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« on: April 28, 2012, 04:38:31 PM »
Hello,
I have played with Mach3 for a couple of weeks - great! I bought a small milling machine called Panther-210, and I am trying to mill some PCB... so far with very little luck.
I draw my PCB using DipTrace/PCB layout, export the layer as a DFX file, then convert the DXF file with a small utility called ACE. This gives me g-code I can then import in Mach3.
The issues I have are:
1- most traces are not "closed": for example a circular pad would look like a "u" instead of a "o"
2-I tried to drill the PCB (just using an engraving tip with very small Z, just to see where it will be drilled), and the holes are not well centered
See attached picture
basically the PCB is unusable with all the tracks not being disconnected from the rest of the copper plane.
The feed rate I use is 30inches per min.
Where does the issue come from? Is it the accuracy of the mill? How can I improve that? The mill is sold as a small PCB mill, and I have used the settings recommended from the vendor:
e.g. velocity is 1400 mm/min, accel 150 mm/sec/sec...etc
many thanks for your help
Thomas
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