A manual pick-and-place platform for DIY electronics, with an upgrade path.
We want a solid pick and place table for manually placing components on prototypes and small runs.
DIY pick and place machines have successfully used off-the-shelf aluminum extrusions and linear guides/bearings to build rigid platforms that are suitable for precise work, even down to 0402 components. There is a wide gulf, however, between manual set-ups and automatic/CNC machines.
Most manual setups involve tweezers or vacuum pens, which open up issues like gripping parts, dropping parts, dragging your hand across the board, etc. Even "advanced" manual setups are usually cobbled together, with parts you buy from a Home Depot or Lowes.
Our goal is to build a manual pick and place machine that has all the benefits of a CNC-enabled design -- modular, rigid, precise -- while staying simple enough to be usable by hand. By using the same basic components as its CNC-enabled brethren, like aluminum extrusions and linear bearings, we can design a pick and place table that is capable of being upgraded to full auto in the future.