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There are many methods for making one-off circuit boards. I've been thinking lately that circular lands could be cut in the copper with a small brad point drill bit, then wired on the underside for connections. Brad point bits are available down to 5/64" diameter (about .080"). That should be small enough for most work involving discrete components and power supply parts. Has anyone here tried this technique?
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Buy Chinese. Bury freedom.
Follow Ups:
Vector sells a bit for this purpose.http://www.vectorelect.com/Catpdf/New Page 76.pdf
Edits: 06/24/15
Thanks, I'd forgotten about Vector. I could buy a lot of brad point bits in different sizes for $74 dollars though. :)
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Buy Chinese. Bury freedom.
Do you need PCB for prototyping or finished circuit ?
TK, this method is SO much work, does a lousy, ugly job, and is just not worth it in any sense. You'll put in hundreds of dollars in effort and aggravation before you get a single working board. And I speak as a guy who's tried every DIY technique imaginable for making boards, including setting up my own plated-through-holes lab and DIY etching.Why go to that much trouble when you can have a batch of double-sided plated-through-hole boards done overnight for around 100 bucks? I use Bay Area Circuits in the SF Bay area all the time for this, their boards are great quality and they have never let me down. I have no affiliation with them, they are just the best fab house I've found for quick jobs.
All you need for the layout part of the job is FreePCB. A decently shallow learning curve to get going, plenty powerful for anything I have thrown at it, and....it's free!
For quick hand made prototypes, I buy 4x5 pieces of board, covered with plated thru holes on a 0.1 inch spacing. Cost is only about 12 bucks! You can order these with and without a ground plane as well. You can find them
Edits: 06/21/15
Thank you so much for the Bay Area Circuits link. I've been trying to find a way to rebuild circuit boards for my Knight 60 and this may be the way to go.
High sensitivity, wide dynamic range, low distortion, and smooth frequency response. Pwk
http://www.itishifi.com
This YouTube video is what got me thinking about the brad point bit. He uses a bit with a single cutter. Have you tried it this way? Incidentally, regarding the amount of work, I have a small CNC mill that could be programmed for the location and depth of each cut. It would be a pretty easy operation. Maybe there are other issues I'm not aware of.
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Buy Chinese. Bury freedom.
Hi, TK,You can borrow some ideas from this device if you are keen to use CNC milling to make prototyping PCBs.
http://cirqoid.com/
IMHO, for high-voltage tube circuits, this device is far from optimal because of vast amount copper-clean space required between pads.
In the past I've used Chinese tube prototyping PCB sold on eBay. I found them too thin and flexible (they bend badly when one inserts tube into socket), and too small for prototyping push-pull assembly, which requires extra circuits for tinkering and debugging.
So I designed and made on nearby factory universal prototyping PCB board 180x110mm / 7.1x4.33", double sided, 2mm thick FR4, with universal pads for 7 pin B7G, 9 pin noval B9A, octal and loctal sockets, and 5mm pitch between holes.
Moreover, boards can be stacked for larger assembly.
Edits: 06/22/15
"this device is far from optimal because of vast amount copper-clean space required between pads."
Yes, that's a good point. It does need more margin for HV applications. Maybe I'll try cutting patterns with an end mill. If I can keep the board flat during the process, that might work OK. Or, as Adam suggested, maybe it's just best in the long run to have them made. Some of my upcoming designs will use ICs for monitoring and bias control. Those definitely need a commercial approach. BTW, this is for final use. I have high quality through-plated proto boards for solid-state prototyping.
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Buy Chinese. Bury freedom.
I use Sprit-Layout and it will export a HGPL (.plt) file for isolation milling. Since you have the CNC mill this would seem to make the most sense since it is an estaplished procedure. I'm not sure what software you would need to get your mill to work with the .plt though.
dave
There are a LOT of free and low-cost PCB design software packages.
For example, this one:
http://murtonpikesystems.azurewebsites.net/
24 GBP
Or freeware KiCAD.
https://www.udemy.com/learn-kicad-printed-circuit-board-design/
Then, you can send your gerbers to any low-volume PCB manufacturing factory. This is much simpler and more optimal then etching PCBs with CNC milling machine.
2 stacked prototyping boards, 180x220mm / 7.1x8.66".
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