Designing PCB circuit boards with students

[Lucie deLaBruere]

I'm taking a class this semester in Computer Organization and Architecture and would love to revisit an idea I had back in 2017 when I bought an Other Mill CNC (now Bantam Mill). 
I saw Matt Dillon at Iolani School in Hawaii do this with his Middle School students using Eagle software.    They were simple circuit boards, but very inspiring. 
Is there anybody else out there doing something like this.  I would love some inspiration and some resources that would help me dust off the Other Mill and revisit this idea. 

Welcoming any ideas and resources?

Is Eagle software the best way for beginners to get started?
I also seem to remember a place where you could get your circuit boards printed if you didn't have a CNC  tool.   

I'd love to do something hands on for my class project that might be replicable for other STEM or CS educators.  Ideas and Resources welcomed. 

Lucie deLaBruere

[Brian Bicknell]

Milling your own pcbs is a fun project, but can be challenging depending on the complexity of the design. 

I use Eagle, but it is being obsoleted by Autodesk in June of next year. Something to think about if you are building a long-term curriculum or scope and sequence with this project. KiCad is a great open source solution. I believe Eagle can generate gcode natively using the PCB-Gcode ULP. You might need to use a third party CAM software with KiCad (never done it, but something like FlatCAM might work). 

If you are okay with it, you can get very cheap prototype pcbs made in China. I use JLCpcb.com and their process is pretty intuitive and easy and their support is excellent. You could probably even panelize an entire class's designs with a little planning and parameters. Have fun! 

Best,

Brian Bicknell  Director of Engineering and Design  Pronouns: he/him/his  br...@synapseschool.org | 650.294.4570 Educating a Community of Change Makers  www.synapseschool.org

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[Sylvia Martinez]

Hey, it's not exactly circuit boards, but it's an interesting project that got written up in the FabLearn blogs - Circuit stickers: electronic circuits made of copper tape

It uses a vinyl cutter to cut copper tape into circuits. 

https://fellows.fablearn.org/circuit-stickers-electronic-circuits-made-of-copper-tape/

Sylvia Martinez

[Mark Loundy]

Sylvia,

Broken link on the video.

Mark Loundy (He, Him, His)

Instructional Technology Specialist 

Google Certified Educator

Ignited Fellow

Silicon Valley

---

From: k-12-f...@googlegroups.com <k-12-f...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Sylvia Martinez <sylvi...@gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, September 23, 2025 6:50:09 PM
To: K-12 Fab Labs and Makerspaces <k-12-f...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [k-12-fablabs] Designing PCB circuit boards with students

 

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/k-12-fablabs/7aff1fda-ca22-4234-b3d4-2c09879d9dbbn%40googlegroups.com.

[Sylvia Martinez]

Yeah, it's old. But the gist of it is there. :-)

[Kimberly Fogarty]

Amazing! Thank you for sharing!  This will be a key activity in my forthcoming Advanced 2D Design!

Kim

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/k-12-fablabs/7daede17-b890-4adc-ad45-80287634ca56n%40googlegroups.com.

[Joseph Chiu]

Apologies for the wall-o-text to follow.  I hope it's useful.

I use my Othermill professionally and love it.   https://x.com/search?q=from%3Atoybuilder%20othermill&src=typed_query

If you spend enough time to really learn it, you can do very fine-pitched designs, too: https://x.com/toybuilder/status/1749599149660709103/photo/2

Have you used it yourself and made a few boards by yourself yet?  There is a bit of a learning curve to get the right combination of feedstock and bits, setting up the tool table (database that describes your bits and their operating parameters), and using it.

The Bantam software takes in Gerber data which almost all PCB design programs will create.  If you already have Eagle, great.  KiCAD is much more popular today thanks in large part to it being free and a very capable tool.  I use Altium professionally, but it is pricey - I am not sure how licensing works for K-12 education.  There is also Fritzing which could be useful in the right context -- I wouldn't use it for a serious project, but it has a very low effort barrier for making very simple boards (like a LED + resistor + battery).

