<whitequark>
with a better spindle I think 3020 would run alu alright, but then you bump into its tiny Z travel
<whitequark>
which is just 5cm
<BusError>
ah yeah. wouldn't bother with PCB, I can make PCB quickly enough with chemicals + laser printer, and ultimately, oshpark and the other prototypers
<whitequark>
still need to drill vias or PTH holes
<cr1901_modern>
balrog: You wanted to do a hackerspace?
<balrog>
no I work with a hackerspace already
<BusError>
for DIY yeah, always a pain. that's why now I take the week leadtime and use oshpark ;-)
<cr1901_modern>
whitequark: Believe it or not, my local library has a 3d printer lol
<whitequark>
I cant do that manually for the life of me. and ultimately I found chemicals too unreliable and messy, not in the sense that I'm afraid of them but just in the sense that it's annoying to actually do
<whitequark>
I did get about 50um resolution with photoresist
<whitequark>
but then I couldn't get decent etching without access to HCl
<whitequark>
I even tried doing plated vias
<BusError>
whitequark, even with CNC, you get unplated vias+holes, that's about as useful as a hole in the head :-)
<whitequark>
;)
<whitequark>
you can get a primer layer on vias using copper hypophosphite in ammonia solution
<whitequark>
and thermal decomposition
<whitequark>
so no platinum or formaldehyde
<balrog>
an artist collective here that I work with has an xcarve
<BusError>
I *did* work a lot on DIY boards, but ultimately, it too SO LONG for a single board that for now, I don't bother designing the board for DIY -- I know it's 'quitting' but hey :@-)
<balrog>
so we use that for basic PCB manufacture
<whitequark>
BusError: that's very similar to my experience
<balrog>
recent versions of kicad are very usable
<balrog>
on the software end
<whitequark>
this is what I could do
<balrog>
on the hardware end? yeah, that gets messy :p