Getting the hang of PCB milling

jephthai

2721

This is the finished product. I think this is my fourth board, and is the most complex to date. I tried some narrower traces, and did some experimenting with feed rates. I'm really impressed with how successful milling PCBs has been so far!

The gerber looks like this. It's a linear RF amplifier that should be good for perhaps 6 watts of output in the HF bands.

This is also the first board I'm milling with my new idea for clamping to the spoiler board. It worked great -- I'm still continuity mapping to get a heightmap, but I noticed that the board was substantially flatter screwed in like this, rather than taped down as I had tried before.

After milling was done, I deburred and cleaned it up a bit. I'm beginning to dial in good footprints and understand how to adapt PCB design to the milling process. None of the traces of thermals are shockingly narrow, so I think I'm getting my cut depths right now!

diy

maker

amateur_radio

hamradio

andreastrott

Could you share details on your hardware? The kind of the used cutter and depth rates?

3 years ago |

drduffer

I know I’m smart. I have a Doctorate. I have absolutely no idea what this post is referring to. I mean, I get that it’s hardware related, >

4 years ago |

> but beyond that it’s sheer gibberish.

Using a computer controlled mill (think hard-core dremel) to make circuit boards without ordering them from a company that makes 'em.

Oh. Thanks. Why didn’t you say that in the first place? This is sort of me posting something about interdigitating cardimyocytes.

StrayCatsMakeGreatKibble

It's looking pretty good, still need to dial in the edges (have a short on the left-hand side, 1/3rd way up on horizontal thin trace).

I've made some with etching chemicals and transparency photocopies before, but that's also messy.

It's not a short; it's a burr that was easily cleared after the backlight inspection. Should've taken an after pic!

No worries, I thought the final picture was the "after" pic and wanted to make sure that you knew before assembling. :)

Comments (14)