For most of the electronics CAD programs, you can set up design rules to ensure that the traces and spaces between them are suitable for the cuttings tools you are prepared to use (more on the tools below).  Not using the design rule checking offered by the tool results in boards that you cannot fabricate.

Before having kids try to design a board from scratch, you might want to have them assemble a basic board with some components and get familiar with how the traces connect the parts together to make the electrical paths.   

The Othermill can be used to make 2-sided boards -- but that's more headache than it's worth.  Plan your projects to be 1-sided and make liberal use of wires and long legs of component leads to work around routing challenges.

For working mostly with large traces for through-hole components, inexpensive FR1 blanks from Amazon will work well enough.  If you need to handle finer traces, higher quality FR1 becomes imperative to get good results.  (I source the high-quality FR1 from Bantam.)

For 1/32" milling (the larger traces), I've been very happy with these bits from Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07S5HX5NS -- the cutting portion is short, and as the bit widens to the 1/8" shaft quickly, the bit is more rigid, which yields a better result than bits with a much longer cutting height.

For fine trace milling, I have been getting great results from these bits from PreciseBits (nee Think and Tinker): https://www.precisebits.com/products/carbidebits/tapered_stub_125.asp -- I mostly rely on the .0071" bit (EM3E8-0071-15V).  They are pricey, but worth it for my professional needs.  I would be careful about using them until you've had some experience under your belt.  Some of my earlies learning of the Othermill involved breaking fragile small diameter bits.  The "snap" that you hear as you blow a $20+ bit is not a fun sound.

Basic 3M double-sided tape works for the basic board making.  For the finer boards, I do use higher quality "Tessa" tapes which hold the FR1 much more securely.

Be sure to snug up the bit well.  I once had a bit that was improperly snugged work itself slightly loose and ended up carving small grooves on the bed.  Fortunately, the grooves were very shallow and didn't affect the grip of boards taped to the bed -- but you might not be so lucky.  

The mill is rather loud during use.  In my case, it's made even louder because I run it with the dust collector add-on and a vacuum cleaner that is turned on while running the job.  For a stock setup, I suggest getting the bit fan to blow the dust away from the board surface. (https://support.bantamtools.com/hc/en-us/articles/115000723673-Installing-and-Using-a-Bit-Fan)  

Depending on a variety of factors, you sometimes end up with board that are cut very cleanly and are perfect for use without any additional steps.  At other times, a bit of scrubbing with Scotchbrite pads or a toothbrush or a wire brush is needed to knock off little handing flakes of copper.

For sending your gerbers out and getting the boards made, PCBWay and JLCPCB are the top two well known PCB houses.  In the US, OSH Park is popular with hobbyists and moderately priced.  I've also used Bay Area Circuits and Advanced Circuits -- while their full service boards are likely too price, if you need quality 2-layer boards without soldermask, they offer 24-hour "bare bones" PCB service which can come in handy when building a project.

I'm sure I left some stuff out.  Happy to answer on list or privately.

On Tue, Sep 23, 2025 at 7:31 AM Lucie deLaBruere <ldela...@gmail.com> wrote:

--

[Lucie deLaBruere]

WOW. Joe

That is a wealth of information.  
I've been imagining some low threshold activities that can inspire students who might be interested in such a high ceiling activity.   

One idea that is running through my mind right now is to start by doing some 'close looking'  at some simple circuit boards like the Lilypad Twinkle  and reprogramming it 

https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/re-programming-the-lilytiny--lilytwinkle/all
or having students replicate it with a Microbit 

Maybe also remap the Makey Makey 
https://makeymakey.com/pages/remap?srsltid=AfmBOorRI6fbIacIpTOPK0krqMR510tiV3ACQ-Wkfq_CyyqD2Mb8EHDT

Thanks to your response as well as the ones I received  from Clint John and Brian Bicknell, I'm now down a rabbit hole of how to create  accessible hands on activities that can make these concepts accessible for middle school students.  

