Homebrew PCBs

Tony Jeffree wrote:

> At 16:44 11/04/2002 +1000, you wrote:
> >The CNC will give you accuracy and repeatability without effort on
> >your behalf. My question was is it worth money and effort building one
> >of these machines to gain that accuracy in hobbyists quantities ?
>
> For me, it isn't so much accuracy & repeatability that is the issue
> (although for some purposes, that is important too) - I just can't work up
> enough enthusiasm to hand drill 30+ holes when the alternative is to feed a
> drawing into my CNC mill & hit the "GO" button.
>
> What I have found since acquiring my desktop CNC mill (a Taig) is that the
> number of uses I discover for it increases with each project I do. Sure, if
> you are building or buying a CNC machine that can only ever cope with
> milling traces & drilling PCB holes, then it is a lot of effort/cost for
> relatively little gain (unless you do a lot of prototyping or short
> production runs); however, if you build/buy a machine that is capable of
> doing other stuff too, then you end up with a versatile and useful tool
> that can be pressed into service for other jobs.
>
> Also, for the hobbyist, don't underestimate the sheer
> fun/interest/achievement aspect of designing, building, and running your
> own CNC machine - it is a fascinating process in its own right.
>

Fascinating, I bet.

You pretty much answered my question. If its going to be used as a general tool
then it could end up becoming indispensable for the home workshop. In this case
then it should be built for milling capability. For exclusive PCB hole drilling
then a well designed hand operated drill press does the job without a drama.

Adam