FlatCam 2 sided PCB milling on a CNC

[@DIYTECHBROS]

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[@malcolmhodgson7540]

That is so clear. Great tutorial, no silly or annoying music. Just good honest information at an understandable pace. Thanks for your efforts!

[@gregwoolley]

Both your single sided and this double sided video are very clear and easy to follow. Mega thanks for your help in getting me started!

[@michaelmccomb3381]

Nicely done. Navigating thru the menus takes a little time as a novice. Thanks again

[@everydayrussia]

That was a REALLY good tutorial. Quite simple, and no extra "speaking": )

[@TheDerekB13]

Awesome finally someone who explains it clearly

[@JustSomeVideos0]

Thank you! Amazing video. Love the 4 pins to locate the PCB, so simple but I was scratching my head trying to think how to get repeatable board location. TY!

[@HolosSolar]

Thank so Much! I have a 3018 Prover Mach3 so your video is perfect! I wish I could find an Autoleveller instruction for Mach3 as well made! Thanks again! You have made a wonderful procedure for a pretty complicated process!

[@rioferzz]

Thanks, clear tutoring!

[@nsk6914]

This was the video that iam looking for thanks dude👍❤❤

[@kennetalexander8390]

You helped me a lot, thanks for the video

[@DIYTECHBROS]

Thank you for the nice comment :-)

[@TheDIYer]

just awesome , thanks , wonderful explanation

[@DIYTECHBROS]

Glad you liked it!

[@pingnaganp]

As usual, this is another great video mate, kudos !!

[@DIYTECHBROS]

Thank you again Pingnagan 🙂

[@rene-jeanmercier6517]

Hi. Thank you for the tutorial. Very useful. This is unfortunate that you did not show the end result. You might elect to add it to your present video and republish . Thank you again. Regards, RJM

[@DIYTECHBROS]

Thank you! That’s a good point. Tried to include it at the beginning of the video, but should also be at the end!

[@mfrancachs]

Incredible amazing video, just what I was looking for, excellent tricks and tips. Thanks.

Thank you for sharing.

[@DIYTECHBROS]

Thanks for viewing :-)

[@RayMillTN1]

Excellent!

[@DIYTECHBROS]

Thanks!

[@Diego4322237]

Mil gracias.

[@DIYTECHBROS]

Thank you!

[@HunTomiBp]

Super video! Are you planning to make a demonstration video about GRBL / Candle? In vain did I make a map, unfortunately I did not feel that this would follow the surveyed irregularities. Thanks!

[@RixtronixLAB]

Cool, thanks :)

[@PsalmFourteenOne]

I have Flatcam version 8.994 BETA and the menu is different from yours. Such as setting the *Milling Geometry* at about 8:30 in the video. It isn't there. I have found several things in completely different areas of the software so far. Not so easy to follow along as I hoped. I may need to find it and install that version 😕

[@newburypi]

Great video. However I have two questions. 1. I would like to have the alignment pins located within the finished circuit board. This would allow me double purpose the holes for mounting screws. Assuming this can be done, and will test later. Are there any potential problems I should be concerned about in doing this?? 2. I would like to partially mill the tabs that hold the circuit board to the larger board material. How can this be done. 3. Bonus question ;) What are your thoughts on the term Milled Circuit Board (MCB)? My pedantry haunts me.

[@DIYTECHBROS]

I for sure know what you mean! Calling a copper clad board a PCB, and naming it printed when it is milled... Regarding the alignment holes, that is a great idea! The thing to consider is that you will join the copper both sides if you use metal screws. So I would connect the copper to ground for both sides. Either that, or isolate the holes as well. And, for the tabs, you can create two CNC jobs, one cutting half the way through, and other one (with tabs) the rest of the way!

[@bjondersson]

A problem you might run into, which can be difficult to control, is that if you have the pins in the middle of the board, it easy to crash into to them. Of course, less risk if you set Z height for moves high enough.

[@oncom81]

4:47 make ref hole

[@belenhedderich3330]

Hi Great video how about one to clean up solder mask? With the cnc of course that is a challenge!

[@predatornomad9412]

Hi there, I have the problem that the holes in the Excellon file do not match the pads. The holes are very far away. Why is that? I use EAGLE to create the boards and the G-codes.

[@natesmith3844]

How do you contact the vias though? I've been looking for methods for a while now

[@bigoper]

Great video! One thing is missing... You've never showed the steps to creat the HeatMap.

