As a curiosity, has anyone tried the Othermill for doing prototype boards?
Yes. And, although there was some fiddling to get all settings correct (first board not good), my second board was sweet. I could see the need for improvements in the hardware and software, but that was 2 years ago. i'm sure they've improved. My board was a simple thru-hole board, so i can't vouch for a dense board with SMD parts.
True that mail-order PCB fab is absurdly cheap these days. Def the way to go for production runs.
But if, like me, you want to use fresh PCB's as part of your design and development process, you want to do quick prototyping at home. Then messing with Ferric Chloride can get old.
Old timers here are, i'm sure, accurate in their descriptions of bad experiences with older machines.
But i think quick one-off prototyping is a real niche, and a new generation of companies are filling that need. I think these co's understand that people want convenient, tidy, user-friendly hardware and software. The OtherMill (now named Bantam) is cute and sits on your desktop.
Another one:
- allows you to work with milling tools down to 0.178mm (7 thousands of an inch, aka 7 mil).
- makes real circuit boards in minutes.
- any surface mount component.
- High spindle speed lets you mill a 3?×5? board in minutes
- Price point is thousands less than machines of similar accuracy.
- hard to argue with their video. https://youtu.be/Tp81Aneil24
- $1,800.
https://makezine.com/2015/11/16/first-look-prometheus-desktop-pcb-mill/
Unfortunately, as noted above, the prometheus has not started shipping yet. The co just emailed me, says "slowly" shipping first batch now, short lead-times hoped for Feb '18.
OtherMill/Bantam has been shipping for a couple years now.
Another option:
- shipping now
- plus paste applicator
- plus pick-and-place
- €2,000.00 (2,000 Euros = ~ $2,400 USD)
https://youtu.be/VWi9GUzY1fYhttps://cirqoid.com/