Hi All,
First thing...my apologies to anyone Not interested.
(I know there are many....;)
I used to make the Fireball CNC machines. That actually
began here on this group back in 2006. Many small desktop
machines were made, but demand was for more cutting space
and larger machines.
The larger a machine became, the more of a "general purpose"
machine it also became.....in order to stay as inexpensive
as possible.
"General purpose" meaning that even the slightest flexibilty
or play in a machine will often translate to limits of what
can be done with the tiny little (brittle) carbide bits often
used for PCB work.
Demand was pretty good for the Fireball V90 machine. It's
capable of doing some very good PCB work and there are many
examples of them on the internet. Demand was enough that I
wasn't able to keep up...as a one person maker of them...so
Fireballcnc was sold to someone better able to produce them.
Probotix.com
But, I was still intensely interested in the small machine that
could do extremely fine work. My purposes were for making jewelry
parts with very, very fine detail in them...I didn't and still
don't use them for PCB work. It's a thing I just never had time for.
But I did need as fine of detail as I could possibly get from
any cnc machine...that'd be anywhere near affordable for me.
I always have liked the smaller, more compact machine sizes and
I find them more practical. So, I'm back to making something as
close to a CNC "PCB machine" as I can get.
Smaller machines aren't as popular as larger ones, so it works
out well enough that I can put more time and attention in each
of the machines I'm making now.
My new machine...called "A4" due to it's cutting area being near the
size of a common sheet of printer paper has very high potential
for very fine trace PCB work with a design intended for rigidity and
strength.
Metal elements are incorporated throughout, but it still keeps
the MDF basic frame, which is very beneficial for damping vibrations
and resonances that can be problematic in all-metal designs....I have
made/tried all-metal machines repeatedly over the years.
A more rigid Z axis is also used. It's capable of handling any trim
router as well as the finer spindles for super fine work such as
the Paul Jones and the Wolfgang Engineering spindles.
As far as an affordable machine that may be excellent for PCB milling
and also handling heavier duty tasks like enclosure work, I believe
it's as good of a machine as can be found. The goal in it's making
has been as fine of work as can be coaxed from any inexpensive
solution for very fine milling.
I will add that it's not an automatic or easy thing to do. It takes
a lot of practice to learn software, feed rates, spindle speeds,
how to choose a "right" cutting bit. But with patience and determination,
the machine can do as fine of milling of many materials as I'm able
to get them to do.
Fireballcnc began right here at Homebrew_PCBs. It's turned out to
be a genuine success. I myself have no more part of it, but I still
love making the smaller...though less popular...machines. I've always
thought they were better suited for the finer work I needed from
a cnc machine. So, I'm starting something new and beginning to
produce some of these machines now that a design has been tested
for a while and "finalized". The machine is called "Microcarve A4"
Anyone interested can see it's progression...a very long thread...
at cnczone....
http://www.cnczone.com/forums/diy-cnc_router_table_machines/109390-my_newest_desktop_machine.htmlAlso beginning a Yahoo group for the machines...
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/microcarve/Once again, I apologize to those who aren't interested.
Thanks for your patience....
:)
John Hansford