Fab Academy Week 5 - Electronics Production

Part 1 - CNC Milling

The first step to making this board was to mill out the actual circuit pattern using a CNC milling machine. The material we used consisted of a layer of copper laminated onto a layer of nonconductive material (plastic I think). The CNC milling machine is a small rotary bit toolhead which can move on the x, y, and z axis. The unmilled laminate board is mounted in the bed of the machine using double-sided tape. To make the circuit pattern,  you download the design from the Fab Academy website, load it into the machine, and run the machine. The small spinning mill bit cuts through the copper layer and into the inert material below, carving channels in the board and eventually leaving only a series of interconnected lines of copper on the surface. These lines of copper will conduct current between the various elements on the board.

I’ve sped up the video of CNC milling and also applied the “Sci-Fi” filter in iMovie to make it seem more futuristic.