Building a Tiny CNC Router for Making Circuit Boards (opens in new tab)

(tomn.co.uk)

29 pointseldog_9mo ago4 comments

4 comments

> The support for using a camera on the spindle is fun, though also fiddly. Once calibrated, it can be used to find the position of features, in order to set a zero position, or even correct for rotation. In theory, this offers a nice workflow for making double-sided circuit boards, by isolation routing and drilling the first side, and using the drilled holes to align the second side.

Drill two holes in base plate with known distance, then drill the same two holes in pcb. Mount board with some steel pins. When you need to rotate, you have reliable indexing.

tomn9mo ago

Yeah, it's certainly doable, just a bit tricky because the spoil-board is not attached to the base, and is replaced nearly every time. It also needs at least one extra tool set-up.

If I needed a lot of double-sided boards it would be worth optimising this, but I don't really, single-sided (or the second side being 100% ground) is generally sufficient.

dustbunny9mo ago

This combined with the "3d printed vtol drone" from yesterday is certainly an incredible set of feats for amateur manufacturing.

survirtual9mo ago

I like this technique for prototyping and one-off circuits a lot. Thank you for sharing. I may throw together a similar device.

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