Ron,
I tend to agree about the overall value of PCB milling. It's still
worth it for some projects, but for many it just doesn't make sense
when the board houses have improved their prototype pricing and
delivery. BUT...
A CNC machine in your pcb lab is FAR more than just a pcb miller...
At the barest minimum it's a pcb DRILL. And a front panel engraver.
Panel cutouts for switches and displays, etc. is a no-brainer. To me
the biggest mistake the folks at LPKF and T-tech make is that their
machine is for drilling/tracemilling ONLY...
I have a 15x15 machine for $5K, which is the equal of the LPKF and T-
tech machines. (But can do much more than just pcb stuff, and it's
not a kit.)
The kit machines I was really asking about are lower priced...
My thousand buck kit CNC machine (12x12x4") is useful in many ways,
ONE of which is pcb trace milling(which IS useful for small simple
boards.) It can also do PCB drilling, and has a resolution
of .000125, so detail is no problem. You can work on things as thich
as 3-1/2 inches, and up to 18 inches wide. The machine itself has a
20 x 24" footprint.
I'm pretty sure I can offer a 500 buck pcb drill with capability for
board size of 6x8, maybe 8x12 inches. It can do some other CNC type
things, like panel cutout and engraving, but it's really aimed at
just being a low-cost CNC drill option... Spindle is set up for 1/8
or 3mm shanks.
The main thing is that these kits would be COMPLETE. And go together
in an hour or two. No searching for components, power supplies,
software, soldering or anything else. Just a screwdriver, hexwrench,
and your hands.
But it doesn't seem as popular as I'd thought, based on responses
here so far...
Now that I've let my target pricing out of the bag, perhaps there
might be interest?
Balllendo
--- In
Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, "Ron Amundson"
<ron_amundson@h...> wrote:
> I used to have an entry level LPKF, the machine cost US$11,500 and
with all
> the tooling and options it came in at US$19,200.<snip>