Does anyone know if there are any hacks out there to convert a 3d printer to be able to mill PCB’s like in this linked article?
Surely it could be easily achieved with a bed clamp and X carriage Dremel attachment or low powered motor!
http://geekboy.it/videos/rapid-prototyping-of-a-circuit-board
Dremel doesn’t have good-enough bearings, in my opinion. You need a spindle that has like 0.05mm runout because the tolerances on milling pcb’s are really tight. (In part that’s a function of how small the feature sizes are, but in larger part it’s because the engraving bits you use are always carbide and it will chip and fail in a high runout spindle.)
PCB software outputs gerber files; there are a number of gerber-to-gcode converters. (a linux pcb program called pcb will output gcode directly.)
So software wise easy, hardware more challenging!
There are some minor software issues. One of the major advantages of milled boards is you can do double-sided boards with all the holes in the right places… if you can reverse the g-code for the backside and figure out how to mirror the board.
The other thing to think about is that the dust coming off the board cut is nasty stuff: fiberglass-epoxy powder with little copper bits in. Abrasive awful material. PCB mills have built-in vacuum systems to suck all the debris away.
I’m sure adding a fan/suction to the X carriage wouldn’t be a problem, in fact by the sounds of it that would be the easiest part! Lol
I can tell you, having done a lot of work with cnc mills, that it’s harder to catch all that junk than you’d think: it blows out in every direction. Our PCB mill at work has a full enclosure around the bit, that drops down and sits on the board, with fuzzy material to seal to the board, and a vacuum hose attachment beside.
Ah right I see! I imagine sealing to the bed could be difficult though I’m sure one of the many fan systems for cooling PLA could be reversed with flexible hose connected quite easily to remove a high percentage easily. Plus some people use heated chambers for printing ABS which again would double up for containing the dust!
By the sounds of it the main concern would be sourcing and powering the correct motor for milling! After that a quick attachment for the X carriage could be fitted to support the bit and vacuum system!
Here’s a thought: traditional cnc mills used for milling have trouble because the copper pcb isn’t perfectly flat/copper thickness isn’t consistent so you don’t always get great cuts. People buy (pretty expensive) sprung collets that hold the cutter down to the board, so it just tracks the board surface so who cares if it’s flat. PCB mills, however, have a head that’s on a spring, for lack of a better term: it drops and sits on the copper, pulled into contact by the vacuum.
un trais bonne idé avec un fraiseuse numérique
Hey, relevant page: http://reprap.org/wiki/PCB_Milling#PCB-GCode
discusses pretty much everything you need.
champion cheers!