[eternityforest]

After years of 3D printing, a technology I love, I thought I'd try CNC, and make a PCB.

Oh boy did was it ever a hassle building the machine then trying to sell everything on eBay.

I am super impressed by people who actually put in the effort to make this stuff work.

The biggest issue is the vias. They have to be done by hand or with more expensive machinery. Then there's solder mask. Then there's cutting the board outline, it's nasty fiberglass.

Once it's all done, you have to actually solder the boards, which is even harder than it would be with a commercial board.

I have a hard time imagining wanting to a DIY board or even hand populating a commercially made board again.

It's so much fun to be able to use accelerometers and USB-C and modern power management chips in DIY projects.

[zakqwy]

Yeah, vias in particular are a challenge. I've spent time with annoying tiny copper rivets and bits of wire and the rest, and usually end up making one layer boards with perhaps a few wrap around jumpers to a ground plane. Not ideal! Commercial stuff is damn good.

But! Hand soldering boards is a joy. To each their own.