CNC Milled PCBs

This is a guest post from Thomas Amely on how to make your own CNC milled PCBs. A short author bio is included at the bottom of this post. Have fun making and enjoy the post!

Step 1: CNC Milled PCBs

This is a guest post from Thomas Amely on how to make your own CNC milled PCBs. A short author bio is included at the bottom of this post. Have fun making and enjoy the post!

Within the maker community there exists a sub-community of makers who have access to or have built their own CNC mills; I am one of those makers. Never being one to own a single purpose device I set out to mill circuits of my own design with my desktop CNC machine.

While many of my designs have reached a level of complexity which is well beyond the capabilities of this workflow, I still regularly create prototype circuits following this process. This is my workflow.

Hardware for Milled PCBs

The Machine

There are numerous sources on CNC mills of various sizes and capabilities but  given the nature of milled circuits an important factor is going to be resolution in inches per step (or mm/step). My particular machine travels roughly .000833 inches per full step, this is a good resolution for through-hole circuits but circuits utilizing surface mount devices (SMDs) may require a finer resolution. Better resolution can be attained through different lead screws or microstepping. A word of caution, increasing resolution through microstepping WILL sacrifice accuracy. How much accuracy is sacrificed varies from one setup to the next.

The Working Fixture

The work surface of your CNC mill should be as level as possible since a deviation of as little as .001″ could be the difference between properly engraving a board and barely scratching it. The spindle or router that will be used to mill your boards should be used to level the work surface with an appropriate end mill. Additionally the fixture should have a means of holding down the workpiece.

CNC Milled PCB Workpiece Hold-down

Tooling

Three kinds of bits should be considered when stocking up as they are not commonly found in local hardware stores: drill bits, engraver bits and end mills (optional for cutting the circuit out.)

For drill bits a good variety in common PCB through-hole sizes is a must but the definition of common sizes varies based on what you are doing. My go-to drill bits are .025″, .033″ and .055″ although you want to have a good range and doubles of each as you will snap bits.

The engraver bits are a little more complicated as different users will have different experiences depending on their machines. Myself, I use .2mm 45° engraving bits, they can be had cheaply on ebay. Experiment with cheap bits of various sizes and angles before you spend much money on good bits as you will break many. Also, fight the urge to buy engraving bits with 10° angles as they are great for producing violent shrapnel.

I list the end mills as optional for cutting the circuits out of the rest of the board, but in reality if you have have a CNC machine, a few end mills is a must. Expect to find the drill bits and engravers primarily in a 1/8″ or 3mm shank (note: 1/8″ ≠ 3mm).

Assorted PCB Drill Bits

Assorted Drill and End Mill Bits

Engraver Bit

Copper Clad

While you could get your copper clad from your local electronics store you might put a nice dent in your budget before you produce your first good circuit. Instead of paying for 2-3 USD for each single sided board find a source for boards online. One excellent source is eBay seller “abcfab”. Try to avoid paying more than 0.50 USD per 4″x5″ board. Keep in mind that copper clad comes in many different board and copper thicknesses.

Copper-Clad

Software for Milled PCBs

PCB Software

For the creation of my circuits I use the EAGLE free version. The main limitation of the free version is the max size of the board, the max board size is limited to 100mm x 80mm (roughly 3.95″ x 3.15″.) There are some other limitations but they are not of much consequence for single sided boards of this size.  This size limitation might be worth keeping in mind when ordering copper clad. EAGLE can be downloaded from the Cadsoft website.

GCode Generator

To generate the GCode (the machine numerical control program language) I use the EAGLE open source plugin PCB-GCode. The plugin can be downloaded from the PCB-GCode forum. Installation and use are very well documented in the file within the plugin zip folder under /pcb-gcode-3.X.X.X/docs/pcbgcode.pdf.

CNC Machine Control Software

In this category there are really only two mainstream options: Mach 3 and LinuxCNC. There are a few alternatives but I’m not sure many people use them. At any rate once you produce the GCode, what you run it on is really of no consequence so long as it does what it is supposed to do.

Design

Get It Down On Paper

As with any project the first step should be a well thought out circuit with a purpose. Try and work out all the details on paper (or digitally if you prefer.)

When I start I list at the top of my page what I want the circuit to do, how it will do it and any additional notes that I should keep in mind during the process. This is especially useful if you have to order parts for your project and will spend a few days away from it. It’s a good idea in general to  always have a notebook to jot down your ideas and thoughts.

