Saturday, 29 March 2014

PCB Isolation routing

I first saw isolation routing at an electronics trade show years ago. For anyone reading this who does not know, instead of etching a PCB by disolving unwanted copper in an acid bath, isolation routing cuts out the tracks you want by milling a cut in the copper around the track. This is something I have wanted to try since the first day I saw a YouTube video of someone making their own PCBs with a CNC machine. 
Of course it isn't that easy. I tried KiCad -> gerber -> g-code but it didn't work. I then went back to the (apparently more common) Eagle -> PCB2Gcode approach. It took a few tries but eventually (after turning off the checkboxes for the comments) Mach3 read in the file. 
I tried with my Ferm(cheap Dremmel) plus Dremmel sharp pointed bit (30 degree??? Pointy bit). 

I've tried three runs so far. 
It's very difficult to get it to cut through all of the copper evenly without ripping off sections. You can also see jagged lines where it digs in rather than cutting smoothly. 

Ummmm... Track width too small and setting for router bit width too small... Try increasing both....

Less bad but its still really difficult to get it to cut the copper. Try again this time going lower and lower and lower on the z axis. Oh yes, the tape holding the board became loose so it wobbled by a couple of mm. 

I also tried an engraving bit but this is really meant to grind on the side not the end - it didn't work. 

I think I need a new real router bit. 

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