Homebrew PCBs

I've been doing a lot of 'thinking' on how I'm going to consistently pass a
PCB through the printer.  It quickly became obvious after reading Volkan's
'align with the PCB sticks' technique that an easier method would be nice to
have.

Volkan's technique will probably be better for one-offs, but I'm looking for
consistent results for multiple identical prints.  So, I've come up with
this basic design:
http://www.xavierkamial.com/images/Epson%20C84%20chariot.JPG

Start reading the pic from the bottom-up, I drew it as I was constructing it
in my head.

The CHARIOT will be a permanent unit, it will be used all the time to pass
PCBs though the printer.  The PCB HOLDER has to be fabricated for each
individual PCB, unless they share alignment hole pattern, then good for you.
Consider this step equivalent to the 'tooling charge' that PCB fabricators
charge you for an order.

One issue that will have to be addressed is double-sided alignment.  QCAD
has an alignment offset, so I can compensate quite easily.  Others may have
a problem printing the bottom side 'exactly' over the top side.  Maybe using
2 PCB HOLDERs might be an option?

The nice thing is that you can whip out PCBs with little effort once the PCB
HOLDER is fabricated, making error-correction a much easier task.  (I was
thinking of Chris when I wrote that last sentence)

Robert
:D



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]