Commodore PETs in BASIC, he
probably thinks that message is a pretty funny joke.
It's the same as saying your car isn't suitable to drive to work, you need
at least a Porsche, and not one of the cheap ones.
Anyway, don't worry about it. Go build something out of junk, it'll work
well enough. Plenty of other people have. I've seen one when a bloke
bolted 2 printer carriages together.
Given people drill holes by hand, you don't need to all that accurate
(0.25mm is more than enough), so the bit about "Bishop-Wisecarver rails",
"ball-bearing V-wheels", "linear ball bearings" is mainly crap. Unless
you're doing this at a commercial board maker, but then you would't be here.
And they buy, not build,
It's not a mill or router, so there are no side loads. So the table doesn't
need to all that stiff, so skip the "PRELOADED Turcite (glass-filled Teflon)
nuts" as it isn't going to move anyway. The money you save can be spent on
better things, like booze, hookers and blackjack.
I drill boards by hand with a crappy plastic drill press and a Dremel clone.
Works fine. Some people don't even both with the drill press. The comment
made by Jan about carbide bits being fragile is spot on, but you get the
hang of it after breaking the first dozen or so.
There's a bloke on this list (Stefan?) who made a drill press by taking long
2 boards, putting a hinge on one end, clamped the Dremel to the top one and
placed the PCB on the lower. (And the wankers moaned about that, IIRC).
Cheap, and work wells when you consider the parameters that PCB drilling
works under. You only need 10mm (3/8" for the uneducated) of vertical
travel, and as the boards are long, the bit stays parallel as it goes thru
the board. As you'd expect since PCBs aren't 100mm thick. Ghetto tech at
its finest.
So yeah, grab some cheap construction grade plywood (or MDF), or even some
plastic chopping boards, some shower rail (or printer guides, can't beat the
price or a junked printer), a bit of threaded rod and get to it. You don't
need huge steppers, a PCB isn't that much weight to move about, so the
electronics are cheap too. Pull a PC out of a dumpster to run it using
TurboCNC.
It doesn't matter if it's slow, if it take you 30 minutes and the machine
60, who cares? Who wants to do it by hand?
Plus it's fun to build it, and a learning experience. (Then put touch probe
in it to scan stuff, more fun.)
The DIY-CNC group has more info. Have a look at www.crankorgan.com too.
Tony
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com
> [mailto:Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Herbert E. Plett
> Sent: Saturday, 9 December 2006 2:07 PM
> To: Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: Re: [Homebrew_PCBs] Wooden CNC router
>
> wow, this sounds as a DIY drill is a complete nonsense...
>
>
> --- JanRwl@... wrote:
>
> >
> > In a message dated 12/7/2006 6:24:44 A.M. Central Standard Time,
> > rwskinner@... writes:
> >
> > What do you reckon a person could build there own PCB
> Drill for, if
> > they had
> >
> > to buy all the components?
> >
> >
> >
> > If you have the TIME to read through hundreds of "ad pages" in
> > magazines and
> >
> > buy and try steppers and hardware offered, and have patience to
> > live-over having wasted much money, and you are a VERY good
> hunter of
> > such goodies, you might cobble something almost-useful for
> $1000. But
> > if you want to have SOME success within weeks of beginning, so buy
> > KNOWN-USEFUL steppers and good drives like the Xylotex or Gecko
> > drives, and can design a decent buffer PCB with at least a
> 74HCT541
> > and preferably a 74HCT02, etc., for "motor-on/off latch,"
> > etc., and want it to WORK well, you will need at least
> > Bishop-Wisecarver rails and ball-bearing "V-wheels", and/or
> Thomson or
> > equiv. linear ball bearings and hardened round-ways, and
> know HOW to
> > mount all that properly. You will also need some decent
> quill-motor
> > like a Proxon, or, if you are creative, a 400 Hz. 3-ph. motor with
> > 1/8" collet/nut on its shaft, VERY precisely mounted to
> that shaft,
> > and a 400 Hz. inverter circuit to power that. But this high-freq.
> > approach DOES take some experience with things-electronic,
> though the
> > result is FAR superior to a "brush motor" (aka "universal
> motor"). Also,
> > you
> > can get away with GOOD ACME screws and PRELOADED Turcite
> > (glass-filled
> > Teflon) nuts from one of the "precision screw makers" like Ball
> > Screws and Actuators or a couple of others, names I cannot
> recall as
> > I have never actually used other makes of screws.
> >
> > Plan on using excellent cabinetmaking expertise and Baltic birch
> > plywood for
> >
> > the carcass, and preferably light-colored Formica for the top, so
> > double-stick "poster tape" will work well thereon, without doing
> > damage. It takes some years of fiddling with such to be able to
> > cobble something that works OK, if
> >
> > you are just beginning to brew your own such machinery.
> >
> > After all that, if you do not waste and build efficiently,
> you might
> > do it for less than $2000. I am envisioning "about what I
> have in MY
> > PCB drill", and what I'd do differently, were I to do an
> all-new one,
> > and I am CERTAINLY
> >
> > not including all the "learning expenses" of 35 years of
> home-brewing.
> >
> > Carbide PCB drill-bits INSIST upon slop-free movement, and
> logic that
> > ENSURES the drill is UP and STEADY before moving to the next X,Y
> > begins, and STEADY
> > for drilling. Jan Rowland
> >
>
>
>
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