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OT PCB Milling — Parallax Forums

OT PCB Milling

ArchiverArchiver Posts: 46,084
edited 2000-03-28 23:14 in General Discussion
Does anyone know of a cheap ( < $500.00 ) PCB milling machine.
One that removes copper with a milling bit and hopefully drills the
pin holes also.

Thanks, Bean.

Comments

  • ArchiverArchiver Posts: 46,084
    edited 2000-03-28 00:06
    Terry,

    I doubt it. Its just not done that way, you etch the metal off,
    I have never heard of anyone milling it off.

    DLC

    Terry wrote:
    >
    > Does anyone know of a cheap ( < $500.00 ) PCB milling machine.
    > One that removes copper with a milling bit and hopefully drills the
    > pin holes also.
    >
    > Thanks, Bean.
    >
    >
    > eGroups.com Home: http://www.egroups.com/group/basicstamps/
    > http://www.egroups.com - Simplifying group communications

    --
    Dennis Clark http://www.verinet.com/~dlc
    dlc@v...
  • ArchiverArchiver Posts: 46,084
    edited 2000-03-28 00:18
    There is a guy in Nuts & Volts (gee, did anyone see our ad in the March
    issue?) that advertises that he will mill your boards -- but he wants to do
    it for you. www.pcbmilling.com

    There are some restrictions, though. It leaves copper around the traces
    (ground plane for free, I suppose). I have not tried this.

    Regards,

    Al Williams
    AWC
    * Floating point math for the Stamp, PIC, SX, or any micro at
    http://www.al-williams.com/awce/pak1.htm


    >
    Original Message
    > From: Dennis Clark [noparse]/noparse]mailto:[url=http://forums.parallaxinc.com/group/basicstamps/post?postID=Cm7oMp6T2JbApx1y2STT0EFR8b8XconSJCJXfBUWlh-HLwMlPcowkLSj-NnORyOOlkAyikJ0sQ]dlc@v...[/url
    > Sent: Monday, March 27, 2000 5:06 PM
    > To: basicstamps@egroups.com
    > Subject: [noparse][[/noparse]basicstamps] Re: OT PCB Milling
    >
    >
    > Terry,
    >
    > I doubt it. Its just not done that way, you etch the metal off,
    > I have never heard of anyone milling it off.
    >
    > DLC
    >
    > Terry wrote:
    > >
    > > Does anyone know of a cheap ( < $500.00 ) PCB milling machine.
    > > One that removes copper with a milling bit and hopefully drills the
    > > pin holes also.
    > >
    > > Thanks, Bean.
    > >
    > >
    > > eGroups.com Home: http://www.egroups.com/group/basicstamps/
    > > http://www.egroups.com - Simplifying group communications
    >
    > --
    >
    > Dennis Clark http://www.verinet.com/~dlc
    > dlc@v...
    >
    >
    >
    > eGroups.com Home: http://www.egroups.com/group/basicstamps/
    > http://www.egroups.com - Simplifying group communications
    >
  • ArchiverArchiver Posts: 46,084
    edited 2000-03-28 01:05
    Yes it is done, I have one of the machines, but they aren't cheap. I
    bought it from my former employer and they paid $20,000 for it. LPKF is
    the brand, but there are others too.

    Stew Benedict


    The power in technology lies in getting it to
    work the way you do, we can help.
    Stew Benedict *** AYS Enterprises *** stewb@e...
    home.earthlink.net/~stewb ICQ: 18063833
    Phone/Fax: 216-228-3983 Pager: 440-302-6438

    On Mon, 27 Mar 2000, Dennis Clark wrote:

    > Terry,
    >
    > I doubt it. Its just not done that way, you etch the metal off,
    > I have never heard of anyone milling it off.
    >
    > DLC
    >
    > Terry wrote:
    > >
    > > Does anyone know of a cheap ( < $500.00 ) PCB milling machine.
    > > One that removes copper with a milling bit and hopefully drills the
    > > pin holes also.
    > >
    > > Thanks, Bean.
    > >
    > >
    > > eGroups.com Home: http://www.egroups.com/group/basicstamps/
    > > http://www.egroups.com - Simplifying group communications
    >
    > --
    >
    > Dennis Clark http://www.verinet.com/~dlc
    > dlc@v...
    >
    >
    >
    > eGroups.com Home: http://www.egroups.com/group/basicstamps/
    > http://www.egroups.com - Simplifying group communications
    >
    >
    >
  • ArchiverArchiver Posts: 46,084
    edited 2000-03-28 01:30
    Stew,

    Wow. I guess it is possible for one-off boards, but, it doesn't sound
    very cost-effective. How fast is it?

