Homebrew PCBs

--- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, "crankorgan" <john@...> wrote:
>
>       If I had it all to do over I would have called them
> MOTORSPINNERS! sooner. I failed to make selling plans a full time
> business but it does bring in 7K per year free and clear after paying
> Income Tax, the two half of SS and sales tax. Sometimes more! The
> website gets 1,200 hits per day. $200 worth of orders came in today.

This is the sort of thing that is prone to looky-loos. The ones who
think it seems really cool and not too hard, but then it gets harder
than it seemed at first. Since they are buying it a bit at a time, it
is easy to begin, but it adds up, especially for those why try to buy
"the best" regardless of what they really are building.

We all fall for that line of non-reasoning at some time or another. I
currently fall into being a motorspinner at least to some extent. I
have a mill/drill table I bought 2 or 3 years ago that still sits with
the grease on it, and a box full of 60 and 100 oz-in steppers. Never
bought any plans, nor any electronics for them. Partly it's been lack
of money, but let's face it, a large part of it was because it's a
huge undertaking.

Me, I want a machine big enough to carve a 3D sign into a 4x8 foot
sheet of woodproduct, powerful enough to cut steel, accurate enough to
mill/drill a PCB or a 3 x 4 inch prototype, with a 12" Z axis and a
built-in CNC lathe.

What I'll probably end up with is something like either John K's
plans, or the machine Dave M and John (?) are building. Drilling PCBs,
cutting wax, foam, balsa and basswood, engraving plastic plaques.
Cutting aluminum would be nice but not absolutely necessary.

If I do build a sign cutter, it will not be highly accurate as it
won't need to be, and probably good for 3D in foam or shallow cuts in
woodproduct at best. And much smaller than 4x8 foot.

Right now I have a 7.5 x 11 inch mill table from Enco. Had it for far
too long without doing anything with it. The plan -was- to start by
adding steppers and better nuts to it. Using it as if it were manual
control, only driven by steppers instead of handwheels, and build from
there.

I got it on sale a few years ago for about $70 plus SH:
http://tinyurl.com/mp59z

However, being realistic I currently don't have any way to make the
motor mounts or anything else for it as my other tools are not really
high precision. Small drill press, wood lathe, table saw, handheld
power tools. I'm thinking I should just build a spindle over it (maybe
modify an old drill press?) and use it manually, especially if I can
buy a bare bones CNC table with the mechanics already done for low price.

> Not trying is the real failure.

Here, here! Or is it, hear, hear? This list is -built- on people
trying things that others have often vehemently discouraged.

Steve Greenfield