I just stumbled across this idea

https://www.instructables.com/Making-3D-Printed-Circuit-Boards-With-Tinkercad/

Thanks everyone...

Lucie

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Lucie deLaBruere (she/her)
www.CreateMakeLearn.org

Google Voice  ‪(802) 404-1640‬

ldela...@gmail.com

--------------------------------------
Nothing is really work unless you would rather be doing something else.
  - James M. Barrie
---------------------------------------

Google Certified Educator / Google for Education Certified Trainer, Raspberry Pi Certified Educator

       

[Anna Delia]

Following this that I have done the vinyl cut circuits with 4^th grade and older, and they are fun/easy to attach to a piece of acrylic so students can see the circuit behind their work. I also learned at the Elizabeth Forward School in PA that you can make conductive material by attaching 1 sheet of aluminum foil to 1-2 pieces of sticky contact paper (sticky side toward the aluminum)– which makes it thick enough to go through the vinyl cutter without tearing and is significantly less expensive than a roll of copper tape vinyl.

 

Fun thread!

Anna

 

 

Anna Delia

Chair – ISACS Accreditation  |  Fab Labs & STEM Support

Phone: 614-330-1542

Blogs and Projects at fabplay.hawken.edu

Instagram: @hawkenfabplay

Come Join the Fab Play Institute for Maker Educators

Hawken School  |  Gates Mills, Ohio

 

 

 

From: k-12-f...@googlegroups.com <k-12-f...@googlegroups.com> On Behalf Of Sylvia Martinez
Sent: Tuesday, September 23, 2025 9:50 PM
To: K-12 Fab Labs and Makerspaces <k-12-f...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [k-12-fablabs] Designing PCB circuit boards with students

 

Hey, it's not exactly circuit boards, but it's an interesting project that got written up in the FabLearn blogs - Circuit stickers: electronic circuits made of copper tape

 

It uses a vinyl cutter to cut copper tape into circuits. 

https://fellows.fablearn.org/circuit-stickers-electronic-circuits-made-of-copper-tape/

 

Sylvia Martinez

 

On Tuesday, September 23, 2025 at 9:00:28 AM UTC-7 br...@synapseschool.org wrote:

Milling your own pcbs is a fun project, but can be challenging depending on the complexity of the design. 

 

I use Eagle, but it is being obsoleted by Autodesk in June of next year. Something to think about if you are building a long-term curriculum or scope and sequence with this project. KiCad is a great open source solution. I believe Eagle can generate gcode natively using the PCB-Gcode ULP. You might need to use a third party CAM software with KiCad (never done it, but something like FlatCAM might work). 

 

If you are okay with it, you can get very cheap prototype pcbs made in China. I use JLCpcb.com and their process is pretty intuitive and easy and their support is excellent. You could probably even panelize an entire class's designs with a little planning and parameters. Have fun!

 

Best,

 

Brian Bicknell  Director of Engineering and Design  Pronouns: he/him/his

http://br...@synapseschool.org | 650.294.4570

Educating a Community of Change Makers  www.synapseschool.org

 

On Tue, Sep 23, 2025 at 7:31 AM Lucie deLaBruere <http://ldela...@gmail.com> wrote:

I'm taking a class this semester in Computer Organization and Architecture and would love to revisit an idea I had back in 2017 when I bought an Other Mill CNC (now Bantam Mill). 
I saw Matt Dillon at Iolani School in Hawaii do this with his Middle School students using Eagle software.    They were simple circuit boards, but very inspiring. 
Is there anybody else out there doing something like this.  I would love some inspiration and some resources that would help me dust off the Other Mill and revisit this idea. 

 

Welcoming any ideas and resources?

Is Eagle software the best way for beginners to get started?
I also seem to remember a place where you could get your circuit boards printed if you didn't have a CNC  tool.   

 

I'd love to do something hands on for my class project that might be replicable for other STEM or CS educators.  Ideas and Resources welcomed. 

 

Lucie deLaBruere

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[Sylvia Martinez]

That’s such a great idea, Anna!

