For a while we had the PCB mill sitting in electronics, no-one has it running or has taught anybody how to use it.
I believe the status of making PCBs at the makerspace is there’s a few folks who’d be interested in a class but no-one knows how to do it and is willing to teach one.
Personally, I understand the process but don’t want to mess with the chemicals and put in the work when I can order a board from a Chinese board house for less cost than the chemicals and a wait time of about a week.
Any etching chemicals would be found in Science. Don’t think we have a pcb etching set up. Paging @GreenOrbs - Science Chair.
The Plastics SIG (PIGSIG) has a Carbide Nomad. Kevin @keoliver can give you the details. Problem w/ drilling/machining pcb boards is dust control. I don’t think drilling/machining fiberglass type boards is currently allowed. Subject to change - dust control,
I’ll second this I used to make boards but it’s just not worth it these days. Also if you don’t want to go to China, oshpark.com makes custom boards really cheap in the US but they’re more expensive than China.
I considered developing a class for doing PCB etching at one point so I went and asked around. The overwhelming feedback I recieved was that making boards was simply not worth it. Of all the people I talked to only one had even a vague interest in etching boards.
Unless I get an indication that interest has substantially increased since then, I don’t intend to develop such a class at this time.
Dale, the Dallas Personal Robotics Group (DPRG) recently held an intro/training at DMS on using KICAD for PCB design. You can watch it here.
DPRG members also have a ton of experience and feedback with using very inexpensive fab shops to make custom PCBs. I forget the names of those but can dig those out if you want.
**Bottom line - path of “least resistance” → ** KICAD → inexpensive fab shop → boards to your address in just a few days.
BTW - you’re welcome to jump in any DPRG meeting to ask about this. We meet online every Tuesday night and in person typically once per month on the 4th Saturday at DMS. Learn more at https://www.dprg.org/
I’ve been out of town over the weekend so a big thanks to all who responded!
The guy I watch on YouTube and Patreon is very particular about people other than his Patreon members producing the PCB’s (except for personal use to experiment with.) So my interest is in one’s or two’s at a time. I’ll explore if that still makes sense with a PCB fab.
Also, thanks for the heads-up about the Dallas Robotics Group. I’ll contact them as well.
