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Homemade PCB test using a CNC router.
Hopefully this is useful to someone else wanting a single place to see the whole CNC PCB building process. These notes assume you have a basic understanding of Kicad and Candle (grblcontrol).
There are plenty of companies that offer cheap PCB manufacturing, but I'm impatient and bad at designing things correctly on the first try. Imagine ordering a PCB, waiting a few days, and figuring out you messed up your design. Manufacturing with a CNC router helps to eliminate waiting time between idea and implementation.
Alternatively, plenty of people use the chemical etching process (example: thermal transfer paper and ferric chloride) to build their PCBs. I just don't have a good workspace to mess with nasty chemicals, so the CNC approach is more doable for me. Maybe I'll also add a chemical etching bonus section in the future.
For 2+ sided PCBs, it would be worth ordering from a company. Double-sided PCBs are possible, but I have not attempted this yet. I also haven't tried designs with SMD components yet, so that may also be a pain point that warrants ordering PCBs from a company.
B.Cu (back copper) layer. Ignore ground pins, will be filled laterEdge.Cuts layer, draw a rectangle to trace board boundary, thickness 1mmB.Cu layer and add fill for groundUser.Drawings layer to double check board width/heightF.Silkscreen, I recommend setting text thickness to 0.1mmB.Cu, Edge.Cuts (used in router step)B.Mask (used in solder masking step) as PDF*-NPTH.drl and *-PTH.drl)
F.Silkscreen and F.Mask layers to PDF (used in silkscreen step)
Refer to bits listed in Equipment section above.
I know a lot of people seem to recommend v-bits, but I found them to cut too inconsistent to quickly throw together boards.
I did manage to get a couple boards cut with a 0.1mm 60deg bit after manually offsetting my heightmap by 0.05 increments, but I could not replicate this every time. Switching to the pcb milling bit removed ~5-10 minutes of manual adjustment.
B.Cu and Edge.Cuts gerber files (File > Open Gerber)*.drl) (File > Open Excellon)
B.Cu and *.drl files on y-axis using Point/Box*-B_Cu.gbr
*-B_Cu.gbr_iso
*-B_Cu.gbr_iso_cnc, export G-Code to B_Cu.nc*-PTH.drl
*-PTH.drl_cnc, set tool dia to 0.8, export G-Code to PTH.drl.nc*.Edge_Cuts.gbr
*-Edge_Cuts.gbr_cutout
*-Edge_Cuts.gbr_cutout_cnc, export G-Code to Edge_Cuts.ncF.Silkscreen PDF in Inkscape (to remove blank space of PDF document)
Refer to bits in "Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAM)" section
To secure the PCB to the bed, I used 3D printed M6 Plate Clamps from https://www.printables.com/model/250450-enhancements-for-sainsmartgenmitsu-3020-pro-max-cn/files. Alternatively, I saw a lot of people using carpet tape.
Probe setup using aluminum tape and z-probe that came with CNC router.
height.mapB.Cu.ncPTH.drl.ncEdge_Cuts.ncF.Silkscreen SVG onto thermal transfer paper (smooth side up)
I tried to do a couple different steps that I hope to try again in the future. I left my notes in archive/.
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