Thank you Thomas, we really appreciated your interview, I was a bit nervous because I am not used to be interviewed (you had a lot of editing work to do, I guess :D ). We read a bit of comments of people who wants to build the machine, we are really happy about that. The mechanical drawings are licensed as Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-SA, so you are free to build it, and above all modify it and eventually improve it. If you are able to make it better let us know, please! As I tried to say during the interview, the Bill Of Materials, is not available at the moment, but it will be as soon as we finish the last assembling videos.
Awesome creation, now I just need to get the money and I can make yet another step forwards towards my own small scale workshop. Really great initiative and I will definitely keep following where this is going!
It has a Non-Commercial license though, which means that while it is open source, it's not open source hardware compatible as no-one else can sell ready made parts (like injection molded/aluminium upgrades) or any parts modified from their files.
@@JohnEdwa This machine is targeted at an audience the already has access to digital manufacturing, most notably 3d printing. I don't see a non-commercial license as a hindrance. I think most of us would likely end up using a cnc router or laser cutter to make the end product more suited to our individual requirements anyway.
@@giliant you are absolutely right about our scope, at the time of licensing the mechanics we wanted to protect our ideas from commercial "abuse" and not from everyday use. We are glad if schools, university, maker labs and simply any maker builds, customizes and uses its own machine. JohnEdwa is also right about stating the real nature of the license, and we also want to avoid misunderstanding about it (we wrote a comment stating the exact license type).
@@TheAntPCBMaker unfortunately with companies like makerbot out there stealing ideas and patenting them, licenses like this are necessary to protect yourselves. thanks for making cool stuff available to us everyday people!
ER11is a lot more common than ER8 but ER8 is still pretty available. If there's a parts list someplace for this project I'm not finding it. I downloaded the zip file they have on bitbucket and looked at what's in there. It appears to be a handful of STL files and a PDF about electrical connections to me. So a bit thin on documentation. Perhaps they're relying on the series of TH-cam videos they're producing? I'm new here.
Love the idea of taking this and making a laser engraver out of it! So many useful things I could use it for! Super awesome they are going open source and I think something like this is going to morph into some amazing things! Thanks to the creators and developers for giving this to us!
It's definitely a nice machine. Pretty inexpensive to build too. It's just that even the BOM buys a lot of professionally made PCBs. I honestly hadn't seen anyone make their money back making their own prototype PCBs.
Sorry if I seamed negative in any of my comments on the other vids, it's something I have spent quite a bit of time on so have lots of thoughts and experiance on the subject. I will be looking at the ANT to see if I can make one using the parts I have from my 3018 cnc kit.
That's a very nice way to make simple 1 or 2 sided PCBs with a lower ecological footprint. You just have to source your copper and then its locally made, open-source and without the waste and transport associated with classic PCB making. Love it !
Great Video! I visited also this booth during my Make Munich visit and I was also impressed by this PCB milling machine :-) Unfortunately, I not saw you around, to give you a short greeting
I like it! The precision looks good! However nowadays you can get 150 pcb designs made for 300 dollar, or 2 dollar per piece with shipping in china. Granted you'll have to wait a week but then it has plated holes, double or 4 layers, conformative coating, silkscreen on both sides and is outline milled to specification and get 5 or 10 copies to share with others. Currently making a floppydrive capture shield for arduino due. Should arrive today. Excited!
After having built a Cyclone PCB Mill and modifying a T8 CNC,both with Bcnc autolevelling, I will believe it when I see it. The major issue I have had is run out on the cheap motor spindles.
That's the main reason why they have the seemingly complicated pulley setup for the spindle - it's supposed to work much better than the cheaper spindle motors with a chuck clamped on the shaft.
@@MadeWithLayers you are absolutely right. The head configuration uses an ER8 steel chuck with a 6 mm shank coupled with angular contact bearings, that is more robust than simply coupling the shaft directly to the chuck. Cheap motor splindles do not have strong bearings and a shank diameter suitable for our purposes.
