Homebrew PCBs

hey Joe - I milled a pcb using my homemade CNC machine - I actually used
double sided tape to hold it down and probably went a little too deep with
the bit (although it all worked)

http://www.backyardworkshop.com/blog-posts/most-recent/176-milling-a-circuit-board.html

Jamie

Jamie
Check out my CNC projects (and more) at http://www.backyardworkshop.com



On Thu, Dec 13, 2012 at 9:01 AM, joe M <joe9mail@...> wrote:

> **
>
>
> Hello,
>
> I am trying to mill the pcb (FR4) with a taig.
>
> I did not have much luck with a uniform trace isolation even when I hold
> the board flat down by clamping down on the board edges. It appears that
> the pcb surface might not be uniform and that might be the reason why I
> cannot remove/mill out the copper layer consistently. I read about using a
> foot (http://hackaday.com/2011/04/22/pcb-milling-tutorial/) to push the
> pcb
> down while milling, but, that was a bit too much for my skill level.
>
> I read somewhere that it is easier to just paint the whole circuit board
> with some paint and then remove/scribe the paint off wherever the traces
> were being milled. This process is described here:
> http://reprap.org/wiki/Scratch_n%27_Etch_PCBs . Just wanted to check if
> anyone has experience with this?
>
> On a different note, I read that "paper phenolic" boards are better/easier
> on the mill and drill bits. I checked digikey and mouser and could not come
> up with any "paper phenolic" boards. Wondering if anyone knows of a
> supplier for "paper phenolic" boards?
>
> I used the EM2E8-0625-90VC bit from
> http://www.precisebits.com/products/carbidebits/scoreengrave.asp to mill
> the board. Maybe, I need to use a 45 degree bit as noted in this article:
>
> http://millpcbs.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=23&Itemid=47
>
> Any thoughts or advice, please?
>
> Thanks
> Joe
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>  
>


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