CNC milling a PCB starting from DIYLC

[soggybag]

Here's a few pictures of PCBs made with the mill if anyone is interested to see what the quality is like.

Over all I like quality of the boards better than etching and drilling. You don't get silk screen so used a sharpie to label things. They solder pretty well but can get a little sloppy without a solder mask. I like to mount pots to the boards. The copper is the only thing hold the board in place and tends to peel off.

[Kevin Mitchell]

Oooooo I want a desktop CNC now. Or again... must... resist...
Clearcoat on the copper and a toner-transfer for the component layout will finish it up well.

[vigilante397]

You don't get silk screen so used a sharpie to label things.

If you convert your silkscreen layer to top signal layer you can pull it in and engrave it like a two-sided board. We had a Bantam machine at my old work, I did that on a handful of boards. I'll have to see if I can find pictures.

[soggybag]

I have the Bantam machine. It's pretty amazing that you can just load a .brd file from Eagle and mill a PCB.

I've had pretty good luck with single sided boards. In theory you can do a two sided board if you have the PCB bracket installed. I tried this once and failed. The flip side was offset by a mm or 2. In theory it should work, my set up may have been off.

Obviously it doesn't do bias so you'll need to solder on the top and bottom sides for through hole connections.

All of that said, after trying this I'm happier making boards in software and having them manufactured. The cost is so low. I have been using PCBWay, they are about $5 for 10 boards. It's cheap I can't beat that doing all of the work myself on the mill.

[statzern]

Super old thread, but I tried this software and it is awesome. Works really well especially for the forum posts that are just png files or pdfs. Etching always works but if you're trying to mill, check this one out!!

https://imagetopcb.wordpress.com/purchase/