Not really. Any decent CNC machine can route PCBs With a larger work area you can do other tasks as well too. But you can't stow a good sized CNC machine in a drawer when you're not using it. You can put a Japanese apartment into the space most CNC machines tend to take up.
if the precision is high enough and I assume it is for its designed task I would very much like this as a 3D printer with say 150mm Z height. a little tiny ultra compact core xy for my 0.2mm nozzle prints would be nice !!
Please, please build one. I've already started printing the bits and bobs and I want to know where to source all this from. Some is easily available overseas, but this makerbeam is a real pain.
I have decided to make a small mill for my graduation project. This will deffinitelly be an inspiration tho the farthest I will come with my project is probably a semi working mill that can be used for pcbs also if Im lucky xD
I honestly don't get this, except for drilling holes. I spent many happy hours as a teenager making hand-drawn PCBs using carbon paper, a marking pen and a few seconds in a ferric chloride bath. Now it's just a printer and photoresist, followed by the bath. Quality way better than any of these mills, and with the right bath set-up you can do many at a time. It costs almost nothing and is no doubt faster with the right set-up (less space than for the mill). So where's the advantage to the maker in using a mill specific to PCBs? That said, thanks for this; I'm going to build a core x-y soon and will look at this design for ideas. Love open source.
This is wonderful! This is going to be my next DIY project for sure! One question though, what is the max size for milling a PCB in the configuration that is seen in the video?
$300 is about what my DIY CNC machine cost me to build. I am not keen on the spindle I have for my machine ATM though now. I have one of those Chinese "500W" air cooled spindles and it is not high enough RPM for small engraving bits. A good water cooled spindle will cost me about $300 alone. Someday.
@steve poston Remind me again, how much is shipping? When you add shipping and average it out over the 5 PCBs you buy, is it less than the cost of the Tiny CoreXY? How much space does it take to order PCBs versus the amount of space it takes to have the Tine CoreXY? What is the cost of the blank PCBs and what is the quality of the PCBs that are produced?
Good idea, but its easier to etch.....too hard to convert from gerber to CNC, and the finish just isnt there......what it would be good for is a drill.....thats the biggest issue now, drilling the holes.....
@steve poston when you're building something you'd be surprised how the costs can add up. A CNC3018 kit looks like it is about $200. They're sourcing components in quantity too.
It has two linear rails which by themself can easily cost 100€. I am pretty sure the price would be much higher if they used high quality products only. (like Gates Powergrip belts)
I don't get PCB mills ... I mean, if you want a pcb, nowadays company such as JLC PCB allows you to have a professionally made PCB for hella cheap with not so long shipping delays ... I don't see in which usecase a PCB mill is relevant
Such PCB services are much slower than a mill and as soon as you want anything apart from their standard offer it gets very expensive. 5pcs 100x100: $2 5pcs 200x100: $14.70 5pcs 200x100 without lead and a red mask: $29.20
@@TheChemistDIY I disagree ! 3d printing on demand is very expensive if you want a somewhat decent print ! But i don't have something to say about the enjoyment argument ... You get a point ;)
Two things I hate about these trade shows, People see you filming and still feel the need to walk between you and the camera and people who bring their kids to the show so they can get more free stuff. smdh
because you do not need to wait and let say you made a mistake on your pcb, you need to wait on more week... so 2 weeks. at home you can do it in 1 hour. And if i'm not selling the boards why am i going to pay 10$ for 10 pcs when i just need one, and will cost less than 50 cents.
Hallo Thomas leider ist mein Englisch nicht wirtlich gut und ich weiß das du schon deutsche Videos gemacht hast könntest du das in Deutsch oder auch mit deutschen Untertitel in Zukunft veröffentlichen ich denke du wirst eine große Menge an Leute hier in Deutschland ansprechen
@@TheBrassn English subtitles done. Now just wait for them to clear and you lot will be able to translate them into German. I can speak German myself but i get really confused with the tech jargon! It's also tough for me to switch between languages, it's one or the other else i get a massive headache. Never had to speak German on the job so far.
