Gerber to G-code utility.. just discovered
Ashfaq Juna
Trevor Moseley
Hi Ashfaq,
I have no experience with visolate.
But I have quite a bit of experience with pcbGcode (a utility that adds ability for Eagle PCB to create G Code files).
First problem is getting a RepRap to do milling. Look around, there are lots of conversion methods.
See here:
http://www.reprap.org/wiki/PCB_Milling
Favourite is to mount a Dremel in place of the extruder. I went my own way and mounted a cheap drill from RS components.
Problems:
You need at least 20,000 RPM to do milling with any speed at all (even slowest).
A light extruder is better for speed (that’s why people are trying Bowden instead of direct drive extruders).
Any drill is heavier that a standard extruder.
A minimum weight is needed for milling, you need the weight as down pressure to cut through the copper.
Milling a PCB is actually a negative, the important aspect of a PCB is track / pad width, gap between is usually not very important, it only needs to isolate, but milling is actually drilling out the un-important area!
So, mill bit needs to be really thin, best tool is usually jewellers bit, 45 or 60 degree, that gives the bit strength, but only the tip gets used and it wears quickly. A high quality jewellers bit will not last long and is expensive, so that detracts from the ‘cheap’ aspect.
G-Code: RepRap supports a much smaller range of G-Codes compared with Milling machines, no matter what conversion utility you use, you will need to modify the tool or the output to get it to work with RepRap.
Having said all that, I have managed to successfully mill a PCB, it even had tracks running between 0805 mounting pads, but getting the quality required running really slow, took all morning for a very small PCB.
Personally I am now trying printing etch resist directly to board, hoping to get easier, quicker and cheaper.
Sorry to be a kill-joy, but please try and let me know how you get on.
BR, Trev
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mikethebee
Alex Gibson
Cool. I know Ian Stratford has looked into this too.
It makes sense to me to route out only the gaps between tracks, leaving wider tracks and expanses of copper on the board for stability. This requires slightly different circuit design depending on your application…
Alex Gibson
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