Re: Re: Hobbyists strike again

A couple of years ago, I milled the PCBs for my stepper driver system. At
the time, I was using Danplot/Dancad and Autocad. I used Autocad to draw
the circuit traces and holes on seperate layers, then sent out a HPGL file
to Dancad for converting to Danplot. I used double stick carpet tape to
hold the boards down to milled flat stock that was held in the vise. My
cutters were carbide v bits that I ground by hand. You can look at some
pictures of that setup at : www.metalworking.com under "dfmill.jpg" in
the older file directories. The prerequisite for all of this would be a
cnc mill, which I had ( I was using smaller drives at the time and wanted
to build more powerful ones). It takes time to outline the traces in
Autocad, but I'm sure that one could use Protel Easy Trax or something
similar to do it faster. I am fluent in Acad, so that's why I did it.
You can also get a free copy of Intellicad at www.cadopia.com (I think
that's right). It is 11 megs, but works just like Autocad 13 and is free.

Dan Falck



At 05:40 AM 10/29/1999 , you wrote:

>From: Andrew Werby <drewid@...>
>
>Message: 3
> Date: Thu, 28 Oct 1999 05:57:48 -0700
> From: "Dan Mauch" <dmauch@...>
>Subject: Re: Hobbiests Strike Again
>
>I looked at his PCB . What impressed me is that he is milling his traces.
>Dan
>
>[Even if he isn't, people keep asking me how they can do this. Is there a
>program out there (or a combination of programs, even) that simplifies this
>process so someone can go from a picture of a pc board to a g-code plot
>file? It would be nice if the hole-drilling were automated as well- am I
>dreaming? Does anybody out there cut pc boards with a mill, or is everybody
>convinced that etching is the way to go?]
>
>Andrew Werby
>