The new PCB design required such a number of holes that the second time manually drilling was lacking in spirit. In addition, the change of drills without fail led me to holes in holes or errors in diameters. It was decided to spend the day but in 5 minutes to fly to drill.A short video of how it all looks at work.I was standing on my shelf bought a toy, not cheap at the time, a 3D printer called on the seller’s page “Anet A6”. Why not CNC? 3 axes, 2 cooling channels, table heating and filament feeding. An incomprehensible firmware completed the kit, as when loading, she wrote “OMNI 3D PRINTER A8” + a liquid plexiglass frame design. I use SprintLayout (Sprint) for drawing printed circuit boards, then laser-ironing technology. It was required to export a drill file in Exellion format from Sprint, the program has such an opportunity, and convert it into a machine - readable G-code . The code is specific for 3D printers. It is further assumed that there is a first acquaintance with the theory and practice of printing.Drawin SprintLayout 6 with pins, the Latin letter “F”, such a figure will allow you to unambiguously determine how the image with the holes on the board will look on the printer table.
Having exported the drilling file, we get a list of the coordinates of the holes with a title.; Drill file
; Format: 3.3 (000.000)
M48
METRIC
T01C0.7
%
G05
G90
T01
X38.100Y-43.180
X38.100Y-38.100
X38.100Y-33.020
X38.100Y-27.940
X38.100Y-22.860
X38.100Y-17.780
X38.100Y-12.700
X38.100Y-7.620
X43.180Y-7.620
X48.260Y-7.620
X53.340Y-7.620
X58.420Y-7.620
X48.260Y-22.860
X43.180Y-22.860
M30
This format is unsuitable, it is visible for "adult" machines, there is no movement along the Z axis. Using the very convenient Notepad ++ editor, you need to edit the file. He can create macros by recording actions and then apply them to any files.First, remove the “head” and “tail”, leaving only the coordinates. Using the “Search-Replace” menu, look for “X” and change to “G0 X”. Next, look for "Y-" and change to "Y" (with a space in front). It should turn out like this: G0 X38.100 Y43.180 - the first line and further. Then, after each line, we insert the drill movement using the macro:G1 F50 Z10.000G0 F7200 Z15.000 In ordernot to break the tool, before the first coordinate of the drill, we add a rise with a margin in the code: G0 F7200 Z50.000, the value of Z can later be adjusted to speed up the workflow.It will be cheaper to clamp it into a chuck for tuning, or rather not a drill, but a piece of filament or a rod cut from a handle of equal length.Add the header and “tail” from the G-code file of any model obtained in Repetier Host by the Cura slicer. The result should be the following:G28; !
G0 F7200 Z50;
M107 ; Turn off fan
G90 ; Absolute positioning
M82 ; Extruder in absolute mode
M190 S30
; Activate all used extruder
M104 T0 S30
G92 E0 ; Reset extruder position
; Wait for all used extruders to reach temperature
M109 T0 S30
M107
;G10 F100 Y0; corr Y
G0 F7200 Z50;
G0 X38.100 Y43.180;
G1 F50 Z10.000;
G0 F7200 Z15.000; ()
;
G0 X38.100 Y38.100;
G1 F50 Z10.000
G0 F7200 Z15.000
G0 X38.100 Y33.020; ...
G1 F50 Z10.000
G0 F7200 Z15.000
***
G0 X43.180 Y22.860
G1 F50 Z10.000
G0 F7200 Z15.000
G0 Z50;
G0 F4800 X0 Y0;
M107 ; Turn off fan
; Disable all extruder
G91 ; Relative positioning
T0
G1 E-1 ; Reduce filament pressure
M104 T0 S0
G90 ; Absolute positioning
G92 E0 ; Reset extruder position
M140 S0 ; Disable heated bed
M84 ; Turn steppers off
We save with the extension .gcode which can already be given to the printer for eating, having previously adjusted the initial position of the “X” axis with a steel stop of +100 mm as in the photo.
In the code “S30” - neutralization of the heating of the table and the extruder, it will warm up to 30 Celsius. Further, I did not understand the code, perhaps there are safer header options. “Fxxxx” - execution speed, is not indicated until the G-code is changed to another.A microdrill from DPR-52 with a diameter of 30 mm with a collet chuck, the holder is printed on the same machine. The holes of the holder are marked and drilled in place, through the holes where the nozzle of the hot end and the additional screw M4 of the extruder mount enter. Its model for printing in G-code
To fix the DPR-52, a clerical clothespin is used, worn on the lips of the yoke holder obtained when printing.Wrapping the felt-tip pen with foamed polyethylene and inserting it into the holder, on paper we look how everything happens. The letter was located exactly as in Sprint, if you look at the print table lying down from below. The origin (“Origin” - “Left corner (Top)”) in Sprint is the same as the origin of the 3D printer.In the case of a real board on the circuit in Sprint, you need to put technological contacts - heels on which you can align the board before fixing it to the table. For example, at the corners of a rectangular board, not forgetting the allowance for the radius of the drill. Naturally, these coordinates must be put at the beginning of the drilling coordinate code, immediately after the header. It’s easy to find them, set the smallest grid in Sprint and use the “Meter” tool, the accuracy will be up to the second character. Further search in Notepad ++. Having reduced the speed to a convenient minimum, having determined the position of the board, we mark with a pencil on the table the position of the 2 sides of the same corner. It is more convenient to mark the position of the near side and the left. The board is attached using double-sided tape to the table. It’s easy to peel it off if you make an effort to wait a bit,then there will be no gaps in the thickness and it is not necessary to clean two surfaces, boards and tables.To drill with a different diameter, you should find the T02 or T03 commands, etc. Txx in the import file, they mean tool change (if you checked the "sort by diameter" checkbox when exporting). Having set the G4 S180 command, we get a pause of 180 seconds. During this time, you need to have time to change the drill and set its level. You need to insert a pause on the drilling coordinates of the first point after the code for changing the drill and drilling a new (larger) diameter with the previous drill. After replacing the drill, we manually drill and fix the micro drill in the desired position with a clothespin. The change code Txx must be deleted, leaving a note for yourself.You can split the entire file into drilling files with different drill diameters. This requires replacing the limit switches with reed switches or optical ones, since the standard ones are generally mounted on nylon ties and do this from one installation.Naturally, this method requires a lot of refinement and operator participation, but as a “take out and lay down” solution is more than suitable.