Home Fabricating

Does anyone make their own PCBs at home? If so, share how you do it.

Also, anyone have any experience using a CNC router for circuit printing?

I'm not very fond of chemical baths, acid baths, etc; is there a way to make a PCB without the typical steps? ie: Etching,

Catwell

Thomas over 15 years ago

Hi Catwell,

I use strip boards, and for high current power supplies use Strip or sometimes Vero boards.
You are not fond of chemicals; and you intend to use a CNC router, which you may have at your disposal with the required software(CAD) to convert the PCB layout into scalar. Control the depth of cut, and you have a PCB ready.
A CNC milling or an engraver may also be used for the same.
All this, provided you have access to a well equipped toolroom or workshop.
Happy development.
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enrico.migchels over 15 years ago

Hi Cabe,

CNC millers have some disadvantages also. The milling task is time consuming, you isolate a track by milling a gap and you have to change machine tools. Chemicals are not that bad. About a year ago i asked a company to help me select all necassary machines for a PCB protyping production line and they did not recommend the CNC route. For our situation a traditional chemical bath with streaming water attached was best (and quickest).

Best regards,

Enrico Migchels
Power Conversion Design Engineer
Heliox B,V,
Best - The Netherlands
www.heliox.nl
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fustini over 15 years ago in reply to enrico.migchels

This popped into my head when I first saw the Subject:, the ultimate in home fabricating - checkout Jeri Ellsworth's home transistor fab lab:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeriellsworth/2835459827/

For those that have not heard of her, she is super awesome:

http://lifehacker.com/5480199/macgyver-of-the-day-electronics-hacker-jeri-ellsworth

She rose to DIY stardom after reverse engineering the C64 and implementing on an FPGA. The final product fit inside a joystick with a/v out for a TV and sold 70,000 units on QVC.

Cheers,
Drew
http://twitter.com/pdp7
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