Brian Dorey developed this low cost home manufacturing robotic solder cell. Total cost to build this machine is around 860 £ and he made all the files need to make it publicly available.
We are witnessing a strong growth in DIY production machines like 3d printers, CNC mills, robots, pick and place machines and other digital manufacturing tools. There will be a DIY micro factory in your neighborhood soon ...
Juha Kuusama developed a DIY pick-and-place machine inspired by Shapeoko CNC router. It is fully functional with computer vision / camera effector guidance, BOM import and precise enough to place 0402 parts with the vacuum head.
It is still not rough enough to take full production quantities but is more suited for small series of PCBs at 200-400 components per hour. The accuracy is limited and it can not yet do 0201s.
Very impressive video introduction and demonstration:
Here is the project homepage where you can get all the plans and custom software or buy a kit for 1199 euro:
Solderdoodle is an open source portable, cordless, battery powered USB rechargeable soldering iron with 3d printed body you can easily make yourself. It is project made by Solarcyclepower.
Over the years I have obtained several soldering irons, but there is always room for one more, specially if it is self-made. It is always something special in working with tools that you made yourself. Making things for making things for making things. I hope I'll find some time to build this tool.
Solderdoodle technical specifications:
Time to Fully Charge Solderdoodle @ 5V 1A: 3 hours
Capacity: 3350mAh/3.6V * Type: 18650 Lithium-Ion
Diameter: 1.5 inches
Length: 7.4 inches
Charge Cable Length: 5 feet
Weight: 97g (3.4 oz)
Input Cable - Male USB 2.0 Type A Connector
Input - Current: 450 to 1300mA | Voltage: 5 to 6 Volts
Output - Current: 1400mA | Voltage: 5 Volts
Body Material: High Temperature Plastic
Battery Life Under Typical Use: 5 years
Replaceable battery
Provides over an hour of soldering
Solder up to 24 gage thick wire * Heats up to over 500ºF (260ºC) in just 20 seconds
For use with leaded solder. Non-leaded solder requires higher temperature to melt.
WARNING: Be careful when handling any Lithium-Ion battery because shorting the battery can cause burns. Always wear safety goggles. Please use recommended battery and circuit components because of the higher 2000mA max battery charge current involved. 3D printed parts may warp under high temperatures.
FCC Compliance: NOT Required because the circuit frequencies are below 1.7MHz
In this post we present methods and software on how to design and use 3d printable solder stencils for your PCB and electronics projects.
Robert Kirberich developed a Python script to convert two Gerber files into a .STL that is 3d printable. It also works with Eagle files. It outputs the files into OpenSCAD .scad files and you can work on them form that environment.
Here is a video tutorial on how to use soldering stencils by SparkFun to stencil an Arduino Pro PCB:
Instructables user rmd6502 made a detailed tutorial how to design a 3d printed soldering mask for your electronics projects. he goes from Eagle EPS to PDF format, then PDF to DXF and then uses OpenSCAD to get the final STL.
He writes:
This is a neat way to save a bit of money when you order boards. Normally you pay an extra $25-50 for a solder stencil, either a silkscreen or a sheet of metal with holes where the solder paste needs to go
Mikey77 made a small 3d printable electronic circuit and created a detailed how-to guide on Instructables. It is made on a regular FFF DIY 3d printer (Replicator 2) shaped like network of grooves and holes in a printed board filled with DIY conductive glue which closes the electric circuit.
Video of a working printed circuit:
Detailed building instructions, .stl circuit files and more photos:
User Bam from Lulzbot forums experiments with 3d printing metal solder. He had some success but there are obstacles in the road. This could be interesting for electric circuits 3d printing.
He notes:
Early experiments with metal printing with a Budaschnozzle 1.1 are looking good. Repeat: early experiments (Tin 95.8%, Copper 4%, Silver 0.2%, McMaster 76805a61). If you can wait a few days before trying this out, I'll let you know if it destroys the nozzle. Fun fact: silver solder will stick to painters tape. The flow cuts out after about 15mm of 3mm feed, we might be able to extrude continuously with a larger thermal mass around the nozzle (metalschnozzle?). Alternately we could print in short bursts through some sort of g-code trickery.
His plans for the future:
Faster extrusion at higher nozzle temps (going to give an all metal noz a shot)
Printing through a glass nozzle (I've got some lab grade glass eyedroppers on order that I'll try to hack into a hotend
Smaller diameter filament (should cut down on the heat soaking up through the filament)
Ultrasonic welding uses high frequency sound waves to weld the plastics together. Here is a video demonstration of it in DIY system.
Site with more details form this video is down. Here is more industrial ultrasonic plastic welder:
And when you need some quick and dirty plastic welding and you have a soldering iron, this is a short video about it, with interesting tip on how to use a paperclip as aid :-)
I don't know how applicable those methods are for 3d printed models. I know some people "weld" ABS with acetone (toxic) with varying results. It is interesting information and good to know skills.
