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Mid range cnc circuit board mill wanted.

Mid range cnc circuit board mill wanted.

2016-12-01 by mark.phillis@...

Hi all

I wanted to reach out to those far more experienced than I am. I'm looking at purchasing at a cnc circuit board milling machine . I know there's plenty to choose from but I wanted a good priced well made machine.

If anyone can offer any suggestions on this as I don't want to waste any money.


Thanks in advance

Re: [Homebrew_PCBs] Mid range cnc circuit board mill wanted.

2016-12-01 by M phillis

Are any of those Chinese ones on eBay any good?
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On Thursday, 1 December 2016, mark.phillis@... [Homebrew_PCBs] <Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

Hi all

I wanted to reach out to those far more experienced than I am. I'm looking at purchasing at a cnc circuit board milling machine . I know there's plenty to choose from but I wanted a good priced well made machine.

If anyone can offer any suggestions on this as I don't want to waste any money.


Thanks in advance

Re: [Homebrew_PCBs] Mid range cnc circuit board mill wanted.

2016-12-01 by Boots Hughston

What you want is a very strong frame cast iron or aluminum. A spindle that runs at 40,000 or higher 100,000 is better. No run out air bearings. Software that is easy to use - in English. Ball screws are ok if high quility. My machine is J-Cut I have had it for 5 years, runs and works good. Copper cam is the best iso software to isolated traces. Buy the full version it's around 150. May of the other programs are junk.

Good luck, Boots-2b1

Sent from my iPhone
Show quoted textHide quoted text
> On Dec 1, 2016, at 7:00 AM, M phillis mark.phillis@gmail.com [Homebrew_PCBs] <Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com> wrote:
> 
> Are any of those Chinese ones on eBay any good?
> 
> 
>> On Thursday, 1 December 2016, mark.phillis@... [Homebrew_PCBs] <Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com> wrote:
>>  
>> Hi all
>> 
>> I wanted to reach out to those far more experienced than I am. I'm looking at purchasing at a cnc circuit board milling machine . I know there's plenty to choose from but I wanted a good priced well made machine.
>> 
>> If anyone can offer any suggestions on this as I don't want to waste any money.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Thanks in advance 
>> 
> 
>

Re: [Homebrew_PCBs] Mid range cnc circuit board mill wanted.

2016-12-01 by M phillis

Hi
Thanks for the advice. The Jcut what sort of prices are these? I';ve taken a look but it seems you have to enquire.

Thanks
Show quoted textHide quoted text

On Thursday, 1 December 2016, Boots Hughston boots2b1@... [Homebrew_PCBs] <Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

What you want is a very strong frame cast iron or aluminum. A spindle that runs at 40,000 or higher 100,000 is better. No run out air bearings. Software that is easy to use - in English. Ball screws are ok if high quility. My machine is J-Cut I have had it for 5 years, runs and works good. Copper cam is the best iso software to isolated traces. Buy the full version it's around 150. May of the other programs are junk.

Good luck, Boots-2b1

Sent from my iPhone

On Dec 1, 2016, at 7:00 AM, M phillis mark.phillis@... [Homebrew_PCBs] <Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

Are any of those Chinese ones on eBay any good?

On Thursday, 1 December 2016, mark.phillis@... [Homebrew_PCBs] <Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

Hi all

I wanted to reach out to those far more experienced than I am. I'm looking at purchasing at a cnc circuit board milling machine . I know there's plenty to choose from but I wanted a good priced well made machine.

If anyone can offer any suggestions on this as I don't want to waste any money.


Thanks in advance

Re: [Homebrew_PCBs] Mid range cnc circuit board mill wanted.

2016-12-02 by Boots Hughston

With all Chinese companies if they think you have money it's more. What you want to do is check alababa and Chinese made web sits. Look at the different machines then email the company's pick the company that has been around for a while, makes a bunch of different models and responds to you. You will have to wire them the money. Try to get them to include the shipping usually it is on top of the price. Make sure the machine has a solid frame the light one don't work well because the frame  tweaks. Remember the traces are very small.

Good luck

Sent from my iPhone
Show quoted textHide quoted text
> On Dec 1, 2016, at 10:19 AM, M phillis mark.phillis@... [Homebrew_PCBs] <Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com> wrote:
> 
> Hi
> 
> Thanks for the advice. The Jcut what sort of prices are these? I've taken a look but it seems you have to enquire.
> 
> Thanks
> 
>> On Thursday, 1 December 2016, Boots Hughston boots2b1@... [Homebrew_PCBs] <Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com> wrote:
>>  
>> What you want is a very strong frame cast iron or aluminum. A spindle that runs at 40,000 or higher 100,000 is better. No run out air bearings. Software that is easy to use - in English. Ball screws are ok if high quility. My machine is J-Cut I have had it for 5 years, runs and works good. Copper cam is the best iso software to isolated traces. Buy the full version it's around 150. May of the other programs are junk.
>> 
>> Good luck, Boots-2b1
>> 
>> Sent from my iPhone
>> 
>>> On Dec 1, 2016, at 7:00 AM, M phillis mark.phillis@gmail.com [Homebrew_PCBs] <Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>>  
>>> Are any of those Chinese ones on eBay any good?
>>> 
>>> 
>>> On Thursday, 1 December 2016, mark.phillis@... [Homebrew_PCBs] <Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com> wrote:
>>>>  
>>>> Hi all
>>>> 
>>>> I wanted to reach out to those far more experienced than I am. I'm looking at purchasing at a cnc circuit board milling machine . I know there's plenty to choose from but I wanted a good priced well made machine.
>>>> 
>>>> If anyone can offer any suggestions on this as I don't want to waste any money.
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> Thanks in advance 
>>>> 
> 
>

Re: Mid range cnc circuit board mill wanted.

