Hi All,

My first post here, and I'm new to both CNC and milling PCBs. And by new, I mean I had never even powered up a mill or milled anythingbefore three weeks ago and I'm still only self-taught.

So I'm trying to do things as cheaply as possible until I get the hang of it. This means avoiding commercial software where possible, or anything that's tied to a specific PCB manufacturer.

I used to make PCBs with photoresist and a double sided UV case, but for the times I make PCBs, it's a pain to mix chemicals up in the required quantities for a single PCB and then dispose of it all. I had a 6040 mill gathering dust in the shed ( had problems with the parallel port and shelved it for a decade ) so I pulled it out, fixed it up and added a USB breakout to work with Windows 10. But it's been challenging even finding free software to cover every part of the process.

So after looking around and trying different things, I put together a basic setup involving;

* FreePCB. It's not great but it works. It's the only free PCB software I've been able to find that outputs Gerber.
* FlatCAM. This is surprisingly good, is free to use.
* Autoleveller077. This also works remarkably well, and puts out Mach3 format gcode.

I'm using 0.1mm 10degree engraving bits, which make a mess, but it's easily cleaned up with a quick polish after engraving, and I'm getting sub 10-thou cuts with a new bit and even worn bits seem OK.

Currently, I'm missing some easy options. One example is a simple way of cutting the PCB since I can't edit the gcode ( and haven't worked out if FlatCAM can edit it ) and flatcam treats the outline as a path and tries to mill both sides which is a problem. At best, I get around this by manually editing the gcode.

Anyway, this brings the newbie question. Is there are other free software packages I should be looking at that others have tried and can recommend? It's all working, but it could work better. Interestingly, there is clearly need for a PCB layout application with milling intended from the start, but I couldn't find one at all - even among the commercial packages.

And are there any better bits out there? That cans still give me sub 10-thou cuts? I can live with 14-thou if necessary, but 15 too much and it needs to be reliable. Cutting depth isn't perfect, so I'm hesitant to use wider bits. I did have a good bit that came with the router, and it worked well at first, but not for long and the other bits I had which all looked the same were no good at all.

I only have a 12000 rpm spindle which puts out about 11800 so please also consider this in any suggestions - And all comments and thoughts welcome. As I mentioned, I'm very new, entirely self-taught so far and completely inexperienced so please assume I know pretty much nothing at all, as that's not far from the situation.

Thanks
David