    DLC

    Stew Benedict wrote:
    >
    > Yes it is done, I have one of the machines, but they aren't cheap. I
    > bought it from my former employer and they paid $20,000 for it. LPKF is
    > the brand, but there are others too.
    >
    > Stew Benedict
    >
    > The power in technology lies in getting it to
    > work the way you do, we can help.
    > Stew Benedict *** AYS Enterprises *** stewb@e...
    > home.earthlink.net/~stewb ICQ: 18063833
    > Phone/Fax: 216-228-3983 Pager: 440-302-6438
    >
    > On Mon, 27 Mar 2000, Dennis Clark wrote:
    >
    > > Terry,
    > >
    > > I doubt it. Its just not done that way, you etch the metal off,
    > > I have never heard of anyone milling it off.
    > >
    > > DLC
    > >
    > > Terry wrote:
    > > >
    > > > Does anyone know of a cheap ( < $500.00 ) PCB milling machine.
    > > > One that removes copper with a milling bit and hopefully drills the
    > > > pin holes also.
    > > >
    > > > Thanks, Bean.
    > > >
    > > >
    > > > eGroups.com Home: http://www.egroups.com/group/basicstamps/
    > > > http://www.egroups.com - Simplifying group communications
    > >
    > > --
    > >
    > > Dennis Clark http://www.verinet.com/~dlc
    > > dlc@v...
    > >
    > >
    > >
    > > eGroups.com Home: http://www.egroups.com/group/basicstamps/
    > > http://www.egroups.com - Simplifying group communications
    > >
    > >
    > >
    >
    >
    > eGroups.com Home: http://www.egroups.com/group/basicstamps/
    > http://www.egroups.com - Simplifying group communications

    --
    Dennis Clark http://www.verinet.com/~dlc
    dlc@v...
  • ArchiverArchiver Posts: 46,084
    edited 2000-03-28 02:27
    Bean:

    The following might be a source for you and you might be able to squeak by
    for around $500 bucks if you just buy all the components and put it together
    yourself.

    Its a minimill from http://www.maxnc.com/page3.html ,pretty dang neat IMHO.

    They're also very nice too, but a little busy.

    But they're programmable by regular M and G codes, not a full set but pretty
    good all the same, for example you can do tool offsets and circular milling.

    No, I don't work there, just use one at work, not for PCB's rather aluminum
    fastener mfg.

    Mark

    Original Message
    From: Terry <thitt@i...>
    To: basicstamps@egroups.com <basicstamps@egroups.com>
    Date: Monday, March 27, 2000 1:24 PM
    Subject: [noparse][[/noparse]basicstamps] OT PCB Milling


    >Does anyone know of a cheap ( < $500.00 ) PCB milling machine.
    >One that removes copper with a milling bit and hopefully drills the
    >pin holes also.
    >
    >Thanks, Bean.
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >eGroups.com Home: http://www.egroups.com/group/basicstamps/
    >http://www.egroups.com - Simplifying group communications
    >
    >
    >
  • ArchiverArchiver Posts: 46,084
    edited 2000-03-28 02:46
    It used to take an afternoon on a 6-up of a small board if you wanted to
    remove all the excess copper. For them it was cost effective, becasue
    they pay $1000 a pop for fast turn on protoypes. They machine fell into
    disuse though, because we found that for EMI testing, we really needed the
    real board with mask etc. to get a good idea of performance. Also, at the
    time the software stunk, hopefully it's improved. I haven't put the
    machine to use yet, I've got some other plans for it. I traded it for
    some consulting work I did.

    Stew
  • ArchiverArchiver Posts: 46,084
    edited 2000-03-28 15:13
    There is such a machine . Rocketdyne at the site here has 2 of them. They will
    do a 1 ft square board. We have had them do a couple prototype boards for us. I
    will try to get in tou.ch with a friend who works there and see if he can get me
    a name or part number.


    >>> Dennis Clark <dlc@v...> 03/27/00 05:06PM >>>
    Terry,

    I doubt it. Its just not done that way, you etch the metal off,
    I have never heard of anyone milling it off.

    DLC

    Terry wrote:
    >
    > Does anyone know of a cheap ( < $500.00 ) PCB milling machine.
    > One that removes copper with a milling bit and hopefully drills the
    > pin holes also.
    >
    > Thanks, Bean.
    >
    >
    > eGroups.com Home: http://www.egroups.com/group/basicstamps/
    > http://www.egroups.com - Simplifying group communications

    --
    Dennis Clark http://www.verinet.com/~dlc
    dlc@v...
    eGroups.com Home: http://www.egroups.com/group/basicstamps/
    http://www.egroups.com - Simplifying group communications
  • ArchiverArchiver Posts: 46,084
    edited 2000-03-28 23:14
    I think this method will gain popularity as chemical disposal continue to
    increase.

    Thanks to all for the info, Bean.
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