Homebrew PCBs

>
> Craig,
> 
> That looks amazing.  How long did it take for the mill to do it's thing?
> 
> On Wed, Mar 2, 2011 at 8:42 PM, designer_craig <cs6061@...> wrote:
> 
> >
> > I did my first CNC milled PWB today.  It came out great and far
> > exceeding my expectations.  The board is a little 3" x 2" solar panel
> > controller for solar battery charger.   The two layer board was designed
> > in DipTrace then converted to island milling G-Code by LineGrinder and
> > cut on my  Mach3 CNC converted Bridgeport mill.   The accuracy of the
> > milling was amazing.  I was able to drill .022" dia via holes and not
> > get any break-out  of the .040" dia via pads on the far side.
> >
> > My bigest limitation is the spindle speed of the BP, at 6800 RPM and I
> > really need to get some sort of high speed spindle.
> >
> > I postes some pictures on my Picasa web album:
> > Pictures of the board:
> > https://picasaweb.google.com/cschaffter/PCB_Stuff?feat=directlink
> > <https://picasaweb.google.com/cschaffter/PCB_Stuff?feat=directlink>
> > Craig
> >
> > --
> Erik L. Knise
> Pacific Shipping Company
> Seattle, WA
> 
> 
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>

>
> Craig,
> My first milled PCB seemed to take F-O-R-E-V-E-R to mill.  Turned-out
> the Gcode was not at all optimized.  After running the Gcode through an
> optimizer, my milling time was cut by 60-70%.  See my blog entry for
> details
> <http://woodworkerbcncrouterproject.blogspot.com/2010/06/gcode-optimizat\
> ion.html>  .   If it works for your Gcode, it would be totally worth the
> effort.
> The results of your milling look outstanding.  I tend to get a lot of
> "curling" of the copper
> <http://woodworkerbcncrouterproject.blogspot.com/2010/06/pcb-milling-att\
> empt-2.html>  at the edges - not sure if it the tool or some operator
> issue.  I still need a lot more milling experience, to be sure.
> 
> WoodWorkerB
> 
> --- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, "designer_craig" <cs6061@>
> wrote:
> >
> > I have the cut rate fairly low so it took 16 minutes for the top side
> and 25 minutes for the bottom side.  For some reason there were a lot of
> small cuts on the bottom side related to the copper pour that slowed
> things down.
> >
> > Craig
> >
> 
> 
> 
> 
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>

>
> I'm still fine tuning my milling process but its working really well so far.
> http://www.allthingsrc.com/cnc/pcb_3.jpg  <--cut with 45deg bit
> http://www.allthingsrc.com/cnc/pcb_3.jpg  <--cut with 90deg bit
> 
> Matt
>  
> 
> 
> --- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, "byron.woltman" <brian.volken@> wrote:
> >
> > Craig,
> > My first milled PCB seemed to take F-O-R-E-V-E-R to mill.  Turned-out
> > the Gcode was not at all optimized.  After running the Gcode through an
> > optimizer, my milling time was cut by 60-70%.  See my blog entry for
> > details
> > <http://woodworkerbcncrouterproject.blogspot.com/2010/06/gcode-optimizat\
> > ion.html>  .   If it works for your Gcode, it would be totally worth the
> > effort.
> > The results of your milling look outstanding.  I tend to get a lot of
> > "curling" of the copper
> > <http://woodworkerbcncrouterproject.blogspot.com/2010/06/pcb-milling-att\
> > empt-2.html>  at the edges - not sure if it the tool or some operator
> > issue.  I still need a lot more milling experience, to be sure.
> > 
> > WoodWorkerB
> > 
> > --- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, "designer_craig" <cs6061@>
> > wrote:
> > >
> > > I have the cut rate fairly low so it took 16 minutes for the top side
> > and 25 minutes for the bottom side.  For some reason there were a lot of
> > small cuts on the bottom side related to the copper pour that slowed
> > things down.
> > >
> > > Craig
> > >
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
> >
>

>
> I'm still fine tuning my milling process but its working really well so far.
> http://www.allthingsrc.com/cnc/pcb_3.jpg  <--cut with 45deg bit
> http://www.allthingsrc.com/cnc/pcb_3.jpg  <--cut with 90deg bit
> 
> Matt
>  
> 
> 
> --- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, "byron.woltman" <brian.volken@> wrote:
> >
> > Craig,
> > My first milled PCB seemed to take F-O-R-E-V-E-R to mill.  Turned-out
> > the Gcode was not at all optimized.  After running the Gcode through an
> > optimizer, my milling time was cut by 60-70%.  See my blog entry for
> > details
> > <http://woodworkerbcncrouterproject.blogspot.com/2010/06/gcode-optimizat\
> > ion.html>  .   If it works for your Gcode, it would be totally worth the
> > effort.
> > The results of your milling look outstanding.  I tend to get a lot of
> > "curling" of the copper
> > <http://woodworkerbcncrouterproject.blogspot.com/2010/06/pcb-milling-att\
> > empt-2.html>  at the edges - not sure if it the tool or some operator
> > issue.  I still need a lot more milling experience, to be sure.
> > 
> > WoodWorkerB
> > 
> > --- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, "designer_craig" <cs6061@>
> > wrote:
> > >
> > > I have the cut rate fairly low so it took 16 minutes for the top side
> > and 25 minutes for the bottom side.  For some reason there were a lot of
> > small cuts on the bottom side related to the copper pour that slowed
> > things down.
> > >
> > > Craig
> > >
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
> >
>