Nun, ich habe zunächst mal englischsprachige Untertitel vor 24 Stunden hinzugefügt und die sind soweit nicht freigegeben worden. Wenn Untertitel sowieso nicht veröffentlicht werden, ergibt es keinen Sinn, dass ich die Übersetzung auch noch mache.
Thank you Thomas, we really appreciated your interview, I was a bit nervous because I am not used to be interviewed (you had a lot of editing work to do, I guess :D ).
We read a bit of comments of people who wants to build the machine, we are really happy about that. The mechanical drawings are licensed as Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-SA, so you are free to build it, and above all modify it and eventually improve it. If you are able to make it better let us know, please!
As I tried to say during the interview, the Bill Of Materials, is not available at the moment, but it will be as soon as we finish the last assembling videos.
Awesome creation, now I just need to get the money and I can make yet another step forwards towards my own small scale workshop. Really great initiative and I will definitely keep following where this is going!
Just wanted to say, such a great project! I'd be seriously interested in building one when you get the build documentation fleshed out. Good luck.
It was so nice to see it live in action. Your booth was definitely one of my favorites at make Munich.
Nice project, you remind me of Sheldon for some reason.
You should consider putting together a kit, there is definitely interest.
Open source, few words warm my heart so effectively.
It has a Non-Commercial license though, which means that while it is open source, it's not open source hardware compatible as no-one else can sell ready made parts (like injection molded/aluminium upgrades) or any parts modified from their files.
@@JohnEdwa This machine is targeted at an audience the already has access to digital manufacturing, most notably 3d printing. I don't see a non-commercial license as a hindrance.
I think most of us would likely end up using a cnc router or laser cutter to make the end product more suited to our individual requirements anyway.
@@giliant you are absolutely right about our scope, at the time of licensing the mechanics we wanted to protect our ideas from commercial "abuse" and not from everyday use. We are glad if schools, university, maker labs and simply any maker builds, customizes and uses its own machine. JohnEdwa is also right about stating the real nature of the license, and we also want to avoid misunderstanding about it (we wrote a comment stating the exact license type).
@@TheAntPCBMaker unfortunately with companies like makerbot out there stealing ideas and patenting them, licenses like this are necessary to protect yourselves. thanks for making cool stuff available to us everyday people!
And JUST like that, ANT IS going to get huge because of this video!
Really cool little unit! I'd be interested in using it to machine small stamps vs pcbs. Wonder where they sourced that tiny collet from.
ER11is a lot more common than ER8 but ER8 is still pretty available. If there's a parts list someplace for this project I'm not finding it. I downloaded the zip file they have on bitbucket and looked at what's in there. It appears to be a handful of STL files and a PDF about electrical connections to me. So a bit thin on documentation. Perhaps they're relying on the series of TH-cam videos they're producing? I'm new here.
Love the idea of taking this and making a laser engraver out of it! So many useful things I could use it for! Super awesome they are going open source and I think something like this is going to morph into some amazing things! Thanks to the creators and developers for giving this to us!
I have absolutely no need for a PCB mill, but what a beautiful machine. Great work!
It's definitely a nice machine. Pretty inexpensive to build too. It's just that even the BOM buys a lot of professionally made PCBs. I honestly hadn't seen anyone make their money back making their own prototype PCBs.
@@JeffDM It's for prototyping, so you get a couple hour turn around time instead of a week. Doesn't save production cost, but saves development time.
And this is probably the last video I'll make about DIY'ing PCBs for a while 😉
First
I wouldn’t mind if you made more ;)
Till you make an Ant ... maybe a build series?
That would be a shame but thank you for sharing this great little machine with us Thomas.
