For better or worse

[madbean]

I finally succumbed to this. At best, it will mean machine quality hand made boards, with automatic drilling. At worst....a very expensive coffee table! I have no idea how to use this thing. But, I do like to tinker....we'll see. I'm looking forward to the possibility of not having to handle chemicals any more....or breath PCB dust.

[maysink]

Tax write-off! Anything to get that self-employment tax down, Brian. Now all you need is some kind of beautiful label maker and you're set to go mass-production!

[eniacmike]

So this thing will route the traces to copper clad? that is amazing. how small can the traces be?

I'm sure it is going to be a pain to set up but once you get it working it will be awesome to route a whole sheet of boards, drill, and score them.

[jkokura]

I don't think it will etch the boards...

It will cut the boards out, drill all the holes, and do it all using a simple computer program. I'm sure Bean will figure it out quickly.

Jacob

Ps... Brian, if you haven't already, read the Ender Series by Orson Scott Card. I'm rereading them, and there's a character called Bean.

[madbean]

Right now the handmade boards all have a trace width of 28mils and an isolation plane of 32mils. Presumably, I could reduce the trace widths to 16 or 12 mils, if needed. It could help in future designs that are really complex.

I also just thought of something else I could do: milled acrylic LED plates. The are sheets of acrylic that are cut to size to go between the bottom lid and top of enclosures so an LED spreads light all around the edges. Traditionally, you have to file down the ridges of the enclosure bottoms to get things flush. With this, I could route out the acrylic so they are a perfect fit, drill and cut precisely to the correct dimensions.

[jkokura]

Right now the handmade boards all have a trace width of 28mils and an isolation plane of 32mils. Presumably, I could reduce the trace widths to 16 or 12 mils, if needed. It could help in future designs that are really complex.

I also just thought of something else I could do: milled acrylic LED plates. The are sheets of acrylic that are cut to size to go between the bottom lid and top of enclosures so an LED spreads light all around the edges. Traditionally, you have to file down the ridges of the enclosure bottoms to get things flush. With this, I could route out the acrylic so they are a perfect fit, drill and cut precisely to the correct dimensions.

Put me down for a dozen of those acrylic boards.

But are you saying you can etch boards using this thing? Instead of actually using chemicals this thing will do it for you? or were you agreeing with me that it just does the drilling and cutting now...

Jacob

[madbean]

If calibrated correctly, it will do all of it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kClfwJE9Hww

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMcCUn8ldVs&feature=related

[jkokura]

Yikes! Sorry for the bad information. Now I can see why getting one was a splurge, but I will bet dollars to donuts that it will pay off Brian. If you can become an expert in that thing, it will pay off with time spent for sure!

Jacob

[madbean]

I hope so. Mainly I want to let the machine do the redundant work so I can concentrate on keeping things interesting around here. And, I will also be able to improve the quality of the boards and cut down shipping times.

There are a lot of possibilities with this thing. Custom wood knobs for a fuzz? Yeah! Route an entire cavity on a body blank? Okay! Heck, route and entire guitar body outline! (Well, not with a Dremel 300, but maybe with a Porter Cable router).

Lots of fun to be had.

[jkokura]

Yeah, I would highly recommend getting a good quality Router that's easily serviced. The rotations and strain that will be on that motor...

You want quality there for sure.

So many possibilities! I'm really liking the ideas so far Madbean... keep it up!

Jacob

[JakeFuzz]

That thing is sick! I've always wanted one of those. Writing g-code tool paths for drilling holes is pretty easy but for that complex Harley sign you would definitely need a CAD/CAM program. 

[JakeFuzz]

Right now the handmade boards all have a trace width of 28mils and an isolation plane of 32mils. Presumably, I could reduce the trace widths to 16 or 12 mils, if needed. It could help in future designs that are really complex.

You should look into making or buying a mercury lamp UV photolithography system. You could probably make photomasks with transparency film. You could print a ton of boards at once. We use this for silicon wafer patterning and a cheap contact exposure system (cheap with no aligner) can get line widths of 2 microns in a clean room!

[stevewire]

There are a lot of possibilities with this thing. Custom wood knobs for a fuzz?

Hey Brian,
Do you think you would then sell some of these cool knobs also?  When ever I look around for knobs it seems it's quite limited on designs.  Maybe there are more sources that I haven't found yet.

[pandadandan]

Aluminium guitar?   

[tonedeaf]

Dude!!!  The possibilities are literally endless. Count me in for acrylic bottoms and madbeans custom knobs!!  And some other stuff too I'm sure