Hi,

I was hoping to get some advice on getting a small CNC mill for making PCB's at my lab.

In addition to standard analogue/digital pcb's we also will be making RF coils for use in Magnetic Resonance Imaging - 'coil' is really a legacy word from in the 70's when actual solenoids were used, these coils mostly consist of wide tracks of copper that make some sort of geometry (such as a ring) which is then tuned with capacitors to RF frequencies (in the region 60 - 400 MHz).

The main design requirements for them are that they are made precisely with minimal burrs etc.

The ability to be able to mill things in 3D would also be useful for making the housing.


So, my main question is can anyone suggest a nice, easy to use, compact and relatively inexpensive (under £5000) system? If it doesn't come with software then we would also need that recommending too.

I've done a bit of searching online and found a few systems, although I have no idea how well they are suited for our needs.

Roland MDX-15E/20E http://www.techsoft.co.uk/modela.htm, http://www.rolanddg.co.uk/public/por...x?id=53&type=1
Denford PCB Engraver http://www.denford.ltd.uk/index.php?...165&Itemid=102
BZT PFL330 http://www.bzt-cnc.com/product_info....T-PFL330.html/

To me the Roland system looks the best, in terms of ease of use and easy to set up.

I was also wondering, is it possible to mill pcb's on 0.2mm FR4? and would any of these machines be able to do that, or are there any others to look into?


Thanks very much for all your help.



Aaron