For this example project I’ve decided to create an Arduino shield  that allows me to control a high power RGB LED strip utilizing 3 IRF540 Power MOSFETs. While these MOSFETs are certainly overkill, they are components I had laying around from a previous project. I’ve also made notes on what pins I will use and the possibility of supplying the Arduino with power from the LED power supply.

Always Keep Notes for Sanity’s Sake

Schematic on Paper

Before creating a schematic digitally I always begin by drawing one by hand. It doesn’t have to be pretty but it should make sense.

Extremely Informal Schematic

Breadboard It

Before milling anything I always test the circuit on a breadboard. There is no sense building a circuit that you hope will work when it takes only a few minutes to try it out. This is a simple check that will spare you a lot of frustration.

The Circuit Prototype on a Breadboard

EAGLE Schematic

At this point I create my new project in EAGLE with a new schematic. EAGLE is very intuitive and similar to other schematic editors but there are many tutorials available to familiarize yourself with it if needed.  I always start by adding a frame with key information and bringing in all the components I think I will need before connecting anything.

In this case I have an Arduino shield component, 3 N-channel MOSFETs 6 resistors and 5 wire-pad connections. Always verify that the pinouts of the components you are using are correct. Before connecting any wires, give the components descript_ive names and values for easier reading and deciphering later on.

Necessary Components

Once all of the components are on the schematic I try to wire them in the most orderly fashion possible. This is normally a painless process if you took the time to draw your schematic by hand.

Components Connected

From this schematic I create a board and begin laying out components. Every person I know who uses a layout editor takes a different approach to laying out components. My main rule is to not fall in love with any layout. Working on a single sided PCB greatly limits routing options and the first layout I use is hardly ever the final layout. Here is a rough initial layout.

Initial Layout

It is wishful thinking that I might be satisfied with the auto-route feature, but without having configured any of the optimization options, the auto-route is almost never useful for single sided boards. In this case the auto-route solution might have been suitable but I opted to modify the layout slightly and use wider traces for the high current sections.

My Routing Solution

Auto-Route Solution

Now that we have a design to mill we will run the PCB-GCODE plugin. Every single machine will have a different configuration based on the stepper drivers, the computer specs, the engraving bit and overall setup. Unfortunately there is no good setup that will work for every machine.

Make use of the configuration instructions provided with the plugin and have lots of patience. Additionally, make use of the drill files to ensure the plugin uses only drills you have on hand.

PCB-GCODE Plugin

This job is run as a single pass but it can be configured to remove all material outside of traces. In the preview window I search for discontinuities and any other visible errors. Keep in mind that this preview is of the bottom of the board and therefore will appear backwards in the axis you have configured.

Mill Preview

The plugin creates two files (or more depending on the configuration) a “.drill” file and a “.etch” file. Some machines can interpret these files or they can be simply renamed to have a “.ngc” or any other file extension.

LinuxCNC users want to make sure to specify G61 or G64 in their “.etch” files to avoid rounding corners due to trajectory control. I specify  G64P.005 within the etch file, this keeps the mill within .005″ of the GCode. For more information see the LinuxCNC wiki entry on trajectory control.

Milling

The last part of my milled pcb prototyping process is the actual milling. Once you have your machine set-up is fairly painless, however the process of setting up your machine can be very time consuming and frustrating. I often begin with drilling followed by etching but the order is of no real consequence and either can be chosen since they are separate files.

Drilling a CNC milled PCB

Etching a CNC milled PCB

The finished board should then be inspected for shorts using a multimeter or similar device. On this particular board I found a short where a tiny bit of copper has not been removed. This is an easy fix but could have caused some serious problems later on.

Drilled and Etched

A Shorted Connection

While the copper-clad is still in the work fixture I evaluate if there are any additional changes I would like to make. I have opted to remove the bottom half of the board which has no connections.

Additional Changes

Upon removing the board I sand the surface and corners as well as clean the trace gaps with a pick. Before soldering I perform one last thorough inspection with a magnifying device. My magnifying device of choice is a thread counter magnifier.

Closer Examination of CNC Milled PCB

Now that the board is complete I notice a significant flaw in my board. I have no connection for 12V to go to the LED strip. I have the option to create another board or simply splice a wire to the 12V input. I chose the simpler option but have since updated my notes. This clearly demonstrates the iterative nature of prototyping.

Board Front

Board Rear