Sorry if I seamed negative in any of my comments on the other vids, it's something I have spent quite a bit of time on so have lots of thoughts and experiance on the subject. I will be looking at the ANT to see if I can make one using the parts I have from my 3018 cnc kit.
That's a very nice way to make simple 1 or 2 sided PCBs with a lower ecological footprint. You just have to source your copper and then its locally made, open-source and without the waste and transport associated with classic PCB making. Love it !
I love the spindle solution
Thanks, I was looking for a 3D printed PCB milling machine and this looks pretty awesome.
I just found my next project
Since I living in a flat with limited space, being tiny is really an appreciated feature.
Not the cheapest build, but really small and compact, thank you guys to share with us this masterpiece!
Good focus on a simple PCB engraver ... nicely done!!
Making one this week! Thank you guys a ton
Great Video! I visited also this booth during my Make Munich visit and I was also impressed by this PCB milling machine :-) Unfortunately, I not saw you around, to give you a short greeting
I like it! The precision looks good! However nowadays you can get 150 pcb designs made for 300 dollar, or 2 dollar per piece with shipping in china. Granted you'll have to wait a week but then it has plated holes, double or 4 layers, conformative coating, silkscreen on both sides and is outline milled to specification and get 5 or 10 copies to share with others. Currently making a floppydrive capture shield for arduino due. Should arrive today. Excited!
If someone else is doing the work then you're not making anything.
Thank you for sharing this maker! Very interesting.
Superb interview. This looks like a CNC that I might have room for. Great work guys.
Love this concept!
Looks awesome! 👍
Just build one Tom. 😉😁
Very impressive little machine! Well done Ant team! :)
This is phenomenal! Definitely building one, will save so much time prototyping!
Surely might be worth taking the time to make!
Your videos are always the best 👁
I can't be wrong, italian guy! Happy of that
Great video, very promising machine!
You should build one Tom, would make for a great series of videos!
Great project!
I've started printing the parts. Will start sourcing the parts this weekend.
I like the ant design I researched this for my laser engraver and cutter, it is the same setup as Emblaser 2
2:34 what he is trying to say is that its not direct drive (more like a haas cnc machine :) )
Very cool machine, great work and nice coverage Tom!
Thats really cool love the brushless motor / drone motor for the spindle thats a great idea!
Very nice machine
I need to make one!
And now I need to make one!
What a great dude, people are awesome.
looks awesome Tom, oh man, like you, yet another project I want to build!
After having built a Cyclone PCB Mill and modifying a T8 CNC,both with Bcnc autolevelling, I will believe it when I see it. The major issue I have had is run out on the cheap motor spindles.
That's the main reason why they have the seemingly complicated pulley setup for the spindle - it's supposed to work much better than the cheaper spindle motors with a chuck clamped on the shaft.
@@MadeWithLayers Cheers. I'll probably end up building one anyway 🤣
@@MadeWithLayers you are absolutely right. The head configuration uses an ER8 steel chuck with a 6 mm shank coupled with angular contact bearings, that is more robust than simply coupling the shaft directly to the chuck. Cheap motor splindles do not have strong bearings and a shank diameter suitable for our purposes.
wow nice little cnc :)
Hmm, this seems to be the Ant-swer to a lot of maker needs.
boooo!! :)
Not really. Any decent CNC machine can route PCBs With a larger work area you can do other tasks as well too. But you can't stow a good sized CNC machine in a drawer when you're not using it. You can put a Japanese apartment into the space most CNC machines tend to take up.
Please build one of these. Would love to see what kind of quality you get
if the precision is high enough and I assume it is for its designed task I would very much like this as a 3D printer with say 150mm Z height. a little tiny ultra compact core xy for my 0.2mm nozzle prints would be nice !!
Really great video!
Awesome. I'd love to build this E3D motion platform with tool changer and have a milling tool for this.
Please, please build one. I've already started printing the bits and bobs and I want to know where to source all this from. Some is easily available overseas, but this makerbeam is a real pain.
