[buckeyes1997]

Submit pictures of boards you've milled here for examination..haha.
I enjoy seeing what others have accomplished.


*no this board was not useable, just testing bits

[bill south]

Nice Board;
What software are you using for the g-code?
Bill

[buckeyes1997]

Eagle and pcb-gcode.

I know more people have milled boards, so dont be shy post those pictures for everyone to see....and maybe ttell us what software and bits???

[kn6za]

Ok, Ill jump in and post some pics.

I use eagle/pcb gcode and mastercam to generate boards.

I use 60 deg pcb milling bits that I make at DrewTronics

The machine is home made 10k rpm, ballscrews and servos.


These boards are approx 1 inch square surface mount adapters.

[buckeyes1997]

Those look great Andrew. I used 90deg bits on mine. I was going to try some 45 or 60deg bits to see if the traces can be milled finer. What do you use to hold your boards to the table? I have recently switched to the superglue method. It seems to hold the boards more evenly. A vacuum table would be slick....hmmmm

One more pic of a board I did a while ago......

[kn6za]

Buckeye,


Well the superglue method looks like it is working quite well for you! All your boards look sweet.

I am using a vacuum table to make my boards and a small rotary vane pump from gast that works slick and is nice and quiet to run.

I ran a few boards with 90 deg bits, the cuts are so clean its amazing, but it is more difficult to achieve a fine pitch with them. The cut width gets wide fast the deeper you go into the board. I find the 60deg tools allow me to get the cut width down to .005 inch wide without difficulty.

I don't sell many 90deg tools but some folks do ask for them. I think most folks have a difficult time keeping the board flat enough to use 90 effectively.

[mcphill]

Here's some of the work I have done (not that much): PCB Work | mcphill | Fotki.com, photo and video sharing made easy.

[buckeyes1997]

[QUOTE=mcphill your hole registration looks way off. Did you drill then mill, or mill then drill? What kind of drill bits are you using? I aleays use the engraving bit to spot my holes so the drill doesnt wander.

Nice boards...thanks for posting.

[Zygoat]

i enjoy looking at these. keep them coming.

[mcphill]

That one hole was way off, which is why I took a picture. Turns out it was supposed to be that way ; )

I drill the holes from the top side before flipping to do the back (these are two sided boards) - the flip causes some of the misalignment.

It was fine for my needs, and I have only done a few. I have created a fixture to give me much better registration for the next time I do boards, but I have found a source that can make my boards professionally in a week or two, which is faster than I need them anyway... OLIMEX Ltd. - Electronic Design and PCB sub-contract assembly OEM/ODM service

[Zygoat]

wheres the fun in that?^^

[Jay C]

I ring light from my RepRap machine. Click here for more.

-Jay

[bandtank]

Those look great Andrew. I used 90deg bits on mine. I was going to try some 45 or 60deg bits to see if the traces can be milled finer. What do you use to hold your boards to the table? I have recently switched to the superglue method. It seems to hold the boards more evenly. A vacuum table would be slick....hmmmm

One more pic of a board I did a while ago......

very nice board.

would you be willing to share some more specifics about your board and how you made it? i am trying to get into this as well and i would love if i could find an example like the board you just posted along with the cad files (i use eagle, what do you use?) and gcode. i could then use it to compare against my own version and see if i am getting similar results. im just trying to learn and it looks like youve got it figured out. i understand if you dont want to do this, but please let me know.

i am also curious to know what bits you used to make that and how you prepared the board.

thanks,
Tony

[buckeyes1997]

Hello

The gerber files are from a posted design by Franz Achatz over on the mbed.org forums. His design is of a clone of the mbed development platform. I used his gerbers as they well represented what I was hoping to achieve with my milled pcbs in their very best case.

LPCmini | mbed

The eagle files and gerbers are in the post, and absolutely give them a try generating a board to compare.

My board was made by first milling a flat reference plane in some scrap HDPE plastic sacrificial material. I then superglued the board down to the surface while applying pressure evenly to ensure a flat surface to mill.

Next I measured the surface with a lever gauge in both X and Y directions and built into my MACH3 formulas the additional compensation for board warp, unlevel etc. Then off to milling the board. I set the depth by moving down close to the board and then loosening my collet and letting the bit fall to the surface of the pcb and then retightened the collet. My milling depth was -0.003" and 8IPM feedrate with my 90deg cutter. I generated the gcode from Eagle-->pcb-Gcode ULP script.....(what a nice software :-D)

Thanks and keep posting pictures!!!!! LETS SEE THOSE BOARDS!!!

