Homebrew PCBs

Hi Tim,

    The CNC will give you accuracy and repeatability without effort on 
your behalf. My question was is it worth money and effort building one 
of these machines to gain that accuracy in hobbyists quantities ?  I had 
the opinion that a good hand press can make the job a lot easier and 
better. To help drill a set of straight holes (e.g. a DIP or PCB header) 
I guide one side of the board along a straight edge. Because the 
platform of my drill press is fairly large (450x450 mm) there is plenty 
of space to do this. To make the job easy as possible the straight edge 
is made from a aluminum strip (3x30mm) which is pivoted to one corner of 
the table. The straight edge swings about to the required position. I'm 
also thinking of fitting one of those cheaply laser diodes to shine a 
point exactly where the hole will get drilled. This might make it easier 
still. The single biggest problem with manual machining is missing 
holes, or drilling a wrong size hole. Of course none of this compares to 
the accuracy from a CNC machine.


Tim Goldstein wrote:

>To me the #1 thing that makes it worth the effort to drill a board on a
>CNC machine is being able to drop the parts straight into the homes and
>having all the pins line right up. When I drill boards on my Bridgeport
>with a 40K rpm spindle attached everything fits perfect. That alone is
>worth it.
>
>Tim
>[Denver, CO]
>
>