I have decided to make a small mill for my graduation project. This will deffinitelly be an inspiration tho the farthest I will come with my project is probably a semi working mill that can be used for pcbs also if Im lucky xD
Would really appreciate a video about an open source large scale laser engraver/cutter based on this (or another project)
Damn. Couldn't find a BOM on their bitbucket repo
Ohh I'm gonna need one of these!
I honestly don't get this, except for drilling holes. I spent many happy hours as a teenager making hand-drawn PCBs using carbon paper, a marking pen and a few seconds in a ferric chloride bath. Now it's just a printer and photoresist, followed by the bath. Quality way better than any of these mills, and with the right bath set-up you can do many at a time. It costs almost nothing and is no doubt faster with the right set-up (less space than for the mill). So where's the advantage to the maker in using a mill specific to PCBs? That said, thanks for this; I'm going to build a core x-y soon and will look at this design for ideas. Love open source.
thankfully I have a 2.5 HP milling machine converted to CNC, a dremel, and Gorilla tape.
0:06 Oh!! you dirty minds!!
That toolhead on an existing 3d printer would be great
This is wonderful! This is going to be my next DIY project for sure! One question though, what is the max size for milling a PCB in the configuration that is seen in the video?
My next money pit has been found! :)
Cool project, slightly surprised by the cost
I thought it was a bit high. maybe if you use non-ebay sourced chinese parts.
If I build one of these I'm doing it in a DICE style frame.
$300 is about what my DIY CNC machine cost me to build. I am not keen on the spindle I have for my machine ATM though now. I have one of those Chinese "500W" air cooled spindles and it is not high enough RPM for small engraving bits. A good water cooled spindle will cost me about $300 alone. Someday.
omg i love this thing
Hey, how much is this machine? where is its website please? thanks
Hey Tom! Build an MPCNC!
I Wana see these dudes make a pick and place
So I was wondering if it was really you on the Make Munich, obviously yes!
Ooooh man, I have no practical use for this, but I want to make it soooooo bad! The curse of the maker bug I suppose lol.
This is big
Does it akso do the through-drilling for leaded components?
It does!
Also it has a camera on there to align two sided pcbs. Odd that he didn't tell in the video, great feature.
Yeah, we missed that during the interview - it's supported in bCNC as a input to auto-align boards!
Those Italians, they did with micro processors, now they're doing it with CNC machines
It is cheaper and better to just get $2 for 5 custom boards from China for the few boards most makers will ever use.
@steve poston Remind me again, how much is shipping? When you add shipping and average it out over the 5 PCBs you buy, is it less than the cost of the Tiny CoreXY? How much space does it take to order PCBs versus the amount of space it takes to have the Tine CoreXY? What is the cost of the blank PCBs and what is the quality of the PCBs that are produced?
all cool and all but having more footage of the cnc running would be better.
Good idea, but its easier to etch.....too hard to convert from gerber to CNC, and the finish just isnt there......what it would be good for is a drill.....thats the biggest issue now, drilling the holes.....
Open electronics, unprotected motors and copper dust do not mix well.
Good thing it's licensed in a way that allow people to modify and improve the machine, so it can evolve over time
Ad 2:42 the guy behind them just stole one of the PCB, like what the heck.
that was just a bussines Card
Interesting. Keep forgetting about hobby brushless motors for spindle motors
German guy speaking English vs. Frensh guy speaking English 🤣
0:07 Im sorry you cant just put that there with no explanation
the cost doesnt make sense. how did he get to 300?
@steve poston when you're building something you'd be surprised how the costs can add up. A CNC3018 kit looks like it is about $200. They're sourcing components in quantity too.
Rad!
300€???? I'm curious on what is costing a lot on that small thing.
The chuck and the motor, probably. And the openbeams, all together, are not *that* cheap.
It has two linear rails which by themself can easily cost 100€. I am pretty sure the price would be much higher if they used high quality products only. (like Gates Powergrip belts)
@@JasperJanssen I know the beams are not very cheap, but still it is a small thing.
