Milled a usb stick on a copper plate and then soldered for the first time! Went mostly smoothly, except for the time I vacuumed up the first usb stick I milled.
This is all new
Followed Brian's tutorial to mill my first electronic circuit. Using the below PNG files from Neil:
Learning to use the SRM-20
Used the SRM-20. It has some kinks. First lesson learned was that you should use more tape than you think. You should also find a less than destroyed portion of the spoil board. If you do not, there is a half decent chance that the piece of copper will not stay firmly on the board when milled. That place of the spoil board that is unspoiled is probably in the far right.
Talking about placement. You have to manually zero the machine. You find the X, Y and then drop Z close to the board. Once you are close, you unscrew the bit, and let it drop to the board's height. That is your zero. Calculate a new toolpath using Neil's Mods
after finding that zero and then send it to the machine. Below is the board I made. Actually, it is the second board because I vacummed the first one whole right off the machine when I was trying to clean up the mill!
Soldering
This was the first time I ever soldered. I wish I could share what I learned. But this seems like more of an art than a science. Practice makes less than perfect.
