Modela Mill

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Using the provided .png I used the fab modules to cut three boards with the Modela Mill. I used the default settings and managed to get to usable boards. The hardest part was dealing with the x and y offset on the fab module. I had to quit the fab module and reopen in between milling the traces and cutting out the last board, but I remembered the offset: (52, 5). Having never soldered before, I was prepared for the worst heading into the stuffing tutorial but managed to solder everything without too much problem. Mostly because David Costanza > average soldering instructor. He also helped me program it and it all worked the first time I tried it.

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Most people around me had to try more than once.

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Evidence. So I felt slightly jipped out of a more rich troubleshooting experience. And then remembered my friend the Vinyl Cutter.

Vinyl Cutter

	It took me a while to figure out the settings to cut out the traces from the copper. I used the provided .png file for the FAB ISP and started testing.
	My first try was with 2 cm/s speed and a force setting of 80.
	There was some gouging up near the location of the zero ohm Resister solder jump. But I decided to try and use it to test the process of removing the copper from the sheet.
	The first try was quite fruitless.
	I thought at first the knife had not cut through at all, but found that it had. First casualty.
	My first reaction was that the traces needed to be cut loose more effectively, so I bumped the power up to try and establish and appropriate upper bound for experimentation.
	A Power setting of 90 was slightly extreme.
	However, it did allow me to have some practice at removing the copper using painters tape. it was a little sloppy in part from the gouging that happened, but it was useful to go through the transfer process.
	Not a clean pass. Second Casualty.
	So I did a bunch of tests for power settings trying to get a board with minimal gouging. I swung back and forth between 75 and 90 and finally zeroed in on 83 as a good one. Although we did have some gouges there too. In the end, I also remembered to check the blade, which was protruding a lil to far, so after adjusting that and the power settings, the traces cut out with the power setting of 80 and 83 were useable.
	I also discovered an effective way to help the initial transfer process along. I used the knife to pry loose the beginning.
	First transfer sans casualty.
	At a loss for a substrate to transfer the copper to, I eventually just stuck it to a piece of vinyl left over from last week's assignment.
	Practice weeding on the first casualty.
	Finally weeded the traces cut out on the power 80 setting without tearing anything necessary off the vinyl. I would NOT reccommend using the vinyl. The copper did not really stick to it nicely.
	Power 80 wins.
	So, then I thought: Well, I'm probably going to screw this up by trying to solder it, but let's have a go. and it turned out to be not that hard even though there was significatnly less space between traces. I had to use the copper braid to remove solder once on the USB connector and even used the knife to cut apart some traces that I soldered together, but after I tried that I thought: Well, I doubt its programmable. But it was, and I managed to program it first try again.
	Shoot, Son!

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