[doorknob]

The gerber files are from a posted design by Franz Achatz over on the mbed.org forums. His design is of a clone of the mbed development platform. I used his gerbers as they well represented what I was hoping to achieve with my milled pcbs in their very best case.

LPCmini | mbed

Thanks for the pointer to the LPCmini info... I have been tinkering around with an mbed, but was unaware of this open source hardware effort.

A few questions on your board prep...

After routing the board, do you use acetone or something else to release it from the HDPE backing board?

Also, maybe it was discussed earlier, but how are you registering the board for the double sided layout?

How much setup time did it take you for that board?

I don't have a pcb mill set up yet, but it's on my agenda for later this year...

[dhookings]

Ok - here's one I prepared earlier.
Six double sided boards, all cut at the same time from the one sheet.
I must be the only one in the world using Target 3001 and probing and modifying the gcode using the Mach3 visual basic editor - and the cheap Virtual Village bits.
Still some work to do, but all these six boards will end up in working products.

Dave

[RomanLini]

How are people holding their PCBs down nice and flat?

Most of my PCB stock is warped, at least a couple mm bow over 100mm of board length.

[Jay C]

I have used CA for 2-sided which was messy for me. I now try to keep my boards to a single layer so I can use carpet tape.

[buckeyes1997]

Ok - here's one I prepared earlier.
Six double sided boards, all cut at the same time from the one sheet.
I must be the only one in the world using Target 3001 and probing and modifying the gcode using the Mach3 visual basic editor - and the cheap Virtual Village bits.
Still some work to do, but all these six boards will end up in working products.

Dave

Nice work on those boards. I assume they are double sided pcb's and not single sided glued together to make a 2 layer board? I looked at Target3001 but stuck with EasyPC which I use at work. Its easy to import the gerbers into Eagle-->pcbGcode.ulp. I DO in fact use a CRUDE form of probing at this point actually. I probe in X and Y the board once superglued to the HDPE plate and try to remove the overal form error (Z corrections) through MACH3's axis formulas rather than modifying the gcode directly. I think it works well enough and is a whole lot easier than parsing and editing a whole file. I would love to see the scripts/VB stuff you are using to do your probing if you are the sharing sort.

I dont use acetone to remove my board per se, because the glue gets brittle and seems to only have strength in the sheer direction but the boards pop right off when done milling. I DO have to scrub the back with acetone to remove the superglue. I have only done a few 2 layer boards and the registration was tricky to say the least. I havent developed a good process for doing that but the guide pins method looks like the direction I will head.

[dhookings]

Nice work on those boards. I assume they are double sided pcb's and not single sided glued together to make a 2 layer board? I looked at Target3001 but stuck with EasyPC which I use at work. Its easy to import the gerbers into Eagle-->pcbGcode.ulp. I DO in fact use a CRUDE form of probing at this point actually. I probe in X and Y the board once superglued to the HDPE plate and try to remove the overal form error (Z corrections) through MACH3's axis formulas rather than modifying the gcode directly. I think it works well enough and is a whole lot easier than parsing and editing a whole file. I would love to see the scripts/VB stuff you are using to do your probing if you are the sharing sort.

I dont use acetone to remove my board per se, because the glue gets brittle and seems to only have strength in the sheer direction but the boards pop right off when done milling. I DO have to scrub the back with acetone to remove the superglue. I have only done a few 2 layer boards and the registration was tricky to say the least. I havent developed a good process for doing that but the guide pins method looks like the direction I will head.

Glue two sides together? I'd rather get my old etching tank out.
I use a double sided tape that is distributed by a company in the UK called Duotool. It just needs a bit of heat from a hot air gun and the pcb prizes off nicely.
I don't do anything to adjust levels or compensate in any way manually. I tell my macro which file I want to route and it probes and amends the gcode automatically, producing a new gcode file that I load and cut. I'll see if I can attach the code here, but bear in mind it is made to work on the Target 3001 produced gcode, so expecting a particular syntax.
BTW I love Target.

Oh yes, I use 3mm pins for registration, but I still only drill through 12mm from each direction.



Dave