Homebrew PCBs

I expect you plan on showing pictures sometime?

ST


On Tue, 09 May 2006 00:39:53 +0200, Alan King <alan@...> wrote:

>  I have had it out since Christmas, but finally got around to really
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> getting things going again in the last two weeks.  Reworked the basic
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> front end program to read Gerber, so now it'll route out the cutouts etc
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> from board outlines from Eagle.  The 2.4 of the newer Gerber format is
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> very easy, nice having everything in the same place..
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>
>
>   The simple, meant to be temporary mount I had worked fine for
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> drilling, but couldn't take a side load so was flexing around.  Went
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> back over to Lowes the other day looking for other boxes etc to make a
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> better mount, and now they carry a nearly 3" deep single wide metal box,
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> with no punch outs on the flat sides.  Not only will these work for
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> mounting the Dremel, but they are also large enough to handle a NEMA 23
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> motor.  While I did plastic boxes since it was easy to locate and drill
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> the holes, the intent was to work out locations then make them with
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> metal, the plastic just worked out ok enough to not worry with it much.
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> But now there are very suitable metal ones available, time to change it
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> over.  These and a simple box setup to remount the last coupler and
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> everything will be pretty solid.  Hmm do have to redo the Z motor,
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> mine's a custom with lead screw, not a standard motor.  Still not hard
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> or much to do..
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>
>   Melamine base plate, wood for the cut board of course, and one wood
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> plank for the mounting plate for the tool holder.  Even the plank could
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> be done away with and make the mechanics all metal, but little point
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> since it makes mounting the tool holder easier than straight to the
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> rails and doesn't affect accuracy much if at all, since it's only the
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> 3/8" thickness that's in the X,Y dimension.
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>
>   All metal mechanics machine that only takes straight cuts and drill
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> holes to make, and still ends up being sub-$150 with motors etc.  Likely
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> sub-$100 if done right since the mechanics themselves end up $75 or so.
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> Getting it finished up over the next couple of days since I want it to
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> cut out my inner board cuts now.
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>
>   Much of the work is in the boxes, the rest is straight cuts and drill
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> holes.  Plus the box price drops in half if you buy a case of 20 boxes,
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> like $25 or $30.  Likely I could CNC a few sets up and mail them out
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> with little if any added cost over just buying the 6 individual boxes,
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> even after shipping not likely $15 or $20.  Wouldn't make sense shipping
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> the other parts though, they have flat cost and not that much work
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> required on them, better to just buy the rest at a local Lowes.
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>
>   Could probably be brought up to doing medium machine work without too
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> much effort since it's metal.  Most of my own uses are small or light
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> duty so not sure I'll take it to that point myself.  Only thing big I
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> want for now is a 4'x8' sheet plywood cutter, and that's a different
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> animal..
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>
> Alan
>