Homebrew PCBs

howdy guys!

I've been a member here for many years, reading the digests with 
interest as they come in....yet I haven't posted much because I've been 
out of the elex-design work that I did as a career.  But I've just been 
'shanghai-ed' out of retirement to supply 'power and analog' expertise 
to an Alternative-Energy project hereabouts....so I find myself needing 
the ability again to make one-off PCB's on a regular basis.

During my active career, I built a 21-tank Riston/Palladium PTH setup 
for my firm...and got us into an early LPKF machine...but I don't have 
either of those now (BIG sigh!).  So I do know PCB-technology fairly 
well, and I've done manual and CNC machining...but I've never done 
boards by toner-transfer or inkjet-printer method.

Since time is of the essence, I need to forego the 
Epson-modification-learning-curve myself (even as much fun as it'd 
be!).  Learning of, then sourcing, the right printer...finding one in 
good shape...cutting the right holes in the right places...bending 
this...twitching that... :)   I need to be up and running and making 
boards.  And sadly, I don't have a good shop setup any more...only a 
kitchen-counter space in the little cabin here.  By the way, our home is 
in Oregon....we live off-grid in the mountains of the southwest part of 
the state.

The bottom-line is that I need a good guy to sell me an Epson Artisan or 
R200 series printer that's "ready to go" in both hardware and software.

That is to say, a good-condition printer that's fully and properly 
modified for PCB work; accepting standard .062" FR4 stock (to 8x10" I 
believe?), ready to make boards 'out of the box'.  With the correct 
windows-based drivers/utilities to make the process simple and 
smooth...such as automatically removing the dithering, providing for 
quick/easy adjustment of X and Y scaling, etc., etc..

And to also work with the CD-tray as well, if that's possible on a 
modified printer (?).  It looks like the tray could give decent 
top-bottom registration and repeatability every time without any 
futzing...if the tray 'carrier' is implemented well.  Many of these 
AE-project boards will fit within that 3x5" constraint.  If need be, I 
can cut such a precise carrier myself on my little Techno CNC.

I'd prefer the most 'robust' and largest-format model, of this Epson 
piezo-type R-series that folks seem to have settled on.  I recall 
reading somewhere that one R-model even has adjustable head-height...so 
it can be set anywhere between.062" FR4 and paper-thin stainless foil, 
with just a software command...no disassembly and.putzing.  If that's 
correct, it'd be the best choice for my needs, for sure, if there aren't 
any tradeoffs in other areas.

I'm hoping that someone who does a truly good job...nice precision 
work...will contact me.  Consistent alignment of the board to the 
print-axes, with repeatability over multiple insertions, and 
consistently good top-to-bottom registration without endless futzing, 
are important to this project that I'm helping out on.

Good work is certainly worth something...and I will gladly pay cash.  
Yet I'll mention that an economical price is kind of an important 
consideration also...since we're living from savings, and I'm currently 
not getting paid at all for this Alt-Energy work.  Note that if you 
enjoy barter instead of cash, I have some 'classic era' Tek/HP/etc 
test-equipment stored away (7000-series plugins, TM500 stuff, HP 43x 
power-meters, etc. etc.) that I could trade.

Top-Bottom Registration:  In the "Epson conversion" info that I've 
studied so far (massmind site, fullspectrum site, these digests of our 
group), I've not seen mention of hassle-free precision 
registration....only putzing with the board by eye for the 2nd side.  
I'm leery of registering from the board edges on a flip-over, since 
sheared board-blanks aren't precise in their dimensions (and often not 
even 'square' X-to-Y).

I've always used a pair of punched .125" holes on dowel-pins, centered 
along left and right edges and flipped it over on those pins (defined as 
'center' zero in the CAD)....that mirrors/registers perfectly...but pins 
don't look all that easy to implement on a moving-part platform vs. a 
moving-tool platform... :)

I'd be interested in hearing what others have done with registration-pin 
type systems...or some kind of  printer-in-the-loop optical-feedback 
auto-reg-to-features process...or...???

In any case, if the only practical method right now is 'registering' the 
leading-edge via paper-sensors, I can make my board-blanks square and 
dimensionally-accurate via CNC-routing all 4 edges if I have to.

fyi, I'll be doing mainly 2-side 2-oz power-elex; with some uC/analog 
boards, and the odd flex-circuit, chem-milling, and spray-deposition 
project mixed in as well.  Since the non-power boards will incorporate 
some SMT, I'd really like 6-7 mil trace/space on 1oz consistently.  But 
I can live with 8-9 mil that prints right every time, if that's the true 
'reality' for these printers.

Drivers/utilities needed--  I use industry-standard Gerber and Excellon 
production-PCB dataflow from windows.  Currently running Proteus7 on 
XP.  I'm also foreseeing a need to fab several old designs from my 
ancient DOS PCAD-4.55 (oops...did I just date myself?...lol).  It seems 
that a good robust analog gen-field controller or instrumentation-amp 
never goes 'out of style'...unlike what the digital-world does to us so 
often! 

PS- for the chem-milling, it'd be -very- good to be able to print from 
Postscript and HPGL output with all the same de-dithering and scaling 
etc. facilities used for the PCB/Gerber files. 

So...if you've done such Epson-conversions, and truly do it "right and 
tight"....please do contact me!

with my thanks,

Ricardo
metal shift-2 fullwave dawt kom

-- 
============================
Please do NOT attach pictures without contacting me FIRST.
DSL isn't available here.  Do not add address to any lists.
============================





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