Looking for training on the PCB mill

I’ve heard we have a PCB mill, and I’d be very interested in learning how to use it. If anybody would be willing to walk me though it, I’d be really grateful! I have a board mocked up in eagle that I’d like to try to make.

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The wiki says @Kentamanos and Lance Preston are the ‘Gods of the PCB mill’, if someone would be kind enough to get their attention for me.

@knotbob and I are demigods at ABSOLUTE most… (didn’t know that page existed by the way)

I’ll be up there tonight, but possibly busy checking out people on Multicam. There should be a couple of people helping with that, so I can most likely get away for a bit.

Keep in mind we typically use a BYOB (bring your own bit) approach, so we don’t have any endmills etc. I can walk you thru everything else so that you’d be ready when you have them if you don’t already. Also keep in mind the physical limitations of the milling process etc. You won’t be able to achieve super fine pitch traces. No QFP or anything like that :smile:.

There are multiple steps to using it. Make sure you can get Gerbers for the copper and the (Excellon) drill files out of Eagle first.

After that there are a few options for creating G-Code from the Gerbers/drill files. I use a command line program on the machine. Some people use a plugin inside of Eagle (which might not require Gerbers, but I’ve never used it).

Then it’s just a matter of knowing how to run LinuxCNC (AKA EMC2). This is fairly straight forward and the only actual part where machine usage comes into play.

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My design is a few sq in, two-sided board with (what I think is) reasonably wide spacing between traces. I have made Gerbers with CAM files off of sparkfun, I’m not actually sure what that means though. I’m definitely no machinist, but I’d like to learn! Being able to make boards would be definitely worth buying my own bits.

I can probably be in there about 6, if I’m not hanging around the machine, I’ll be in the 3d fab room.

Gerbers are basically just a 2D vector type format used in PCB manufacturing. It’s the dominant format for copper layers etc. Excellon drill files are typically used for (wait for it…) drilling holes. They just have X/Y position of all the holes for thru hole.

CAM files probably mean G-code files generated by a CAM program (a program that takes digital designs and creates G-code for moving a machine). G-code is the language used by almost all CNC machines, but there are multiple dialects. The Haas VF2, Multicam CNC Router, and PCB mill for instance use different dialects. Our 3D printers use G-code, but it’s typically not really obvious to the users of them. “Real” CAM programs typically have “post processors” that let you create G-Code usable by a specific manufacturer/machine.

If you want, send me a link to the files you’re seeing on Sparkfun and I’ll take a quick look.

Maybe you could use gocupi and a silver circuit pen :smile:

-Robert ‘knows not of what he speaks’ Jenks

Is anyone available later this week to help me learn how to use the mill? I have some blank pcb copper boards on order, should be in by thursday/friday. so maybe if anyone is available friday night or saturday to give me an overview of the operation procedure that’d be great!
Thanks!

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