By the way, I should also mention that this project was written up in the second volume of the FabLearn Fellows book - which is available for free in glorious full-color PDF form. All the broken images should be visible in this format (not the videos, of course!)

This webpage has all three volumes with download links (and Amazon links if you love it and want it in convinient paper form!) This vinyl cutter circuit project is in Volume 2, page 170.

Sylvia

On Sep 24, 2025, at 7:07 AM, Anna Delia <AD...@hawken.edu> wrote:

Following this that I have done the vinyl cut circuits with 4^th grade and older, and they are fun/easy to attach to a piece of acrylic so students can see the circuit behind their work. I also learned at the Elizabeth Forward School in PA that you can make conductive material by attaching 1 sheet of aluminum foil to 1-2 pieces of sticky contact paper (sticky side toward the aluminum)– which makes it thick enough to go through the vinyl cutter without tearing and is significantly less expensive than a roll of copper tape vinyl. 

 

Fun thread!

Anna

 

 

Anna Delia

Chair – ISACS Accreditation  |  Fab Labs & STEM Support

Phone: 614-330-1542

Blogs and Projects at fabplay.hawken.edu

Instagram: @hawkenfabplay

Come Join the Fab Play Institute for Maker Educators

Hawken School  |  Gates Mills, Ohio

 

 

 

From: k-12-f...@googlegroups.com <k-12-f...@googlegroups.com> On Behalf Of Sylvia Martinez
Sent: Tuesday, September 23, 2025 9:50 PM
To: K-12 Fab Labs and Makerspaces <k-12-f...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [k-12-fablabs] Designing PCB circuit boards with students

 

Hey, it's not exactly circuit boards, but it's an interesting project that got written up in the FabLearn blogs - Circuit stickers: electronic circuits made of copper tape

 

It uses a vinyl cutter to cut copper tape into circuits. 

https://fellows.fablearn.org/circuit-stickers-electronic-circuits-made-of-copper-tape/

 

Sylvia Martinez

 

On Tuesday, September 23, 2025 at 9:00:28 AM UTC-7 br...@synapseschool.org wrote:

Milling your own pcbs is a fun project, but can be challenging depending on the complexity of the design. 

 

I use Eagle, but it is being obsoleted by Autodesk in June of next year. Something to think about if you are building a long-term curriculum or scope and sequence with this project. KiCad is a great open source solution. I believe Eagle can generate gcode natively using the PCB-Gcode ULP. You might need to use a third party CAM software with KiCad (never done it, but something like FlatCAM might work). 

 

If you are okay with it, you can get very cheap prototype pcbs made in China. I use JLCpcb.com and their process is pretty intuitive and easy and their support is excellent. You could probably even panelize an entire class's designs with a little planning and parameters. Have fun!

 

Best,

 

Brian Bicknell  Director of Engineering and Design  Pronouns: he/him/his

http://br...@synapseschool.org | 650.294.4570

Educating a Community of Change Makers  www.synapseschool.org

 

On Tue, Sep 23, 2025 at 7:31 AM Lucie deLaBruere <http://ldela...@gmail.com> wrote:

I'm taking a class this semester in Computer Organization and Architecture and would love to revisit an idea I had back in 2017 when I bought an Other Mill CNC (now Bantam Mill). 
I saw Matt Dillon at Iolani School in Hawaii do this with his Middle School students using Eagle software.    They were simple circuit boards, but very inspiring. 
Is there anybody else out there doing something like this.  I would love some inspiration and some resources that would help me dust off the Other Mill and revisit this idea. 

 

Welcoming any ideas and resources? 

Is Eagle software the best way for beginners to get started?
I also seem to remember a place where you could get your circuit boards printed if you didn't have a CNC  tool.   

 

I'd love to do something hands on for my class project that might be replicable for other STEM or CS educators.  Ideas and Resources welcomed. 

 

Lucie deLaBruere

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Sylvia Libow Martinez

sylvi...@gmail.com