The results are very impressive. What kind of spindle speeds are we talking? Like 3000-5000, 10,000-15,000 or higher? What's the size of the mill bit, or since it's conical, is it just as pointy as it can be?
I would be quite happy to get those results everytime.
Originally Posted by MrBean Thanks for the kind comments. I was pretty chuffed at how well the board came out.
Okay........ A few details for those the want them.
I used a 30 degree, single fluted, conical cutter.
Feedrate while cutting was ~300mm/min. These small cutters require low feedrates and high spindle speeds. At over £10 a go, I don't want to break any.
Depth of cut was just enough to get through the copper layer. I'm not sure exactly what the numbers were. It took a couple of false starts to get the depth just right.
Mill time.....Hmmm. The actual isolation traces were finished in around 7 mins, but I chose to run an off-set stepover to remove some of the excess copper around each trace. This step is not neccesary, but I like the look it gives. The more you remove the longer it takes. Figures really!
Drilling cycle was about 15 mins with 5 tool changes. I cheated and used the same size bit for all the holes, but it still lifted the Z and paused each time a new size was required. I just hit cycle start and carried on.
This is only my second attempt at this type of milled board. I still have some stuff to figure out, but it's looking promising so far.
Right.... I'm off to flash me chips, see if I can pin down this PICStep mode select weirdness.
Cheers guys.
Regards Terry. |