Fun!
I just got an idea!! ohhhhhhh buddy. I need to get some V bits to test via spacing.
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If youâre going to have a play with milling up some PCBs, Iâd recommend getting some red abrasive scotchbrite pads. They work really well for making tarnished copper nice and shiny as well as dealing with any copper burrs that might cause shorts.
One of the struggles with milled boards is that without through-hole plating the pads are a lot weaker. Itâs much easier to peel a pad off a board and the solder joints are weaker too without the solder being able to flow into the barrel of the joint. I usually make the pads larger than normal to allow a bit more force.
Another good trick is to âtinâ the parts of the board youâre going to solder with solder first. That cleans the oxides off the copper and protects that part of the board from tarnishing so quickly. Then when you go to solder thereâs already a good layer of solder present and the solder you add will flow around the joint more easily and create a much better joint. Another trick is to flow the solder with an iron and then wipe it clean with a damp wet cotton cloth or rag. That will spread the solder out to an incredibly thin layer which makes it easier to place SMT components.
Lastly, you might want to think about how to mechanically restraint some components. I have a battery hot glue gun that works well for this. Avoid superglue, it fumes and coats things with a non-conductive layer that can cause all sorts of havoc. Even just planning ahead to provide drilled holes for cable ties to allow cables to be strain relieved, etc.
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With the costs of chinese PCB fabs it really isnât worth the tears of home made PCBs.
My previous DIY pcbs have always been done with per-sensitised PCBs, laser printed overhead transparencies, a UV exposure box and either ferric chloride of ammonium persulfate.
The down side of doing this
No solder mask for fine smt components makes soldering challenging for smaller parts/finer pitches
Boards/pads need to be tinned to stop oxidation either via tinning solution (nasty stuff with a short shelf life) or via a thin layer of solder
no nice silk screens unless you do something like toner transfer with an iron.
you often want to look at increasing pad sizes from default in your chosen PCB layout software
As an aside I always found it easier to do this with smt componets, through hole components you either need to pre-drill the holes or risk destroying tracks/pads doing it after. Unless you have a very steady hand and good eye sight I wouldnât go under 0805 size, I prefer 1206 or bigger.
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With our hobby it often isnât worth it from a financial point of view, but itâs a fun challenge for some. 
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The problem is, when you have a CNC you wanna play with it. I think a small fluidnc module is a super fun and easy way to mill a PCB, solder a few components, and have a cool project under your belt. I think I am going to get a handful of premade âblanksâ with a few things built in already. This should make them even more functional and fun. Hopefully cheaper than buying a large pcb blank just to make a tiny module.
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Making things are their own reward.
I buy things for myself from offshore contract manufacturers. Iâve also milled my own PCBs. Not because it is cost effective. Because I wanted to show myself that I could do it, and so I could teach others.
Making things isnât always about doing things the most inexpensive way possible.
Itâs like someone hand-cutting furniture in an era where CNC machines are a thing. It still happens, and itâs still worthwhile (to those who do it)
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Starter module! Great Idea.
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Stephenâs Viagrid idea was what sparked it. He told me about it at Open Sauce and has been working on it since. August 2025 Opulo Update
But he is not sold on my idea of making it a 4 layer standard. Outer signal layers for CNC or laser, inner ground and power layer. Opens up so many options.
I will make a 100-200 just because they will cost next to nothing for the module size. I think I will include the header vias and have them silkscreened as well as including the header itself that can be cut to any size. Should only be a couple dollars. Even if it is just a 5v and 24v indicator LED it is still a fun project, RGB status lightâŚwho knows.
I have some tiny V bits and a 1mm endmill coming. Once I figure out some spacing I will get them made.
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Not saying I disagree with that statement. In fact for quite some time Iâve been strongly of that opinion. I had tried making my own PCBâs in the late 80âs and again in the mid 90âs had had zero success with actually etching anything usable. Point to point on perfboard or manhattan style construction worked for the things I was making - but were both ugly and hard to debug and not very repeatable. But I lived with them.
Once oshpark entered the scene they became my go-to for small boards until the Chinese shops started offered cheap small run options and suddenly boards for almost anything made sense since they were so cheap and easy.
ButâŚin 2020 I got really into building a modular synthesizer. A lot of synth builders are fans of strip boards - and I gave them a tryâŚbut really didnât like strip boards for most circuits. I did a couple of orders for boards from China and never had any issuesâŚbut really didnât like having to do minimum orders of 5 boards when I only needed/wanted 1. Sometimes I could sell the extras, or trade them with other builders for different boardsâŚbut that was a lot of mailing back and forth.
One other benefit of etching your own - if youâre building an older project from a magazine or website that only shared a PDF or BMP instead of gerbers - you can still etch it. Sending it to a board shop would be re-creating it to get gerbers first. And for first prototypes it feels way less wasteful to trash a home etched board than a batch of commercial boards if you made a mistake in the design that went unnoticed.
I still had a stack of blank boards from the last time I tried etching my own in the 90âs and had heard about alternatives to ferric chloride for etching that people spoke highly of. Since I had a lot of time on my hands I decided to try etching my own just for fun. I already had hydrogen peroxide and HCL (muratic acid for my pool) on hand to make my own etchant (Ordinary white vinegar and hydrogen peroxide also works - but is a bit slower. I use HCL when the weather is nice enough to work outside and vinegar when I prefer to work inside.)
