Where can I buy a PCB CNC Machine?

[Cortex]

Hello

I want to purchase a Pcb Cnc Machine

Is there anyone that has already bought such machine for personal use ?

Any information is welcomed.

Thanks in Advance
Cortex

 

[IanP]

cnc machine cost

Take a look at Quick Circuit Model 5000 from T-Tech ..
To get info on prices you will need to register: **broken link removed**

Regards,
IanP

 

[UKnowWhat]

cost of cnc machine

I use a Quick Circuit 7000 extensively at work to build my test PCB so I know a bit about these PCB prototype machines. It's fairly useable and have its own limit as followings

1) These machines are very easy to be out of registration and it's a pain to correct it. Out of registration means the machine is not aligned perfectly when you flip the board to mill the other side, so the patterns are all off at the bottom. It's not bad if you are using big pads but if you go down 10 mils trace hence using smaller pads, it will be a pain in the neck, because the trace and pad will be shifted significantly to the edge.
2) Through hole via will always have a major problem to connect trace from top side to bottom side unless you use either eyelet or conductive epoxy to fill the through hole via. My experience is eyelet is not very usable. You have to have a tool to line up the eyelet and flatten it against the PCB and you still have solder the eyelet to the pad because the eyelet may have a 1mil air gap when it was flatten against the PCB which could cause discontinuity intermittently and it's a nightmare to find these problems. Conducive epoxy is very uselful but too time consuming to apply manually. LPKF comes out with a tool kit so you can paste these conducive epoxy really quick and painless but financially painful. $2000 for tool and $200 for pasting and film materials if you need to re-order the materials.
3) Old systems doesn't have a Z axis control and has no way to tell whether the mill bit has hit the surface of the PCB or not. Since PCB's surface is not perfectly flat, you will have an average 1mil error across the surface. As a result, milling will not guarantee to cut through copper so you have to rerun the milling pattern after adjusting the cutting depth and it can be annoying from time to time. Newer machine use either camera or special technique to detect when the bit hits the copper surface but then it adds more cost to the system. I just went to a LPKF demo and a system with camera costs around $20,000.
4) Software to run these PCB prototype machine is so so. It does the job.

The real pay off for these systems is when you do prototyping for simple RF circuits. Most of these types are surface mounted on one side and if I screw it up, I can cut another board real quick and it's cheap relative to the conventional way of sending the job out to a PCB house.

 

[E-design]

cnc price

I personally have a roland mill that I use for prototyping. As the previous member "UKnowWhat" said, there are a lot of things to watch out for when making double sided pcb's. The biggest problem is to get the pcb that you want to mill flat otherwise the copper is not penetrated deep enough some places. I use thin double sided tape to stick the board down.

The thing I like the best is the time you save from drilling holes. It works well for RF surface mounted boards. Mine includes a ultrasonic scanner to enable you to make replicas of objects. My son use it to mill out model car bodies after he designed it in solidworks.

 

[Kripton2035]

pcb cnc machine

I have been told also that the tools can break easily and are expensive - if you do not make a lot of differents pcb with it, it's better (cheaper) to order your pcb from a specialized company such as olimex ?

 

[UKnowWhat]

cnc machines prices

Kripton,

The drill bit is not expensive but the milling bit is especially if it is highly precision eg. 6 mils milling bit. There are plenty competition so drill bit and milling bit's price have come down a lot, $7-10 per bit in a lot of 10 for drill bit and $9-12 per endmill bit, the finer the bit, the higher the cost, and easier to break if you making mistakes. (See this website for pricing )

As far as breakable issue, I think it's mainly operator issue particularly when you are new to the process or when you are absent minded (I do from time to time). Other than that, I rarely break tools or cause tools degradation by etching too deep into the subtrate.

As far as cost/performance issue, I prefer these prototype PCB milling machine for

1) Simple RF jobs. It beats the conventional way hands down in term of cost and quick turn around considering the cost of the PCB, ie. Rogers 6000 series, is very prohibitive.
2) Simple to below average PCB prototype jobs with 10 mils trace or above.