I feel like that may have been a cautious estimate - with some smart sourcing, you can probably build it for half as much.
ies nice!
Long interview to say it's a 3d printer with a cutting blade.
I know where my next $300 is going...
I don't get PCB mills ... I mean, if you want a pcb, nowadays company such as JLC PCB allows you to have a professionally made PCB for hella cheap with not so long shipping delays ... I don't see in which usecase a PCB mill is relevant
Such PCB services are much slower than a mill and as soon as you want anything apart from their standard offer it gets very expensive.
5pcs 100x100: $2
5pcs 200x100: $14.70
5pcs 200x100 without lead and a red mask: $29.20
The same can be said for 3D printing, lazer engraving, or anything else thats done in the garage. Enjoyment and education brother!
@@TheChemistDIY I disagree ! 3d printing on demand is very expensive if you want a somewhat decent print ! But i don't have something to say about the enjoyment argument ... You get a point ;)
People discover than CNC can be build at home. And than that is not black magic.
Sehr cooles Projekt. Manchmal würde ich mir wünschen, dass D u die Videos auf Deutsch machst. Gruß René
Two things I hate about these trade shows, People see you filming and still feel the need to walk between you and the camera and people who bring their kids to the show so they can get more free stuff. smdh
He is so insecure, uuuuuhm
If this guy sees this, your english is great, dont be so insecure
Greetings from Switzerland
Thomas, plz don't speak that fast with non english native speakers. I could reed in the eyes of this guy that he barely can follow you.
Still don't know how to pronounce your surname 😂
Just break it down into its parts. San - lahd - er - er. :D
@@ThantiK I always get lost and go one "er" too far
It's easy, just think of murderer.
is there a link to their work?
Just look in the video description man ^^
wow, and there I was thinking I am very lazy.
@@CooperDuper3000 At the moment, when I have had a look, there was an empty description ....
ah okay i see.
"actually works" but no snitt showing it even moves
you must've missed it cause they show it cutting a board.
Oof, that interview was painful.
0.2mm eww.
I never understand why peoiple still try so hard with milling PCBs when you can get PRO one for $10/10pcs withing a week...
because you do not need to wait and let say you made a mistake on your pcb, you need to wait on more week... so 2 weeks. at home you can do it in 1 hour.
And if i'm not selling the boards why am i going to pay 10$ for 10 pcs when i just need one, and will cost less than 50 cents.
As soon as you want anything apart from the standard offer you will pay much more than that, MUCH more.
@@backonline yes, this with shipping and import cost (UK) can soon mount up if you are ordering them often.
Hallo Thomas
leider ist mein Englisch nicht wirtlich gut und ich weiß das du schon deutsche Videos gemacht hast könntest du das in Deutsch oder auch mit deutschen Untertitel in Zukunft veröffentlichen ich denke du wirst eine große Menge an Leute hier in Deutschland ansprechen
Ist halt leider echt eine Menge Arbeit extra. Ich red mal mit Tom darüber
@@kojote enable community contributions for the subtitles? And please don't make videos in German, subtitles will have to suffice.
@@SianaGearz Community subtitles are already enabled as it seems. I see no point in making german videos, much smaller audience.
@@TheBrassn English subtitles done. Now just wait for them to clear and you lot will be able to translate them into German. I can speak German myself but i get really confused with the tech jargon! It's also tough for me to switch between languages, it's one or the other else i get a massive headache. Never had to speak German on the job so far.
Nun, ich habe zunächst mal englischsprachige Untertitel vor 24 Stunden hinzugefügt und die sind soweit nicht freigegeben worden. Wenn Untertitel sowieso nicht veröffentlicht werden, ergibt es keinen Sinn, dass ich die Übersetzung auch noch mache.
I had a hard time understanding anything this guy said :(
First
херня хорошая
I couldn't watch the video...just a tip...if you are demonstrating a product....get someone who speaks english!