With my first board now drilled, and "Detailed", I am quickly
gaining the appreciation for alternative methods.
I used a riffler file to clean between the traces - worked pretty
good. It was easier to use than a hobby knife.
I used a #60 high speed steel drill for the holes. Chucked up real
short in the drill press chuck (yes I know, your not suppose to
chuck on the flutes - but it works great). Drilling went real easy
and the bit did not walk around as I suspected it would.
There are a number of problems I don't like about the process
already...
1) Chemicals - nasty stuff
2) Toner transfer & detail - maybe a hit or miss process. Although,
it it looks bad, you can remove it and try again with no real loss
at this point
3) Chemical etching appears to be a bit tricky, especially in the
areas where the traces are tight together. It is hard to see if you
etched away those areas until you get the board out and cleaned.
4) Drilling lot's of tiny holes is very hard on the eyes. I used a
large magnifier light device to help, but my eyes must be getting
older than the rest of me :-(
5) Detailing - cleaning up touching traces. Again, the process is a
pretty basic mechanical process using: picks, files, and hobby
knife. Would be pretty easy if I could only see this stuff without
so much eye strain.
6) Rather slow - step-by-step process. I am sure would get faster
with time and practice.
I think my focus is going to shift to mechanical engraving and
drilling. I already have a CNC machine with a 20,000 RPM spindle.
Fixturing a circuit board should be pretty easy. I will need to
make some adpaters to hold 1/8" shank tools (I am setup for 1/2" and
1/4" shank tools).
Tooling should not be too much of a problem to deal with, from what
I can tell, pointed end mills seem to be the "Choice" tool - cheap
and easy to get through industrial suppliers.
I think a part of the appeal for CNC drilling and routing is getting
around the hand work that requires careful attention - just too
difficult these days with bad eyes. It would (should) also yield a
better looking trace, no pits etc. I also have a hunch that the
trace width could be more narrow than what I have suspect with
chemicals.
SOFTWARE - ARGHHH, I think this will be the problem. I am 95% sure
I could use regular CAD software to create the layout and convert
that to DXF. The CNC control software I use imports DXF very nicely
so I think my focus will be on streamlining the drafting process.
As I don't know if I will be making all that many circuit boards, I
don't think I can justify the cost of PCB CAD software for this
purpose. The free ones appear to have enough limits where I would
have to spend time playing "Work around" games and such.
If anyone cares to share their PCB milling experiences I am all
ears.
I guess what I would like to learn about is the tools used for
milling - anything you found that works great or good or not-so-good?
Any lubricants you found that may have helped the cutting process?
How about drills, any special tricks there, or just have a good
spindle, minimal run-out, and moderate feeds?
Thanks for listening and feel free to share your comments and
opinions.
Chris
--- In
Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, "lcdpublishing"
<lcdpublishing@y...> wrote:
> Hi Robert,
> Look in FILES-LCDPUB-CircuitBoard001.jpg