Homebrew PCBs

I once did a larger vacuum plate out of 6mm high dense MDF thru which I made rows of very small holes. By larger I mean 600x 800 mm. The high dense MDF had a very flat surface.
The MDF plate was backed with pucks in approx 20 mm diam. of the same material to keep the plate flat when the vacuum cleaner makes a back pressure below it.
I did it all using a laser - we have  bigger one, GCC Spirit GX -  so most time was spent CADing the thing and figuring out how to attach a vacuum cleaner. It' a very cheap thing to make if you have a spare vacuum cleaner. Make shure you can adjust the sucking power to compensate for the various numbers of holes you use. We simply covered the holes not i use with the flat side of masonite or cardboard.

For the ring to which to attach the vacuum cleaner I ended up taking parts from an older vacuum cleaner and glueing it all to the wooden "base". I used wood glue to seal the joints of the MDF. 

The plate was damaged by a student so when there's time I'll make a similar one again. It's great thing to have when milling parts that cannot be clamped.

You could probably make a smaller one for pcb's using a similar method but using a smaller vacuum pump - aquarium pump maybe? Maybe masonite or acryl is a strong enough plate material.


/Per







21 feb 2012 kl. 04.41 skrev Jeff Heiss:

> I am considering making a vacuum frame to use for the UV exposure method.
> Has anyone made or own a vacuum frame that they can share their thoughts on?
> I am unable to find any pictures or information of PCB frames made by others
> for our purposes. Does anyone have any suggestions for materials like
> plastic covering (dry cleaner bags UV transparent?) or the porous material
> for allowing the vacuum to flow under the board?

Per Mattsson - per@... - 0706524567





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