The arrival of low cost and accessible one-off PCB manufacturing has been one of many pivotal moments for digital experimenters over the last couple of many years. Maybe just a few nonetheless etch their very own boards, however many hobbiest had been joyful to place away their ferric chloride. There’s one other strategy to make PCBs, although, which is to mill them. [Tom Nixon] has made a small CNC mill for that goal, and it’s slightly lovely.
In operation it’s a traditional XYZ mechanism, with a belt drive for the X and Y and a lead screw for the Z axis. The body is constituted of aluminium extrusion, and the incidental elements such because the belt tensioners are 3D printed. The write-up could be very complete, and takes the reader by all of the levels of building. The brains of the outfit is a Creality 3D printer controller, however he acknowledges that it’s not the very best for the job.
It’s actually not the primary PCB router we’ve seen, however it could be one of many nicer ones. In case you make a PCB this manner, you may like to present it professional-looking solder masks with a laser.
