Homebrew PCBs

Hi Brian, John,

What about using a diamond engraver tip?  I bought one (mistakenly)
thinking it was for machining (it was for the Dremel engraver).  But I'm
thinking one could drag it around as well.  I can "read" Gerber files
with my controller program, and I generate "outline" tool paths. from
that.

Alan  KM6VV

Brian Schmalz wrote:
> 
> Crankorgan,
>         Putting bluing on the whole board, then scratching it off with a
> carbide metal scratch tip is the method I'm currently using to do boards. I
> tape the copper down on a piece of paper, then run it through my HP plotter
> (7550A). I get very clean lines and can get down to 10mil space 10mil line
> with a bit of practice, double sided. I've written custom software to take a
> Eagle board file and create HPGL which I then output to the plotter. This
> method really works well since you can use a standard plotter (I just built
> a special 'pen' with the carbide scratch tip) plus some software. Anyway,
> the bluing/scratching method is alive and well . . .
> 
> *Brian
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: crankorgan [mailto:john@...]
> Sent: Saturday, September 14, 2002 6:41 AM
> To: Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [Homebrew_PCBs] Re: Inkjet printing PC boards
> 
> Larry,
>       I sell plans for a PCBmill (Brute) and I just finished a
> machine that will mill or draw simple boards. (Morph)
>       Months ago I brought up the idea of Scratch and Etch. This
> idea is not dead. First I developed a super simple CNC plotter. Now
> I have a machine strong enough to drag a scribe through the blueing.
> Several people tried Scratch and Etch With good results. Coating the
> whole board and then scribing and isolation between pads for etching
> seems easier.