2016-12-02 by Larry Battraw

I recently picked up a mill of this type (Mid-range, good for anything from wood/plastic on through copper or aluminum) after looking around quite a while. I checked Alibaba and couple other places for deals on Chinese mills but ended up sticking with eBay when it came to buy. It has a _much_ better structure in place for pricing, communication, and seller accountability if things go pear-shaped. It's also good for getting an idea of how trustworthy the seller is and how long they've been active, which is a big deal for me.
You didn't state your price range but I was looking in the neighborhood of $400-$850 (USD) and had a number of things that the mill had to have: ball screws, solid aluminum frame, and a fourth axis. All the generic Chinese lathes tend to use the same type of nomenclature when describing these products: size in cm for X and Y axis, like 3040 for a roughly 30cm x 40m usable area. They also seem to come with more or less identical parts (At least this was the case for the cheaper ones I was looking for), with the exception of the size, whether it had trapezoidal/ball screws, fourth axis, and type of spindle motor (If provided at all). Another nice thing is that there seem to be a large number of people reselling these mills in California so they usually provide free shipping and it arrives within a week or so. Just a warning to be prepared and have a way to move it (Like using a furniture dolly) when it arrives since the main box mine came in was a large, wooden crate that weighed close to 100 pounds!

In the end I went for a 3040 size instead of the cheaper 3020 size, it had the desired ball screws and a very solid fourth axis option (Came with a lathe-style 3-jaw chuck and very hefty motor/gear/chuck mount); it was $707 with free shipping. As far as a spindle motor goes it came with a 560W 120V motor (Supposed to run at 15,000 RPM) with a 3-foot long flexi-shaft cable that served to couple the motor to a small mounting plate/connector on the mill with a mini drill chuck for mounting bits. Not exactly ideal since there wasn't a neat and tidy way to arrange the motor, you just had to set it off to the side and avoid blocking the air intakes/exhaust. It had a fairly average runout, not terrible but not perfect, and I've been working on getting a proper spindle motor that will run at the high RPMs required for PCB milling and drilling. You want to be careful to get a high-quality spindle motor since otherwise you stand a good chance of snapping carbide drill bits and having your trace accuracy destroyed by a milling bit that is not stable/centered.

I upgraded the stepper motor drivers once I used mine for a bit since I found that they tended to "jerk" when stopping or starting, as if the first or last step required a large jump to get into position. There are a large number of cheap drivers available for 1 or 2-day shipping on Amazon and I picked up some inexpensive replacements for about $15 each for a 4A driver with up to 1/32 microstepping:

These work really well and produce extremely smooth, quiet movement at 1/16 stepping. This provides a very high fine resolution of over 40,000 steps/inch, which is more than enough for my needs. Having ball screw lead-screws helps to avoid a significant amount of backlash and I'm very happy with the testing I've performed, including mounting a 250mW 410nm laser to cut paper, mark wood, and expose photoresist. I don't have any testing yet for PCB milling due to the lack of a high-accuracy spindle, but I'm working on that. Here's a listing for the same mill ($709, free S&H) and seller I bought from:


Best regards,
Larry


Re: [Homebrew_PCBs] Re: Mid range cnc circuit board mill wanted.

2016-12-02 by Boots Hughston

Again - most important veryyyy sturdy frame  and high spindle speed, min 40,000 preferred 100,000 if you really want to mill PCB's. 

Most Iso software have a tork setting which makes the start and stop smooth.

Boots-2b1

Sent from my iPhone
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> On Dec 2, 2016, at 7:49 AM, wb8nbs@... [Homebrew_PCBs] <Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com> wrote:
> 
> I know Adafruit uses a couple of Othermills to do proto boards. $3300, and there's much info on the Adafruit  web site.
> 
>

Re: [Homebrew_PCBs] Mid range cnc circuit board mill wanted.

2016-12-02 by M phillis

Thanks for some great advice.
I've looked at the Othermill and others of similar models. The othermill I do like but I don't like the price, although it's so cool. I am in deep thoughts about a stepcraft machine-
These are really exciting me at the moment as there';s plenty of online stuff showing them in use.

I asked about Chinese manufactoued machines as often they are value for money. Trouble is there's so many to chose and very difficult to weed out the good from the bad. The websites seem to be very confusing and from online reports often lead to issues with communication and replacement parts. If I were to choose one I'd get one already in the UK. or close.

I've spotted this on EBay -
But not sure.

Mark


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On Friday, 2 December 2016, Boots Hughston boots2b1@... [Homebrew_PCBs] <Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

Again - most important veryyyy sturdy frame and high spindle speed, min 40,000 preferred 100,000 if you really want to mill PCB's.

Most Iso software have a tork setting which makes the start and stop smooth.

Boots-2b1

Sent from my iPhone

On Dec 2, 2016, at 7:49 AM, wb8nbs@... [Homebrew_PCBs] <Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

I know Adafruit uses a couple of Othermills to do proto boards. $3300, and there's much info on the Adafruit web site.

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