A New Toy

One of the first things I found when I started building projects that rely on parts from the Far-East is that it is better to have more than one project going at any time.  Still waiting on a couple of parts for the new 3D printer that I forgot to order when I started the project. And also some J310 Fets for the Simpleceiver project. I thought I had some, but when I checked they were the wrong type.  I have managed to get the Arduino VFO-BFO board working with a modified version of Pete's sketch.
Checking an e-mail add from the local MicroCenter store that I usually buy my 3D filament from, I noticed a small CNC engraver on sale for under $200.  It looked like it would be the right size PCB mill drill for the size boards I usually do.  I mostly do toner transfer with great success, but there is always the problem of drilling holes.  I have gone to SMD or 'Muppet' style construction for most of my projects to reduce the number of holes that have to be drilled.  This looked like it might solve that problem, so when I went up to pick up some 3D filament I also picked up one of the engravers.
Size is just about perfect, less than a foot square and high, just the right size to fit in front of my small 3D printer. 
It came  assembled except for putting the motor in the holder and installing a cutter. There was no software with it, but the included documentation gave a link to a program that would send g-code, and manually control the printer.  After playing with this for a while, I went looking at a way to convert pcb files to g-code.  I use the free version of Eagle for most of my boards, so I did a search on Eagle to g-code conversion.  I turned up several YouTube videos on a add-in to Eagle that did that from within the Eagle GUI.  I tried a simple board layout as a test, and looking at the output with the CNC control program everything looked like it would work well.  Tried routing that on a scrap piece of PCB material.  Most of it came out fine, but there is one area where it did not go all the way through the copper layer.  A little more looking around I found an additional software piece that will probe the material, and generate a surface map to auto level the engraving surface.  I just need to make up a simple cable with a couple alligator clips that connect to the CNC controller board and give that a try.  If that works out I might be able to switch from etching boards to routing them, and drilling without having to get out my small drill press.