Milling:
End product:
graduate student in computational and systems biology at MIT
Our group assignment this week was to characterize the design rules for our PCB production process. I and a few others tested milling precision using a 1/36inch endmill to cut a template . We found, as expected, that traces and grooves finer than approximately the width of the endmill used could not be cut.
Milling:
End product:
Individually this week we milled and stuffed PCBs to create FabTinyISPs. The milling was fairly straightforward, apart from some weird glitchy behaviour where the endmill would start cutting in mid-air rather than the proper z-coordinate.
Milling the copper-coated phenolic plastic boards:
Milling result:
I found soldering to be the most finicky by far of this week's skills. The small size of the parts made them challenging to position and grasp, and the solder would sometimes not fuse with the copper very well (I had gently cleaned the board post-milling with the pumice-filled hand wash in the archshop, but even then, I felt like any amount of fingerprints or oil seemed to deter solder bonding). The ability to re-melt and reposition parts was helpful, however sometimes if I spent too much time on a joint it'd turn out uneven or overloaded with solder. But overall it was super fun!
End product:
