Homebrew PCBs

I have had it out since Christmas, but finally got around to really 
getting things going again in the last two weeks.  Reworked the basic 
front end program to read Gerber, so now it'll route out the cutouts etc 
from board outlines from Eagle.  The 2.4 of the newer Gerber format is 
very easy, nice having everything in the same place..


  The simple, meant to be temporary mount I had worked fine for 
drilling, but couldn't take a side load so was flexing around.  Went 
back over to Lowes the other day looking for other boxes etc to make a 
better mount, and now they carry a nearly 3" deep single wide metal box, 
with no punch outs on the flat sides.  Not only will these work for 
mounting the Dremel, but they are also large enough to handle a NEMA 23 
motor.  While I did plastic boxes since it was easy to locate and drill 
the holes, the intent was to work out locations then make them with 
metal, the plastic just worked out ok enough to not worry with it much.  
But now there are very suitable metal ones available, time to change it 
over.  These and a simple box setup to remount the last coupler and 
everything will be pretty solid.  Hmm do have to redo the Z motor, 
mine's a custom with lead screw, not a standard motor.  Still not hard 
or much to do..

  Melamine base plate, wood for the cut board of course, and one wood 
plank for the mounting plate for the tool holder.  Even the plank could 
be done away with and make the mechanics all metal, but little point 
since it makes mounting the tool holder easier than straight to the 
rails and doesn't affect accuracy much if at all, since it's only the 
3/8" thickness that's in the X,Y dimension.

  All metal mechanics machine that only takes straight cuts and drill 
holes to make, and still ends up being sub-$150 with motors etc.  Likely 
sub-$100 if done right since the mechanics themselves end up $75 or so.  
Getting it finished up over the next couple of days since I want it to 
cut out my inner board cuts now. 

  Much of the work is in the boxes, the rest is straight cuts and drill 
holes.  Plus the box price drops in half if you buy a case of 20 boxes, 
like $25 or $30.  Likely I could CNC a few sets up and mail them out 
with little if any added cost over just buying the 6 individual boxes, 
even after shipping not likely $15 or $20.  Wouldn't make sense shipping 
the other parts though, they have flat cost and not that much work 
required on them, better to just buy the rest at a local Lowes.

  Could probably be brought up to doing medium machine work without too 
much effort since it's metal.  Most of my own uses are small or light 
duty so not sure I'll take it to that point myself.  Only thing big I 
want for now is a 4'x8' sheet plywood cutter, and that's a different 
animal..

Alan