New milling machine

I had a CNC 3018 PRO machine from Amazon.

• It needed assembling, but I've done that now. It is something to bear in mind if buying one though.
• It is a bit of a "home made" style, with the PCB bolted to the frame, etc.
• The one I got had a bent screw for X axis, which limited the usable space a bit.
• It has a working area 30x18cm.
• I was able connect a Z-axis probe (well, contact to PCB copper clad board).
• It works well, and I used bCNC on my Mac to work it.
• It comes with a controller box, which is not needed really!
• It is surprisingly cheap.

So, especially given the bent screw, I decided to get a replacement, and went for a CNC 3020 from Amazon.

• This is a much more "industrial" unit - proper drag chains and cables. Looks good but costs a bit more.
• Work area (you guessed it) 30x20cm
• Comes pre-built
• Has a boxed controller and power supply, with nice connectors to the machine.

However, it has a challenge or two - the main one is that it works with some very specific software (a pirate copy of which is apparently supplied with it). It has parallel (!) and USB, but the USB only works with that software and only on a windows machine - it does not even appear on a Mac even in a debug log! The software did not look too good anyway! This is a bit of a bugger.

The upgrade

My solution was to upgrade the controller to a TingG controller. This adds a bit to the cost (especially with the customs/VAT and admin charge from US). But was not actually at all hard to do.

The old controller is bolted to a heat sink, and can simply be unscrewed.

The new controller is slightly smaller. I needed to drill/tap an M3 hole in the heat sink for one of the screws so that I could screw it to the heat sink. I also cut an extra hole in the case for the USB connector.

Also, I decided to use the heat sink, which meant something between the new controller board and the heatsink. I got some small copper block / heat sinks and thermal tape - and I used them between the back of the new board and the existing heatsink.

The TinyG is designed to work without the need for a heatsink, but this can not really do any harm.

The connectors on the old board were not the same, though the new board has pads which means I could have changed them. I decided instead to use the screw terminals on the new board, fitting bootlace crimps on the wires. I had to swap the cables to make them fit, and use the motors 2, 3 and 4 as closest to edge of the case. But they all fit!

I also connected the emergency stop to the reset pins. I have not worked out how to connect the spindle drive to the new board yet - that is a challenge for another time. The case has a button and a dial for that which works for now.

I also got a 6 way (plus ground) chassis DIN connector and wired up all 6 end stops (X/Y/Z Min/Max).

This meant various micro switches, and super glue on the actual machine.

And also, the Z-Min I wired to croc clips to allow me to use contact to PCB for homing Z axis.

The TinyG has good documentation, covering setting the current, etc. I was able to set the axis to the right motors, and set the polarity and travel per rotation, etc.

However, the bCNC code I was using did not like the TinyG, and I ended up installing CNC.js which works nicely on my Mac. It does lack the multiple point Z axis levelling of bCNC sadly, but works.

I did have to configure the homing for Z axis a tad as it is designed for a switch from which you back off. For PCB contact you get the exact Z home, and do not need offsets. But this is all well documented.

Slack (backlash)

However, even though it is a really good solid construction and seems to have no play, I found there was an issue with the X axis. It seems to have around 0.1mm slack on it. This means if you move right to a point it is actually around 0.05mm short of it, same if moving left (i.e. is then 0.05mm right of it). Make a row of left and right moves and lines and you see the problem clearly. This test shows it well - centre is left and right moves before each line, but left is all moves from the right (apart from first, bottom left) and right is all moves from the left. Repeatable slack!

Oddly the Y axis is absolutely spot on!

This is not really enough of a problem to cause issues making PCBs, but is annoying so I wanted to fix it.

I checked for anything loose, and also checked the TinyG for any options, but to no avail.

My solution (now updated to the eps2gcode tools) is software to compensate for slack. This seems to work.

Overall I am quite happy with the result.

P.S. Tightening this nut a bit fixed it.



P.P.S. After reading the TinyG docs I am actually running at 4 micro steps not 8, so 1/200th mm spacing, which I think will be more than adequate for anything I am milling. I suspect 1/100th mm would be fine but actually that is a lot more noisy. Now that the backlash is sorted maybe I'll go back to 8.

PCB Milling bits

I have been playing with milling PCBs, and the issue is working out what bit to to use for milling PCBs.

The CNC 3018 I got comes with some fine tipped bits, they are cheap, and sharp..,

They are indeed pointy. If you try milling, they break, as they seem to in a slight breeze. They may have uses for wood or something, but for PCB they do not.

Broken bit

Even broken, they have some use, but the width depends on where they broke. And you have to start the cut again once it breaks. Bugger.

Flat end mill

You can get flat end mill bits...

These are not bad, but as you can see, the end is quite long. This is a 0.5mm diameter bit, which is still quite chunky, but it can cut the copper off a board.

The problem is they snap, and do so easily. It is a tad obvious from the design. So not so good.

What they do work really well for is drilling a hole and moving around to make a larger hole. All of the holes I make are done with this 0.5mm bit.

Bigger bit

I also have a 1mm version...

This is something I use for cutting the PCB outline. Works well.

Cutting the board.

What I found works well is a wider bit...

The issue here is depth control. At 45 degrees it means cutting down an extra 0.05mm means an extra 0.1mm width.

The trick is Z axis levelling, which bCNC can do. I added to my CNC 3018...

I initially tried to connect the wires to "Z" on the controller, but missed and was connected to next pins which are "A5", but it seems they worked and "Z" (I assumed Z end stop) did not work. The bCNC code just worked (with "A5"), and did auto levelling. Wow.

End result is I can cut tracks between 0.1" pitch pins!

I have been getting good at single sided designs with no links, but this makes it that bit easier.

P.S. Designs and code on GitHub... @aaisp giving back to open source.

It is funny how old-school lead(+silver) solder is easier to use...