WASHINGTON, July 30 (Reuters) - The United States is suspending a “de minimis” exemption that allowed low-value commercial shipments to be shipped to the United States without facing tariffs, the White House said on Wednesday.
Under an executive order signed by President Donald Trump, packages valued at or under $800 sent to the U.S. outside of the international postal network will now face “all applicable duties” starting on August 29, the White House said.
I’ve been researching methods for fabbing my own boards. I’ve got some pretty tight tolerances I’m trying to meet.
Any potential paths forward? Desktop cnc?
For my purposes: CNC routing is too sloppy. Photolithography is promising, but involves a lot of steps with potential for error at every stage, not to mention the chemicals necessary for etching. Lasers are interesting, both for lithography and direct copper ablation, but there’s a high barrier to entry with cost.
Fair, ya even around 10 mil is probably pretty tough with a reasonable cost cnc. I imagine with laser ablation, you’ll probably run into similar issues, you still have to physically move and point the laser, mirrors, or your target base.
I’ve got a little bit of a background in optics and sensors, but diy photolithography still seems pretty challenging, would be interested in following your work if you go down that route.
Computer-controlled laster etching/cutting is a thing - ideally we have as few manual steps as possible.
Ya ya, but same with cnc, you have things like backlash and physical control challenges.
Those can be adequately overcome by a proper controller. The greater challenges are in the physical effects of the actual method, such as CNC burrs and ablation heat spreading.