When it has to go to 4 layers (2 layers will make the PCB complicated) or fine traces in a range 4-6 mils with though hole vias, it's better to go outside for PCB house. In my experience, these machines are very useful for SMT prototype 2 layers PCB with minimum through hole vias.

 

[vicsrc]

cost of cnc machines

I just aquired a quick circuit 7000 cnc and would like to know if there is a replacement motor I could use on it such as a dremel or something else thats not too expensive

 

[JSUHR]

cnc machine prices

Old Thread but I have a MITS router that rides on the surface of the copper, varying thickness boards are no problem and no double stick needed, It does an excellent job and I have no problems having 10mil and smaller traces, they use an "ultramill" bit which is 60degree V bit, it lasts much longer than an endmill. I have no problem with registration on Double sided board either. It was $25k though, for me it is very worth it and paid for itself in the first year.

Plated thru is always a challenge and I use the eyelet method now which I need to change, they are too expensive in qty and tedious to install even with the tool press which is a male and female tool used in a drill press. I am looking for another miniature eyelet.

I would love to talk to someone who has used the LPKF plating system and has had success, how is it for rework? do the holes stay plated?

 

[RJcom]

price of cnc machine

I have Accurate 360, already 6-7 months and I am using it on daily basis. I was looking for used C60, but friend of mine recommended me this brand www.accuratecnc.com/A360.html .
I figured out that I can get a new machine at the price of used one. I paid ~ $9.9k (with camera and PhCNC Pro) and this is one of the most successful investments made by me.
It has a floating motorized Z axis and handles thickness variations without any problems.
In addition don’t need surface scan. Another convenience is the fiducial registration, I am getting perfect top to bottom match. With couple words - it is excellent machine.
Through hole connection is relatively small problem to me, but I am looking at LPKF’s “Proconduct” … and collecting information.

 

[JayKei]

cnc machines cost

I have been using LPKF Protomat S62 for a year now...and the money I spent buying that machine was really worth it... LPKF S62 never gave me a problem especially with the alignment of double sided boards with the help of the vision system... A 4 in 1 process machine which does the drilling, milling, etching and routing the chemical-free way... This machine makes my life easier...! With LPKF, you will never go wrong...Cheers!

Added after 4 minutes:

I have Accurate 360, already 6-7 months and I am using it on daily basis. I was looking for used C60, but friend of mine recommended me this brand www.accuratecnc.com/A360.html .
I figured out that I can get a new machine at the price of used one. I paid ~ $9.9k (with camera and PhCNC Pro) and this is one of the most successful investments made by me.
It has a floating motorized Z axis and handles thickness variations without any problems.
In addition don’t need surface scan. Another convenience is the fiducial registration, I am getting perfect top to bottom match. With couple words - it is excellent machine.
Through hole connection is relatively small problem to me, but I am looking at LPKF’s “Proconduct” … and collecting information.

I am using LPKF ProConduct which help me solve through-hole connection... It is only a paste but the result is amazing...! Try it and see for yourself...

 

[aivenyy]

Re: Cnc Machine Price

I have got one. It can engrave such materials as acrylic sheet, abs double color sheet, PVC foam sheet, wooden sheet, scagliola, granite, stone etc with high speed and low noise. Compatible many software, such as Mastercam, artcam, Jdpaint etc. You can come here for a look: https://www.ecvv.com/product_directory/CNC-Machine.html. Try to compare their features and choose the most competitive one.

 

[aivenyy]

Re: Cnc Machine Price

I have got a CNC Double Column Vertical Lathe. Now it works very well and the price is very favourable. It only costed me $4.000. I suggested getting it directly from the manumafacturer or suppier, it will save a lot of money.

This is where I got my item:

https://www.ecvv.com/product_directory/CNC-Machine.html