[@DIYTECHBROS]

Thanks! A heightmap is created in your CNC software and not FlatCam. See our video on how to mill a PCB for more info :-)

[@jeffreylawton4550]

Do you have any advice on how to hold down the board, do I need double-sided tape and does it need to be stiff? I set up just two alignment pins for my layout 85mm apart for a 10x7 cm board stock, but they were very tight, and I used two of the regular clamps provided with the 3018 kit just outside of the pins. Now I do the isolation run using the tips they sent with the kit and I'm not getting cutting (it's hardly even scratching the surface), it's apparently just pushing the board down (I guess it's convex), or else the tip I'm using is soft or not pointed enough. Some people are saying "do autolevelling" but I don't seem to be cutting at all, that wouldn't even address the problem! I did try those "nano blue" tips and they WERE cutting but the routes they were cutting were so wide the traces were completely "washed out" (the isolation routes from either side were touching each other) and when I looked closely at the tips they had TWO points with a gap between and weren't anywhere NEAR 0.1mm as advertised. So the problems I'm having are basically with the mechanical setup NOT the software, part of it is tip selection and part is holddown, the milling and drilling stuff seems to work just as advertised. Am I getting in trouble with "too tight" a fit on the pins so it could be bending the board a little? Could you do a KZbin addressing these challenges, or do you know of one or a webpage? I really need to isolate these issues from one another and start making progress...

[@mariuszwozniak6918]

Should all holes be drill first? In worst case top layer will be good

[@DIYTECHBROS]

I really prefer drilling the through holes after the bottom side is drilled! Usually, it does not help much if one layer is good, since I need both for the PCB to work :-)

[@mariuszwozniak6918]

But with curved drill holes PCB is for trash

[@Berghiker]

Are you using Tungsten Carbide 2 Flutes Ball Nose End Mills to drill the holes in the PCB?

[@RixtronixLAB]

I get this error when loading *.drl [error] No geometry found in file, how can I fix it ?thanks

[@paullehenaff3059]

The interface in the latest is totally different so its so difficult to follow 😫😫

[@nsk6914]

How did you select the gerber file in group icant

[@MagicALCN]

Can we do 6 mil (0.15mm) trace width with this CNC machine ?

[@dineshvyas]

Great video. But i couldn't follow? Which version of flatcam do you use? 8.5 have no such options? Can you privide link to letest realese?

[@DIYTECHBROS]

See their Bitbucket bitbucket.org/jpcgt/flatcam/downloads/FlatCAM_beta_8.994_installers.txt

[@gillesletourneau]

Hi, very nice video. I have a question. The home position of my CNC is the upper right corner and my PCB as the zero origine in the bottom left corner. I'm new at this. Do you have a video where we can see how to position the start position for the top layer and then the bottom layer ? I'm not talking about the alignment holes that's ok but I need to make sure the cnc knows where to start after I flip the board.

[@bjondersson]

You probably figured it out already. You should have the same start position when on both sides. Whatever you use on the front side, use the same on the flip side, and I think you'll be ok.

[@limebulls]

Do you think that a LowRider v3 can make PCBs just as good as in your video?

[@DIYTECHBROS]

Hi! If it uses a threaded rod and not timing belts it has good potential!

[@civedm]

Never explained how to mill the position holes. CAn it all be done in Flatcam or do I need to create a GBR file with the holes first in CAD?

[@malcolmhodgson7540]

Generate a CNC job from the Excellon object, save the CNC file and then run it on the mill.

[@espero_dev]

Where do you get the double sided copper board please I can only find singles not doubles

[@DIYTECHBROS]

Just search for “double sided copper clad board” on Banggood, eBay or AliExpress!

[@nothankyou8209]

Why did you not show how to do the height mapping? It's a critical part of this and you just glossed over it.

[@DIYTECHBROS]

Hi! Yes, it’s very important, but not a part of Flatcam, and will be different depending your CNC software and CNC machine. So while we agree that it’s very important the video would be too long and broad if we were to cover to many alternatives.

[@luxocrates]

Having cut holes for the connections between the layers, how would you recommend actually constructing the vias?

[@DIYTECHBROS]

Hi! 1. you buy pcb rivets 2. use the legs of a resistor and solder it to both sides Best of luck!

[@nsk6914]

Are you working on linux or windows

[@vandresv]

Hi, Thank you for your great video. I am almost ready to mill my first 2sided pcb now. I have a question though. I can generate a height map, but, how do I apply it to the gcode created by Flatcam?

[@DIYTECHBROS]

Howdy! A height map is made an applied in you CNC software :-)

[@vandresv]

@@DIYTECHBROS Hi there! Thank you for your reply. I was able to close the loop now. Kicad->FlatCam->Candle, It took me a while to get the whole tool chain ready, and without people like you would had been almost impossible. THANK YOU!!!

[@10Dima01]

what the minimum track thickness can you get with cnc method?

[@bjondersson]

It depends on your CNC. I use 24 mil tracks, but I'm pretty sure I could go almost half of that, or at least 16 mil. I use a 1000x1000mm Ooznest WorkBee. Surface probing is a must and you must also minimize backlash. I've got less than 0.01mm (0.4mil) backlash in Y and about 0.06mm (2.4 mil) backlash in X. A high quality expensive machine can of course do a lot better.