[Jason Marsha]

Here is a pic of my first milled PCB. It was done a while back and I never built the stepper driver it was milled for, but it came out pretty good.

Jason

[Larken]

What software did you use to make that ?

[Oldmanandhistoy]

Here is a pic of my first milled PCB. It was done a while back and I never built the stepper driver it was milled for, but it came out pretty good.

Jason

Nice PCB and nice to see this new category on the Zone

John

[Jason Marsha]

I set the grid pattern to 1.27mm in a CAD program as the perfboard that was to be used was 2.54mm spacing. I also created a set of points fro the drill holes

I then imported the dxf into Vcarve Pro and created the toolpath.


Jason

[Oldmanandhistoy]

What software did you use to make that ?

Lots of good stuff here http://www.mr-bean.co.uk/pcb_stuff/pcb_stuff.html

John

[Jason Marsha]

If you want PCB design software you could check out www.diptrace.com.

Jason

[Jason Marsha]

Nice PCB and nice to see this new category on the Zone

John

Thanks John.

There was another guy that had some really good pics of his PCB boards but I cannot remeber his name.

Jason

[Oldmanandhistoy]

Thanks John.

There was another guy that had some really good pics of his PCB boards but I cannot remeber his name.

Jason

This thread has lots of useful information and might have the pictures you are thinking about http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=23363

John

[Oldmanandhistoy]

http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showth...B+tool+milling

http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showth...B+tool+milling

http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showth...B+tool+milling

http://www.brusselsprout.org/PCB-Routing/

I have a little spare time so I’ve had a quick look for some more useful threads that may be of interest. I haven’t personally read through them so take them as they come.

Maybe it would be worth starting a new thread just for useful links to get the beginners started?


John

[haku]

Those links were very helpful. thanks dude. I am just starting to build my machine for mostly this purpose, however I will make it big enough to do larger project with wood or aluminum.

Thanks
Haku

[pminmo]

check these out: http://www.millpcbs.com/index.php?page=fine-traces and http://www.millpcbs.com/index.php?page=finished-result

[haku]

Does anyone know what bits etc that he used for those mills. They look really good, that is the kind of precision that I would like.

Thanks
Haku

[samco]

I really like thinktink cutters..

http://www.thinktink.com/stack/volum...e/mechmill.htm

This was done with 60deg mech etching bit and 1/16 cutter. I use eagle ( http://www.cadsoftusa.com/ ) and one of the various scripts that export g-code. Like http://groups.yahoo.com/group/pcb-gcode/

[manmardam]

the best

[pminmo]

Does anyone know what bits etc that he used for those mills. They look really good, that is the kind of precision that I would like.

Thanks
Haku

Those are Drewtronics 45 degree bits. http://www.drewtronics.net/

The thinkntinker bits are good bits, but I think they are more fragile and don't last as long. Plus they are more expensive.

[acondit]

I made my first try at milling a PCB today. I cut it on my CNC Router with a PC690 router and a 1/32" carbide endmill. The drilling worked OK (not great) but the bit was really too large for the isolation milling. I have ordered a couple 0.010" x 1.8" - 50° carbide engraving bits from Bits & Bits. I'll try again when they arrive.

My guess is that the router is never going to produce beautiful boards but I hope that it will solve my immediate problem.

I used pcb-gcode 3.3.3 to produce the gcode and the gcode optimizer by Daniel P and Jay C.

I have my XY feed set at 10ipm and my Z feed set at 5ipm. Does that sound about right?

Alan

[pminmo]

You can get quite usable results with the PC router. 10ipm is in the range, probably low for that size cutter. When I am removing 4 mils then I get to 8 to 10ipm. 8 to 10 mils 14 to 18 ipm. Depends on trace width and how delicate you need to be for trace width. Finer traces can't handle rough cutting.

[acondit]

Phil,

I got my new bits today and I cut another board. It came out worse than the first one. The 1/32" endmill cuts nicer but it is too big. So I adjusted the board and made the via pads larger and tried again. That worked out alright but my 0.030" traces are coming out only 0.020". I am working on rebuilding the router (along with a lot of other projects), so it will have to do for now.

Alan

[samco]

another board. You can see what happens when the vaccum pump shuts off during the final cut. Oh well - still will work to proof the circuit.

http://www.electronicsam.com/images/...t/DSC_5099.JPG
http://www.electronicsam.com/images/...t/DSC_5094.JPG

sam

[TigerPilot]

I used Eagle and the ulp file to generate the g-code as mentioned in this thread. I looked at it in CAMBAM and saw that each routed line has almost five passes. That is what was making the file so big. Over 11,000 lines. What settings in the ulp did I not set correctly?

I have set the etching tool size to 0.01 and then to 0.04. The file was smaller with the later but not by much. I want to use a 0.032 tool.

Yoram