Capabilities

The PCB mill is great way to prototype PCBs because it is able to:

• Isolate small traces (up to 10mils)  on a copper clad board
• Automatically drill required holes in correct position
• 2 Layer Boards

Limitations

Unfortunately the PCB Mill has a few limitations. It can not do:

• Solder Masks (The green part of an official PCB that keeps solder from running from 1 pad to the next) See (isolating traces) for an explanation on how to prevent solder run.
• SilkScreen (The white text on official PCBs that works to inform the user of the PCB)
• Vias (Connections from 1 layer to another layer) (See [Making Vias] for possible workarounds )
• Plated Through holes (Needs simple explanation)
• Anything More than 2 Layers (4,6,etc...)

Location

Machine

The PCB Mill is located in the OEDK Room #131 (Solder Lab) along with the [electronic components], Stereo Microscope, and Solder Oven

Parts

The parts for the PCB MIll can be checkout from [Carlos Amaro]. They include:

• A copper clad board
• Carbide End Mills (Various Sizes)
• Carbide Drill Bits (Various Sizes)

Preparing Design Files for PCB Mill

The software for the PCB Mill accpets standard Gerber files for traces and features as well as NC Drill Files for the holes that need to made

Which Side is Up

If you are making a really simple PCB then you might be tempted to just put all the traces on the "Top" layer of the PCB, however think really hard before you do this. The pads of the component you are going to use will be replicated on both sides of the board (assuming you take into consideration [Dealing with a Copper Clad] --- BUT the traces only connect to 1 of the pads -- specifically the pad on the layer that the traces were drawn on.

[Some Pictures and Examples]

Dealing with a Copper Clad

Unlike a PCB order from a normal [PCB house] PCBs on the PCB Mill are made by isolating the desired trace from the plate of copper (known as the "copper clad"). This can cause problems because according to your design there is only a thin trace of copper between any 2 points amongst a sea of essentially nothing (more specifically nothing conductive that would get in the way). With the isolation method that the PCB Mill uses, you have to make sure that your layout program of choice knows that there is copper everywhere else. Otherwise components will

Exporting from Eagle CAD

Exporting From OrCad/Cadence/Allegro PCB

Setup