Meet the XY slide table. Jeff Bezos can put this jewel in your shack for about $35. So what good is this device?
XY Slide Table
When this table is bolted onto the bed of a drill press you suddenly have a manual milling machine.
You only use Manhattan squares for homebrewing? Well, this tool + drill press can cut those squares into the surface of a PC Board right at the place where you want them
This table gives you the XY movement about the board and the Drill Press spindle gives you the Z axis. Just think no more glue on the fingers. I even used a table similar to this to create single sided copper vector board when I built a Bitx 20 shortly after Farhan released the design.
Don't have a drill press? Bezos has those too and I think one can be had in the $50 - 60 range.
This tool is just the perfect size for small circuit boards and with a bit of care could even cut rectangular holes into front panels to house an LCD display.
The beauty of the XY Table -- no computer stuff and no having to program an Arduino. The way I used the table was to grid the PC Board with pencil lines spaced 1/4 inch apart. Next with a felt tipped pen I marked the squares to be cut (no need to do 100% of the board). A clean up with rubbing alcohol gets rid of the lines and any finger marks.
The cutting bits are known as engraving bits and the sharper pointed ones are best for PC Boards.
Then again, if you are adventurous a CNC Milling Machine can be had for around $250. But you now have to do the computer design and learn how to set up a CNC Mill.
73's
Pete N6QW