Turret Board Fabrication

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Gold

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I need to have some boards made to mount turrets in. Anyone know any machine shop that will work with circuit board material or phenolic?

Can I use someplace like expressPCB and order a board without any traces? I've never laid out or ordered a PCB. I could probably manage laying out what I need.

Any other ideas? I need about 20 3" x 16" boards with about 120 holes per board.
 
I need to have the boards made to my specifications. I haven't seen any pre made boards that are anywhere close to what I need.
 
I know where to get supplies. I need someone who can make me 20 pieces of a 3" x 16" board with 110 0.1" holes to mount the turrets and 8 mounting holes in a specific arrangement. I can mount the turrets myself. I need milling services not supplies.
 
What you NEEEED is to make a template. These are all identical? Make one template out of aluminum, maybe 3/16", drill it out and then you can duplicate your board however many times you need.

If you can't be bothered to do that, then just call a local fabrication shop. All you need is a drill press and a band saw for cutting the pieces out. You provide the FR4, they should have no problems doing it.
 
Gold said:
Can I use someplace like expressPCB and order a board without any traces?

Yes. They will ask you if you are really sure you need no traces/copper. A smaller/local board house (any left in the US?) may give you a deal for skipping so many steps in their process.

Gold said:
Anyone know any machine shop that will work with circuit board material or phenolic?

FR4 is nasty on most metal/woodworking tools; the dust gets everywhere and is very good at turning sharp into dull. A non-specialized machine shop may not be too eager to work it.

I believe that outfits like http://www.frontpanelexpress.com/ can work with customer-supplied material; you could ask if that includes FR4/phenolic.

Let us know what you end up doing,

JDB.

EDIT: fixed broken link
 
jdbakker said:
FR4 is nasty on most metal/woodworking tools; the dust gets everywhere and is very good at turning sharp into dull. A non-specialized machine shop may not be too eager to work it.

Thanks. I know a machine shop but I've only seen them work with metal and nylon. I was thinking of using nylon but I was told it would soften under the heat of soldering, so no go. I don't want to ask him about glass/epoxy material because I know the dust collection from milling is very different to metal or nylon.
 
gemini86 said:
What you NEEEED is to make a template. These are all identical? Make one template out of aluminum, maybe 3/16", drill it out and then you can duplicate your board however many times you need.

If you can't be bothered to do that, then just call a local fabrication shop. All you need is a drill press and a band saw for cutting the pieces out. You provide the FR4, they should have no problems doing it.

That's a good idea but I want to hire this one out. I have a router table I could use for cutting and a good drill press with a cross slide for drilling but I don't really want to do it. I'd rather spend my time on other aspects of this project that is in it's 6th year...
 
Well,

I work with that FR4 stuff regularly (1/8" thick specifically).  It's not as bad as everyone is making it out to be, though cutting it can leave one heck of a mess if you don't have a vaccum attached to whatever you're cutting it with.  And that stuff isn't exactly the best to be breathing in either (wear at least a paper mask and some eye protection).  Use a table saw.  Cutting it requires using the same type of saw blade that's used for cutting melamine countertops.

But honestly, if you know a cabinet maker, that's your best bet (where I go actually).  Odds are they've already got the right blade for the saw.  And I'd stay away from using a band saw.  While you might lose a bit less material, the cuts just never come out as nice as with a table saw.  And it's much faster to boot.

Then, if this is more of a one-off, you can just do a paper template  (did someone say template??)  in your favorite pc board layout program, and tape it to the top of a stack of boards (provided they're identical, of course).    Tape the lot together tightly with wide painter's tape to keep them from moving around.  Then, with a new titanium drill bit, you can pretty easily go through about 5-6 1/8" boards at once which cuts down your drill time. I've gotten as many as 100 turret boards with about 70-80 holes each,  without having to change bits to avoid tearout.

Between those two steps, it shouldn't take more than a couple of hours for 20 identical boards...  If they're unique, a bit longer....

If you're looking for CNC level precision, well then that's another story entirely.  But with that process, a little patience and a good eye, you can get pretty close.  I can usually get it so the turrets line up to a stratght edge by eyeballing the whole thing...

But, if you really want someone to do it, PM me.
 
After spending many hours trying to figure out how not to DIY this, DIY it is! Everything other option I looked into didn't pan out for one reason or another.

I ordered FR4 blanks from here cut to size. http://www.interstateplastics.com/plastic-sheets.php?material=PHENOLIC+-+GLASS&industry=&application=&filter=

I ordered some #40ga (0.098") titanium drill bits and some solid carbide drill bits for the Keystone 1598-4 turrets. I've heard both style bits recommended.

I'll post some pictures when I have something to show.
 
I did a test run today. The board tuned out well. There are a couple of mistakes. One hole isn't spaced right and one set of turrets is 0.1" off. I had to unclamp and reclamp a few times to get everything. I have to figure out a way to clamp the material so I only have to move the work once. The cross slide I have can reach about 3/4 of the area. I used that piece of aluminum as the anvil to mount the turrets
turret-1.jpg



turret-2.jpg
 

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