Roland 3D milling machine

[Chip Fetrow]

I have never had a problem using photographic methods.  I can make the  
board as large as my largest glass container.  I have made boards as  
wide as 17 inches (the width of a board in a conforming 19 inch wide  
rack enclosure), and as deep as about 12 inches, I don't recall  
completely.

Double sided is not an issue because the targets line up on the  
corners for exposure, not an issue at all.

On the other hand, if today I were to go back to making boards today,  
I would just use a service.

As for the milling machine, I am not against owning one.  Milling the  
enclosure is a nice thing to do.  I have cut far too many using a  
saber saw mounted upside down in a router table.

--chip

On Jan 20, 2012, at 1:00 PM, tacos-request at amrad.org wrote:

> While looking around the Internet, I ran into the new Roland iModela  
> 3D milling machine.  This looks amazing for making smaller PC  
> boards.  It costs about $1,000, and only does boards up to about  
> 3.3x2.2x1.1 inches.  For comparison, the Charleston SDR board is  
> 3.5x1.6 or so...
>
> But, if you can handle smaller boards, and don?t need a mask or  
> other fancy stuff, this may be very interesting.  The Arduino store  
> sells it for 749euros.  I wonder if you could align the board close  
> enough to do double-sided boards?
>
> Plus, you could make the plastic enclosures as well.
> Terry