I picked up a roll of photoresist for $11 off amazon (itâs now $18 but 30cm x 5m is practically a lifetime supply for me Amazon.com : 30cmĂ5m Portable PCB Photosensitive Dry Film Photosensitive Film Photographic Film Circuit Production Film for Circuit Production Photoresist Sheet : Electronics ) and did some experiments.
Turns out - once you identify the correct materials to use itâs remarkably cheap and easy to etch boards at home now. After a week or two of experimentation I had it down to where I could go from KiCAD to a finished board in my hand in under an hour. I documented the system I came up with here: Etching PCB's at home - DIY STUFF - Look Mum No Computer Thingies
The biggest problems I had were:
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Trying to use my laser printer to create the artwork. I tried a bunch of different types of paper/transparency but just couldnât get the black dense enough on my cheap laser. I gave in and bought the cheapest $23 inkjet I could find and with some âscreen printing filmâ I found on Amazon finally got great negatives.
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Getting reliable repeatable exposure of the UV film. I had been using a UV spotlight I already had on hand from a halloween decoration - I tried adding all kinds of 3d printed baffles or diffusers to it but it was hit or miss. I gave in and got a strip of UV ledâs and put them on a board in a grid following instructions I found online and it was a night and day difference. Added a few 3d printed pieces to keep the spacing consistent and my old darkroom timer and I had extremely repeatable results.
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Learning to apply the photoresist film took a bit of practice and experimentation. A clothes iron will work in a pinch. But I picked up a cheap laminator that was well worth the $25 as it made it foolproof and super repeatable.
The photo resist also works decently as solder mask and silkscreen if you want to go the extra mile. I did experiment with liquid solder mask but without taking a few more steps and silkscreening it itâs hard to get it applied evenly. But at that point youâve got most of the tricky specialist steps for making custom silkscreens ready as well - justâŚitâs more work than itâs worth for a one off board IMHO.
Yeah, itâs a bit more work than sending gerbers off to China. But itâs really nice being able to have a board in your hand in under an hour. And being a fan of vintage projects I fairly often have just a magazine article or PDF or BMP of traces instead of a modern CAD design to work from.
And itâs always fun to have a new skill - which you sometimes find other ways to apply.
Honestly the part I enjoy the least is drilling the holes for through hold components. My old MPCNC I didnât trust enough to try and use for drilling holesâŚbutâŚmy new LR4 Iâd probably be willing to give it a try next time I get the urge to etch a board.
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I dunno, I kinda see both sides to it. For me itâs not worth DIYing, but Iâm âparticularâ about some of what goes into a PCB. Iâve also milled/etched plenty of PCBs in the past successfully so understand the satisfaction that comes of that.
I think the key difference here is that a DIY PCB will always be inferior to a commercially produced PCB in some specific ways. Itâs possible to go down the full DIY route to replicate a commercial board and all its features, but thatâs beyond what I think weâre talking about here with a CNC mill etc.
We should be clear that this PCB will be harder to assemble and wonât be as robust is important. A lot of people donât necessarily have the skills to make that work well, especially given the tendency towards smaller pitch devices and passives these days. Iâm sure plenty of people in this thread have enough skill with electronics assembly to not worry about that but Iâve seen enough people get frustrated and doing a poor job just trying to solder through-hole components on a commercially produced board to know that itâs still a definite skill that needs to be learned. Hell, I still find single-sided boards irritating a lot of the time and prefer not to work with them and Iâm about as confident in my assembly skills as I think I could be.
So I guess itâs no different from most other things. Do it yourself if you want the experience of having done it and are aware and willing to accept the limitations of that process or are fine with finding out the hard way. If you just want the thing to work, maybe start with buying a board.
I just donât want to see someone think that CNC routing their own PCBs is a way to cheap boards or anything and then have it put them off designing their own stuff or making boards for things because they suck. Itâs just a different.
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I think of it like the take home solder it yourself kits. Fun once or twice. Cool to keep on your shelf. Merit badge situation.
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I get the urge to try and do things for the sake of having a go. I would assume most people who are looking at or have built any of the V1 machines would agree as it is much along the same vein.
I just think even the best home made PCB is not even going to come close to the worst commercial fab board so there is better things to have a go at doing where the results could be as good as a commercial product, or at least closer.
I also agree, drilling holes is the worst part
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Yeah, Iâm not a fan of milling PCBâs. Every write up Iâve seen of someone whoâs done it has left me wondering why. Just seems like way more work than etching with the cheaply available modern photo resists.
And I fully agree - a homemade PCB is never going to be as nice as one from a board shop. But there are plenty of situations where nice may have to take a backseat to achieve some other goal.
I just wanted to share that etching with modern materials/techniques is a lot more accessible, easy, and higher quality than I expected it to be based on my past experiences. I donât know that itâs any cheaperâŚbut itâs definitely a skill/tool Iâve found very helpful to have around.
Heck - just a month or two after I got my system figured out I found plans for a 3d printed printing press and had to give it a tryâŚand then found myself using knowledge from my PCB etching to etch miniature copper plates for printing:
Always fun when you can cross-pollinate hobbies and re-use knowledge 
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Well, milling a PCB still sounds more practical than this.
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Looks very smart, nice job.
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Heck yeah!!!
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Well, shoot.
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